JEagle87

With the announcement today that the city of Seattle and Sonics' scumbag owner Clay Bennett have settled out of court, it is the first step in the teams seemingly impending move to Oklahoma City. While the previous owner is still trying to refute the sale of the team to Bennett, it seems more than likely that the Sonics franchise will be moving, while the teams logo, name and colors will remain with Seattle. But that's not the news here.

This is a growing trend in sports. The Cleveland Browns up and moved to Baltimore after stadium talks fell through a few years back. Cleveland eventually got their Browns back, but I'm here to tell the story of a franchise, that might never come back, the NHL's Hartford Whalers.

The Hartford Whalers were the only pro team in the four major sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) in Connecticut. The Whalers were the pride and joy of Connecticut and to many fans, including myself, they still are. I'm not knocking the Connecticut Sun, the only WNBA team that isn't in an NBA city thanks to the success of the UConn basketball programs, but that just isn't enough for me and my home state. But the state of Connecticut was relegated to just another state in New England (technically half the stat is New York fans) in 1997. That is when Peter Karmanos, scumbag owner of the Whalers, demanded the state of Connecticut and the city of Hartford to build him a new stadium, or he would move the team. Sound familiar? When the state/city refused to put up the amount he wanted, he did exactly what he said he would. He walked away from practically sellout crowds to move to Raliegh, NC. Now, there are differences between Seattle and Hartford and their situations. Seattle is a major market with its own TV market and a booming economic market. Hartford is between two major TV markets, New York and Boston, and was having problems getting media and advertising deals. From a business standpoint, moving the Whalers to Carolina might have made sense. Moving the Sonics to Oklahoma makes no sense at all.

Seattle has a larger TV market, a great fan base and 41-years of history. Oklahoma City has fielded the hurricane-deposed Hornets for a couple of seasons, and have proven that they can support a franchise. But it shouldn't be the Sonics. Give them an expansion team down the road, allow another team to move (who that might be, I don't know, I'm kind of new at this NBA stuff) that is struggling, but the Sonics need to stay in Seattle. I'm not going to get into the Bennett/Stern thing, which in my book should legally nix this whole situation, but this is a growing trend in sports. Holding cities hostage for stadiums by blackmailing them with threats to move. Yet several arena have been built recently without public funding (I know of at least one in DC).

Seattle fans, I hope you get to keep your team. I don't see it happening, but I wish you good luck. Hey Congress, you want to investigate something important in sports, investigate this. It's something called extortion. I'm pretty sure there are laws against it punishable by prison time or something. Moving on.

I've only attended one NHL game in my life, Canadians v. Whalers in 1996 at the Civic Center (Whalers won 3-2), and probably won't attend another one for a long time. When the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup a few years ago, someone called up a sports talk show a joked that there was rioting in the streets of Hartford because the Whalers had won the Cup. I wasn't devastated, but a little heartbroken knowing that sports weren't about the game anymore, it was a business.

That's a shame, because it really shouldn't be. It should be about the game.

And if this is the direction sports is heading in, well, this is going to be an all too common sight.

- Eagle