{"id":104,"date":"2008-07-04T18:45:42","date_gmt":"2008-07-04T18:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/?p=63"},"modified":"2008-07-04T18:45:42","modified_gmt":"2008-07-04T18:45:42","slug":"bye-bye-sonics-good-riddance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/07\/04\/bye-bye-sonics-good-riddance\/","title":{"rendered":"Bye Bye Sonics \u2013 Good Riddance!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LoatheSo the Seattle Supersonics are off to Oklahoma \u2013 what a deal. As far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s for the best.<\/p>\n

Maybe we can get them to take the Mariners and the Seahawks off our hands as well.<\/p>\n

Pro sports teams are just not a big turn on for me. The way I see it, they\u2019re a bunch of whiny millionaires feeding at the public trough.<\/p>\n

In the case of the Sonics, we went through all the whining and the threats of leaving only a little over ten years ago. It went on incessantly for months. All the, Nobody loves us! Refurbish our home or we\u2019re taking our team and leaving! Wah! Nobody loves us! <\/em><\/p>\n

The whining paid off. At that time, Key Arena was fully renovated at a cost to the public of over $74 million. The NBA execs hailed Key Area as one of the great basketball venues in the country.<\/p>\n

Now 10 years later, it\u2019s all of a sudden too old, too small and just plain unfit for an NBA franchise. Yeah, right.<\/p>\n

Well fuck them. Let them go \u2013 they can become the Oklahoma Okies<\/em> or whatever. Bunch of losers, anyway.<\/p>\n

The way it stands right now, Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen have their budgets stretched to the max. Every month, they wonder if they\u2019re going to be able to make that new, higher mortgage payment. They can just barely afford gas for their cars and to put food on their table, much less buy expensive tickets to a pro basketball game.<\/p>\n


\nThat being the case, it just isn\u2019t right spending millions on what are essentially bread and circuses for the elite while average people are just barely getting by.
\n
\nThe economic impact created by a pro sports team is minimal.<\/a> There are no appreciable cultural or societal benefits. So why the hell should we spend public money on this? Civic pride? Forgive me while I go up-chuck.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been to any pro sports game and I don\u2019t plan on attending any. What\u2019s more, I\u2019ll bet that a great majority of people (70-80%) feel the same. In which case, why should our tax dollars go to support something we have no interest in?<\/p>\n

Just so the 10-15% of the population who are sports nuts can salve their \u201ccivic pride?\u201d Bullshit! If someone wants a new NBA franchise in Seattle, then let them finance the whole deal themselves \u2013 with no public money involved at all.<\/p>\n

Instead of subsidizing a bunch of cry-baby millionaires, let\u2019s give the public money to the needy, instead. Say to the local food banks \u2013 who right now are all apparently having problems getting stock because of the high fuel prices.
\nIt just isn\u2019t right for us to waste public money on a bunch of whiny millionaires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So the Seattle Supersonics are off to Oklahoma \u2013 what a deal. As far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s for the best. Maybe we can get them to take the Mariners and the Seahawks off our hands as well. Pro sports teams are just not a big turn on for me. The way I see it, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}