It becomes increasingly apparent to NBA * fans and Seattle sports fans that the Sonics * will eventually not be in Seattle. How soon depends not upon attendance, but upon the outcome of a court case. This isn’t necessarily a suprise to Sonics fans, as we have known that at least one minority owner bought the team with the sole intent of moving it * . David Stern recently made comments that if the Sonics leave Seattle the team will not be replaced (unlike Charlotte). Stern has had a recent case of foot in mouth concerning the viability of his league in a business sense. From the previous link

Stern repeated earlier criticism of Seattle’s City Council for promoting a measure, overwhelmingly passed by voters, that requires any funds to help build an arena earn money at the same rate as a treasury bill.

That measure means there is no way city money would ever be used on an arena project, Stern said.

Stern just admitted publically that there is NO economic advantage to be gained from spending public dollars on an NBA arena. Think about the impact of that. He claims that a city can’t earn back money at treasury bill rates from a stadium investment. Why would ANY city fully fund a stadium?

Just two weeks ago he made statements that Seattle should emulate the San Antonio model, a model which involved a super-majority of public funding and which was so successful that the team is already demanding over 100 Million dollars in public funds to update the FIVE YEAR OLD AT&T Center. Perfect business model. A city should provide 85% of initial funds and then every five years should expect to spend nearly that same amount on updates.

Stern is working very hard to break his league. This is more than just about stadiums, but about regions and cities that Stern would lose in his efforts to get fully funded stadia. Why would any sports owner approve a move from market 13 to market 42 by Nielsen TV ratings? How will that help their next contract? Would the peripheral markets in Tulsa really be better than Vancouver BC, Spokane and Boise?

Furthermore, as the league continues to shrink its market penetration in English speaking North America through moves like the Seattle - Ok City how does it see its future? Would a league really be better for not having youth in the Puget Sound wanting to be NBA stars? Would it be better without Brandon Roy, Nate Robinson, Dan Dickau and others? Maybe Stern doesn’t realize it but a league doesn’t last long if it can’t appeal to the best athletic talent in its home nation, especially not while shrinking the number of viewers who care.

The good news for the great citizens of Cascadia is that though we have already lost one NBA team and will soon lose another, there is a sports league expanding to the region. Seattle will be getting an MLS team.

David Stern you did great in the 80s and 90s, but its the 21st century now and you are failing to understand that though sports in the USA are global in appeal they must first appeal locally and around North America as a whole. Your inability to adapt the league to the some time competive strings of global and local appeal mean that you are becoming sports version of Sears.

You will still be around, but at one point you were a top two league in America. Your league’s appeal continues to fall. As the NFL * and MLB * compete for top status, you have fallen behind NASCAR * and are currently battling with the NHL * and MLS * for pro-sports respectability.

Any owner that votes to turn its back on millions of consumers and future consumers for a short term gain is emulating the day traders of the 90s. Vote against Clay Bennett and his short-sightedness.

* Link goes to Fanhome forums

In the past couple weeks several issues have sprung up that are dragging the names of Americas top sports through the proverbial mud. From Michael Vick’s indictment showering new commissioner Roger Goodell with criticism to David Stern facing his toughest challenge ever with a referee connected to gambling and point shaving the issues are rather large and not limited to these two sports. Goodell really hopes that you only think of Michael Vick when you think of the NFL and criminals. Let us not forget PacMan Jones, Tank Johnson and the rest of the Cincinatti Bengals. This is a league that is soiling its reputation through its players and too many of them with criminal misconduct. The NFL has an image problem that might just hurt its ratings and ticket sales in the upcoming season. Goodell has talked about taking the SuperBowl international, and yet their foreign farm league folded this year.

Stern, and the whole NBA, are getting rocked by the gambling story, but it is overshadowing other issues as well. USA Basketball isn’t very good and hasn’t competed on the international stage for too long. Once the US was the gold standard for basketball around the world, lately though they just hope to medal, even in continental tournaments. Inside the USA the NBA has issues as three teams have stadium/attendance issues facing them. The Kings likely lost their Vegas trump card in negotiating with the city, but they still won’t talk Sacremento in funding a new stadium for billionaire casino owners. Oklahoma City will no longer host the Hornets, but seem quite likely to wind up with the Sonics as no city in the Puget Sound will build a stadium to host the 40 year old former champion SuperSonics. No one can know how successful the Hornets will be in their return to New Orleans after their two year absence, but the team ownership can’t be happy with the large challenge of marketing a corrupted league.

Who would have thought at the start of the baseball season that there wouldn’t be one, but two stories diminishing the controversy of Barry Bonds, steroids and Bud Selig? Selig took several months, but it seems he finally decided to follow Barry on the chase, yet we still are left to wonder how will he address the questions that shadow Bonds? Steroids isn’t the only issue facing baseball though. Mega contracts are on their way back, as Marlins’ President Samson says “It’ll take the sport down, that contract.” He also called it “the end of the world as we know it.” That was only about Ichiro signing a five year, 90 million dollar extension. Its not like that’s Scott Boras asserting that Alex Rodriguez will be signing a 35 Million dollar per year deal this offseason. What would Samson say about a single player making as much his entire team? It seems that the megacontracts are on their way back and as soon as Selig figures out the steroids issue he’ll have to face the MLBPA again about contracts.

The Big Three aren’t alone in their struggles, though they are the biggest targets. The second tier leagues all wish they had the kind of coverage that the NFL, MLB and NBA get and the NHL once did. But hockey has signed a poor television deal without rights fees, and actually had playoff ratings in the USA that were lower than regular season WNBA games. After the long lockout attendance was initially back, but this year the struggle extended beyond just the SunBelt into some more traditional markets (Chicago and Boston) as well. Almost two-thirds of hockey fans on Fanhome think that Bettman is doing a poor job, and it is quite obvious that most of America agrees.

I tried to delve deeper and find good news for even less followed sports to see how they are doing. In Major League Soccer Garber has attained a ton of press, but almost all of it is about David Beckham as an entertainment star, not the performance on the field. It isn’t that the performance is poor, it is just inconsistent. Recently lower table Real Salt Lake beat Everton and the All Stars beat Celtic, those are good wins versus quality teams, but what does it mean when in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup only three MLS clubs advance to the quarterfinals of the tourney? DC United lost to a second division team even. Soccer is stronger than ever in the MLS era expanding into San Jose and maybe even Philly within the next year, and yet it faces the same issues it has since the NASL.

So which commissioner has it easiest right now?

I’m voting none of the above, there hasn’t been a worse time for pro team sports in my 3+ decades.

As I’m reminded by sometime FanHomer and current Admin at The ScoreBoards, TestSubjekt, I left out a sport that is usually hot this time of the year, the Tour de France. Likely the most drug plagued sport in the world, the Tour collapsed in the past two years. No Lance Armstrong, its last winner accused and its current winner was just kicked off of the his team due to drug issues as well. The Tour might be dead in North America.

We’ve got an ongoing discussion in the Business of Sports forum about the future of OKC as a sports town. It notes how the Sooner state will be saying goodbye to the New Orleans Hornets soon and generally discusses just where OKC goes from here in the pro sports world.

Is Oklahoma City worthy of a full time tenant int he pro sports world? And what sport would be best for it? While the NBA is not set to expand, nor the NFL, nor MLB or even the NHL, the question remains an intriguing one. Geography and demographics and other markets come into play as we wonder just what happens next for this great plains city.