NBA in Oklahoma City for 2008-2009 season

[marc]

The NBA will be playing in Oklahoma City in the upcoming 2008-2009 season. However, the team will not be called the Sonics or Supersonics. As part of the agreement reached between the city of Seattle and the team owners, Seattle will keep the Sonics name, team colors and memorabilia.

The NewsOK story reports that "talks are in progress that would allow some preseason games to be played in Tulsa."

Oklahoma City gets NBA team
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-gets-nba-team/article/3265111/?tm=1215046966

[bugo]

Because of the arrogance of the mayor and other OKC city officials in demanding the team be called "OKC" instead of "OK", I hope nobody shows up to the Tulsa games.  They're OKC's team, not Oklahoma's team, and I hope Tulsa and the rest of the state give the franchise the same snub they gave the state.

I know it ain't gonna happen, but it would be sweeeeeeet if Tulsa ended up getting an NFL team and OKC didn't.  Then we could return the favor by calling the team "Tulsa" instead of "Oklahoma".

[Hoss]

quote:Originally posted by bugo

Because of the arrogance of the mayor and other OKC city officials in demanding the team be called "OKC" instead of "OK", I hope nobody shows up to the Tulsa games.  They're OKC's team, not Oklahoma's team, and I hope Tulsa and the rest of the state give the franchise the same snub they gave the state.

I know it ain't gonna happen, but it would be sweeeeeeet if Tulsa ended up getting an NFL team and OKC didn't.  Then we could return the favor by calling the team "Tulsa" instead of "Oklahoma".

Better chance would be an NHL team.  Pittsburgh was talking to officials about it a couple of years ago while the arena was in its early construction phases.  But I doubt we see any form of professional major league sports team here before 2015, if ever.

[sgrizzle]

I think we should start modest and shoot for an AFL team (the talons are AFL2). AFL games are televised regularly.

[Laramie]

Sports Animal (WWLS ESPN affiliate OKC) reported that when the news broke about the Sonics settlement with the City of Seattle that 11,000 season tickets request came in between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.

Yes, 11,000 season ticket requests in just 3 hours.

[USRufnex]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I think we should start modest and shoot for an AFL team (the talons are AFL2). AFL games are televised regularly.

http://www.arenafan.com/statistics/?page=attendance&league=2

I'm not sure why AFL would be interested... why pick Tulsa over more desirable tv markets and attendance in Louisville or OKC or

[sgrizzle]

Tulsa is also the national champions going for two in a row. Expect "Yard Dawgz" (horrible name) attendance to go down with NBA in the area. Not to mention, some OKC games will likely be bumped out of the Ford Center due to the fact that the season overlaps with the NBA season.

Leaders need to realize that going after DIFFERENT sports and businesses is the way to go. Whether it be AFL, MSL or NHL who cares, but we should be pursuing all 3.