[whiteisthecolour]

Well, with the announcement of the imminent departure of the Seattle Sonics to OKC, as the dust settles, I wondered what impact the move will make on the Sounders.

Initially, I think very little. Since the unveiling of the team kit, news out of the Sounders FO has been slow, and if they play their cards right, they'll keep it slow till the media is tired of talking about the Sonics departure. Let the P-I write the obits for the Sonics and let everyone wring their hands about the NBA. Basketball fans, and Seattle sports fans deserve a period to mourn their team. (I am very disappointed that the Sonics are moving. As a Vancouverite, I feel your pain. I miss my Grizzlies, and pretty much gave up on most pro sports after the team moved to Memphis.) But once the dust settles, think of the ways this is good for the Sounders:

1. Media space. Seattle isn't going to stop covering the NBA, but I am reasonably certain that a whole lot of media space opened up, not just for the Sounders but even MLS coverage in the city. That five-second flashing of the score might now turn into two minutes of highlites on KING or KOMO.

2. Sports fan availability. I agree in part with the naysayers who say that MLS does not compete for the same fans as the rest of sports - insomuch as soccer fans do tend to be a bit of a different breed. But I disagree in the longterm: a prominent team performing well in a city already predisposed to enjoy soccer, ought to (in my estimation) start to really embrace the team and inspire many younger people (many of whom aren't loyal to the Big Three yet) to really give soccer a chance. (I really do think that soccer's low profile is mostly a result of cultural/historical differences and the prejudice that that entails.)

3. Money. There is only so much money available in a city. This means more civic dollars freed up, more advert and sponsor money freed up, more attendance money freed up.

4. Awareness quotient. This one is hard to pin down and has a lot to do with media space, but I am giving it its own section. What I mean by this is the general awareness of the Seattle public to the team, and the way in which the Sounders are perceived by those same people. With no Sonics season to follow, every announcement the Sounders make as they start to approach their inaugural season will be known far more generally than if the announcements had come in the midst of a good season for the Sonics. The weeks leading up to the beginning of the season will mean Sounders awareness with no competition from any late-season miracle finish for the Sonics.

The way I see it, this is a HUGE plus for the Sounders, even if I am sad to see the Sonics go. (There should be a rule that once a team wins a championship, they are never allowed to move out of a city.) But, honestly, as much as I like the Sonics, if I have to choose once team to have in the city, it is an easy vote for the Sounders.

[evangel]

While I'm certain some people are going to be angry at this topic, since I'm sure most would have preferred to have both teams in Seattle, it was inevitable that this discussion would happen. What I find most interesting is how the Sonics left at virtually the same time the Sounders come in. It's an incredible shift in the sports landscape. Taking the factors whiteisthecolour pointed out, it's easy to see that this could very well work greatly in favor of the Sounders.

To me, it seems possible, more than ever now, that the Sounders could cement themselves as a team as important to Seattle as the Seahawks and the Mariners (and if everyone in the Sounders organization works things correctly, maybe surpass the Mariners). I think they could achieve this regardless of what's happening to the rest of the MLS (though it won't hurt if MLS as a whole continues to raise its status).

[Schwalker]

This moving of teams for some obscure reasons like money or just a personal whim is surely the most alien of concepts for me as a European...But then we don´t have the system of closed leagues in any major sports so I guess you guys are more used to it.

But back to the topic...Surely it´s an advantage for Sounders to loose a competitor for sponsors, attendance etc but the main object for Sounders ought to be to capitalize on the situation, to make a major leap forward in perhaps a spectacular way like signing a famous player or something. Not that it will help unless the team win games but anyway...

[astheworldburns]

It saddens me that the Sonics are leaving. My dad lives in Seattle and I have been a Sonics fan since I was little, and remember very vividly the days of Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton and Detlef Schrempf. At any rate, this is great for the Sounders. I know they are an expansion team, but hopefully they have a very successful first season. A winning franchise would help the team a lot, especially if they can get a DP or even two (assuming the rule gets modified). Lets hope the Sounders do this right.

Hopefully, the Timbers get into MLS as well. MLS should be looking for places with a history of soccer, and not so much creating new markets out of thin air.

[flippin269]

We were actually talking about that in today's DP article:http://www.dynamoplanet.com/profiles...logPost%3A2496

I think the Pacific Northwest just received another reason why Portland and Vancouver have jumped up even higher on the list as intriguing and desirable places to expand in MLS.

Also, though I do think the Sonics move may help the Sounders indirectly, I still don't think it's a positive way of doing so. Seattle was obviously treated unfairly by the NBA and the OKC owners in order to screw the city out of a deal that they honestly had no chance of renewing due to the owner's personal interests, and the NBA's desire to build or renovate arenas more than preserving history.

We in Houston have been though that before (losing a popular team due to an owner's greed), and though we have a replacement team, it does leave a bad taste in citizen's mouths on how that particular owner just abandons the city that made that team what it was in the first place.

[Crouchaldinho]

If anyone wants to know how to steal a sports team from a city, just study what happened in Seattle. I am a Sonics fan but after this the NBA can F--- Off, I have no interest in it.

That being off my chest, I agree that in a terrible way it may a benefit for the MLS. Their highlight section is now further up on the news channel's totem pole and the Sounders and MLS will probaly see more air time.

Also, there is a good symbolism in this, the Sonics and the NBA are leaving Seattle and don't think this city is good enough but the MLS is coming.

[bright]

It is too bad that the Sonics are leaving. I would prefer for them to stay and the Mariners move, like to PGE Park which is a downtown baseball stadium just waiting for a major league team. Then the Sounders could buy Safeco Field and play on grass under a roof.

- Paul

[KnucklesBuchanan]

I am not a fan of the NBA, but I am always a fan of Seattle sports teams. In a way, I think this might end up being a good thing. We're rid of Clay Bennet, Howard Schultz will never, EVER be allowed to be involved with a pro sports team in this city again, Greg Nickles will (hopefully) get his ass handed to him in the next mayoral race, and the Sounders come in during a time when there will be a real void in the local sports scene.

I, like many, still remember the days of Downtown Freddy Brown, Gus Williams, Don Johnson and John Johnson (actually, I still think I have most of the free pictures that they used to give away at Fred Meyer stashed somewhere in my parents' basement). We don't lose those memories, nor does the city lose that history. All OKC gained was a basketball team that will, I believe, fail in the long run.

As far as I'm concerned, I only want teams in my city that actually want to be here. Joe Roth, Adrian Hanauer, Paul Allen all want to be here. Someday, I have faith that Seattle will have Sonics 2.0. At that point, we'll have yet another owner or ownership group that wants to be here.

[WestSeattle]

I think this is a "Sounders gain", but the gain is marginal. I say that because a few of my friends, that are casual soccer fans at best, have said they'll pay more attention to the Sounders now that the Sonics are gone.

This is why signing a really high-caliber DP would be such a win for the Sounders next year, it would be nice medicine to this awful event.

And of course, my preference would be the Sonics were not lost at all. I am not such a soccer-snob, that I want other sports and their fans suffer for my personal taste.

Basketball is beneath soccer, baseball, football and hockey for me, I've never held it very high regard, but I still think losing the Sonics was painful. The good news, is in the end, I think it has a real silver lining.

[DavidP]

Ya think that maybe there may be an expansion team in the offing somewhere down the line, sort of like what happened in Charlotte when the Hornets moved to NO? OKC won't be called the Sonics (which wouldn't make sense anyway (sorta like the UT Jazz)), so would it be feasible for there to be a new Sonics team in the next few years? That's one of the first things I thought about when I read the article in the paper.