Saturday, July 4, 2009

Mr. Blazer, Steve Kelley, "Hatred for the NBA runs deep, but don't take it out on the players"

Steve Kelley, Mr. Blazer:
It isn't an insult. It's a gift. It shouldn't be boycotted. It should be celebrated.

Celebrated? The completion of the theft? The sent marking of Paul Allen's Portland Trailblazers on KeyArena?
If Steve Kelley is too cheap to go to Portland, then I guess we celebrate Steve Kelley saving a train ticket.

It's a night to put aside your anger at the NBA and acknowledge that, underneath that anger, a love of the game still smolders.

it is a night for you to open mouth kiss your sweetheart, pro sports, butter your bread Steve.

I'll always love this game, even as I detest many of the people who run it and ran it out of this town.

As a newspaper writer you will not give them any of your hard earned cash, so, maybe you are writing this column to other media peope?
I do not plan to give Paul Allen's Portland Trailblazers, an NBA franchise, a dime while SEATTLE does not have a SONICS home team.

As far as the anger is concerned, I'm with you.

In words but not deeds.

Read all about Mr. Blazer, here!


Have a great day,
Mike Baker

Sent from my iPhone
Visit me here:
http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like 4Culture got theirs:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009430766_webarts08.html

I guess that's one less hand out when and if a special session is called.

Anonymous said...

Rumors and talks of rumors: When the city was considering working with the convention center on a project that would include an arena, it seemed like a winner to me. But the expense. Too rich for their blood I guess. So the convention center is going it alone I guess. Where is the convention center expansion plan at anyway? I take it's still in the planning stage?

Mr Baker said...

Heritage and the like got nothing.

900 million, or so, was the claim. I am not sure how that math worked, or the scope of work.
I still think it is a great idea, but it did not get support. The city latched onto the convention center bill until the convention center folks proved unlikely to get their bill through, and Ross Hunter said he was giving the matching tax money back to the state.

None of the convention center bills passed, including one just to study it and secure with deposit the land (air space).
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/search.aspx?term=Convention&year=2009

4Culture still does not have a solution beyond that stimulus money. They provide a lot of one time grants but can not make long term plans or projects.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. So the legislature pretty much does hate Seattle as previously suspected.

Anonymous said...

Baltimore plays the arena game:

http://www.arenadigest.com/features/index.html?article_id=519

Although their current plan is on hold due to the economy. They have four proposals and designs that fit their $300 million model. What do we have? Let's essentially build a bigger team store without re-configuring the seating bowl to adds seats and making it multi-use for pro-hockey if the NHL wants to come ---Which I'm pretty sure they do. Oh well.

Mr Baker said...

Delay will cost them, and how close are the Wizards to that arena? I know there are plenty of people around there, but 2 basketball teams, baseball teams, and the Redskins.

Anonymous said...

They (Baltimore)aren't expecting to get an NBA or NHL franchise and since Wizards play at the privately funded world class Verizon Center, they won't be moving there. So I guess they're still trying to decide whether to go with a large professional arena without a prime tenant ala the Sprint Center or go with a mid-sized smaller scale venue, and of course how to fund it---naturally.

Anonymous said...

Hey Mr. B, I assume you've taken a gander at Kelley's latest dissertation:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/stevekelley/2009476860_kelley16.html

He's on the hope wagon too apparently. Good times.