Look who the Magpie's suckering in now...Oklahoma City!

[Minor League Man]

http://www.abalive.com/news/releases/?newsid=2007022606001

Thing is, the Sonics are expected to move to OKC if an arena deal doesn't work out in King County.

I DO NOT believe Doyle & Company will let them in...

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

Yep, and the first time in OKC worked so well:

http://www.abalive.com/news/releases/?newsid=2004051306002
OKLAHOMA, OK!
21st ABA Expansion Team Set for Oklahoma City

13-May-2004
Indianapolis, IN. Joe Newman, ABA Co-Founder, today announced that Oklahoma City will be the 21st expansion team for the rapidly-growing professional basketball league. Newman commented, ''Oklahoma City is a tremendous city. I am really surprised that it has taken this long to add a team there. But we've found a very strong and committed ownership group with excellent business and sports experience. We're very confident that it will be a premiere team in the league.''

The team will be owned by Alamo City Sports Development Corp., a San Antonio-based sports company that owns and operates a professional football league under the direction of Dr. Edward C. Nicholson. Nicholson stated, ''We were very impressed with the incredible growth of the ABA and feel that the ABA fits perfectly into our overall business plan. We're very pleased to be a part of the ABA.''

The Oklahoma team will be managed by Broken Arrow, OK businessman Anthony Kennedy, owner of Commercial Acquisitions, Inc., a real-estate consultant and investment management company. Kennedy will serve as President/GM of the Oklahoma City Ballhawgs. Kennedy added, ''We have much to do between now and the start of the season. We'll be announcing tryouts, venue, coaches, personnel requirements and a host of other things in the next two weeks. I love business, basketball and entertainment. The ABA combines all three into one neat package.''
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_Ballhawgs
The Oklahoma City Ballhawgs were an American Basketball Association (ABA) team based in Oklahoma City. The team began play in the winter of 2004. The team folded after only one game, a loss, and were replaced in the league by the Louisiana Cajun Pelicans.

[nksports]

The Oklahoma Storm of the USBL tried to move a bunch of games to OKC the year Kareem coached, and they couldn't draw diddly. (And POd the fans back in Enid in the process.

[TEN]

Actually....nksports...the Storm drew pretty well in OKC for a couple of weeks...We (Dodge City) went in there on back to back Saturday nights at the Myriad in early May and played in front of legit crowds of 5000 plus...It was a pretty good atmosphere.

The problem was that the arena was costing 8K a night plus marketing costs killed the owner financially....also...after drawing a couple of crowds of over 5000, crowds dropped off to about 500 when fans realized that Kareem Abdul Jabbar was coaching, not playing....and that he was a royal ass.

The CBA team drew really well back in the early 90's, but they won't go for the ABA....They want the NBA back and will probably have it by 2008 or 2009.

[Sam Hill]

also...after drawing a couple of crowds of over 5000, crowds dropped off to about 500 when fans realized that Kareem Abdul Jabbar was coaching, not playing....

Intelligent fans there, huh? Took them that long to realize? They can't read the newspaper?

[nksports]

crowds dropped off to about 500 when fans realized that Kareem Abdul Jabbar was coaching, not playing

I caught a couple of games in Salina between the Cagerz and Oklahoma. It seemed like all Kareem did was waive to the crowd at the start of the game and sit on the bench for the rest of the night. His assistants seemed to do the actual work of running the team.

But I think we're all in agreement the ABA and OKC would be a lousy fit right now