Contextual Media Assignment
Current Event - Seattle Supersonics
In 2006, the Seattle Supersonics were sold to Clay
Bennett and his group if investors. Before the sale, Seattle was led to believe
that they as an investment group were not planning to move the team. Two years
later after an agreement was not reached to update the Seattle Center area and
Key Arena, the team was moved to Oklahoma City to become the Oklahoma Thunders
in 2008.
The events that led up to the move of the Sonics
took about two years to play out after the purchase of the team form Clay
Bennett.
In a short description about the situation, the
Seattle area felt that they were blindsided. The Sonics owners felt that the
local government was not doing anything to help with a new arena. With the line
drawn, after a two year battle about a new stadium, the team was moved to
Oklahoma.
For those that do not know, Key Arena is a small
arena. Seating capacity is 17,000 for basketball. This is small compared to
other stadiums in the NBA. The stadium was fully rebuilt 1994-1995. The floor
was lowered 35 feet below street level, adding more seating. Information from http://www.keyarena.com/
The city was shocked that the move actually
happened. Two years of negotiations and it was over. The team was moved to
Oklahoma. At first, the Seattle area and Western Washington were in shock that
a team that the area had for so long was taken away so quickly. The voters did
pass a law that directs funding for another sports stadium was not going to be
allowed. The issue was that Clay Bennett and his investment group wanted the
City and County to pay all the costs for a new stadium.
Key Arena 2012
Social Media – The Start of a Campaign
The stage was set, the Sonics moved to Oklahoma, and
Seattle no longer had a Basketball Team. Soon after the shock set in Jason Reid, the director of http://sonicsgate.com/ started the campaign to educate the area about what had
really happened.
This did not start
with the website, but with a full-length movie with the director’s cut released
in 2009, almost a year after the Sonics left Seattle. This grass roots effort
started as a movement of awareness. The movie is titled Sonicsgate started the
campaign for a new team for Seattle. This group also has a FaceBook page.
A separate group
with the same cause created a Facebook page in February 2011 that started the
media campaign to bring back the Seattle Supersonics. This page is titled
“Bring Back our Sonics” Currently there are over 8600 people that have liked
the page.
This campaign
started through social media and has seen great success. Big name investors
came on board and momentum built. Meetings were created between government
officials and the investors.
None of this would
have happened if people did not get organized and post current information.
Each time there was a meeting event or story these groups posted the information.
The Movie page used their resources to promote the documentary. The Save our
Sonics site stayed focused to share the current news and to post dates and
times for meetings to gather support. Seattle saw a chance for a return of the
NBA to the area.
There were several
issues, which included the need for a private investment agreement for a new
stadium. Chris Hansen is the new investor heading the
proposed new stadium and the return of the Sonics to Seattle.
As of September
2012, the Seattle City Council and Hansen reached a tentative arena agreement.
This is according to the Seattle Times.
The fight is still not over. Even though a tentative
agreement has been reached with the City of Seattle and King County, there has
been a twist to this whole case. The Port of Seattle is now fighting the
location and has taken Seattle City to court.
The return of the Supersonics may or may not happen,
there are still issues to solve. There are enough people on task that have
become a part of the social media coverage on this issue. There are daily post
on the Bring Back our Sonics page that have links to any media coverage about
the Sonics. Events and gatherings continue to be planned by this group. When
the Seattle City Council met, the date and time of the meeting was posted at
the Bring Back our Sonics Facebook page.
Site for new arena near Safeco Field
This story started
as a story of defeat for the Seattle area. Social Media and the internet have
turned this into a story to bring change. The change or goal is to bring the
Seattle Supersonics back to Seattle.
Several pages were
created about this movement. These pages include blogs and news sites. These
daily blogs have contributed to the growth of a movement to have the Sonics
return to Seattle.
The Sonicsgate site
has continued to push and promote this by creating a shorter version of their
documentary. They are now selling this revised DVD in a fundraiser and as a way raise money to continue
to promote their campaign for the Sonics. http://sonicsgate.com/
Since the Save our
Sonics page was formed through Facebook, many people have posted their views
through comments on the page with over 1480 followers. https://www.facebook.com/#!/saveoursonics?fref=ts
The Sonics campaign
is also on Twitter. There are several results including:
·
Sonicsgate
·
Sonics
Arena
·
Seattle
Supersonics@SeattleSonics
·
Seattle
Supersonics@BringBackSonics
·
Seattle
Supersonics@SUPERSONICS_SEA
·
Seattle
SuperSonics@Seattle_Sonics
All
found at https://twitter.com/
There are other
pages that are also part of this story about the Seattle Supersonics that are are
listed here:
Without social
media, if the Seattle Supersonics were sold a few years before, there may have
been just a few newspaper articles, or a television news story with the news. A
movement to get the Sonics back may not have happened.
In this case,
social media created an avenue for people to gather and organize. It started
with a film, and others jumped in to work on a plan. Some key people stepped in
and started giving support.
The result is there
is now an investor that is willing and has stepped forward with the City of
Seattle approval and King County approval.
The process has started, with an agreement for
an arena in place, the search and negotiation with the NBA has started. Without
social media, there would not have been a platform or place to advertise that
there were people working on plan to have chance for the Seattle Supersonics to
return to Seattle. Though Seattle does not have a new team agreement in place,
there is a great possibility that this will happen in the near future.
My Opinion
I was just a kid
when the Sonics came to Seattle. Though I have never been a great sports fan, I
do not know all the statistics, or the names of the players. The Seattle
Supersonics were part of what I called home, Sonics were a part of Seattle. My
thought is that Seattle is not the same without the Sonics.
What happened is terrible. The loss of this team was not supposed to happen. It was comments such as these that started the social media campaign to get a new NBA team.
Seattle government
and the owners of the Seattle Supersonics were at the end of negotiations for a
new stadium. A line was drawn, which created a mess. I knew that this issue
would come to a head sometime. It did.
The major drawback to the old stadium is that it is small. Yes, more seating was created during the rebuild, but not enough for the NBA of today. There has been debate about the use of this stadium and parking which is difficult to find in the Seattle Center complex, where Key arena is located. One solution is to park downtown, which is more than a mile away, and ride the monorail to the Seattle Center.
Seattle is divided
on how to solve this situation. I feel that Seattle history is repeating again.
Any time there is a major decision to be made, there is a long fight. No one
can agree on how to get things done. It is this fighting attitude that may have
caused the loss of the team in the first place.
Social media has created a platform for Washington residents to unite for a common cause. By doing this, a movement to create change happened in a short time. However, if the momentum slows down on social media, this fight for the Sonics may also be lost.
The area may still
not get a new NBA team, as the negation process continues. Social Media has
given this native of Seattle some hope for a new team.
Seattle Center Coliseum
1967 - The Sonics arrived in Seattle for the 1967-68 season. www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nba/seattle/sonics.html
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