Mayor Reed Press Conference Today About Hawks

[bird_dirt]

Just as a clarification - it wasn't the NBA voting on Sterling (they never took the final vote on the sale) or the NBA taking control of the sale process that expidited the sale. That would have been the next move had it not worked out. What happened was that the team was owned by a trust and the trustee declared Sterling mentally incompetent (based on the opinions of two doctors) which meant that the trustee had total run of the team. The trustee (his wife) sold the team while he was declared incompetent and the state court upheld the trustee's declaration of incompetence and authority to sell the team.

This is a totally different situation where Levenson and the other Washington owners are under no pressure to sell on anything but Levenson's own time table. hawksfanatic is right that Reed has zero say in this process and is posturing to try to bolster his own importance. When Reed wants the team sold means as much as Jack and #$*& and Jack left town.

(Hail to the king)

So what it sounds to me that you're saying is that we need to get in touch with Gearon's doctors to have them declare him mentally incompetent, then a sale of his shares can be shoved through without his consent. How hard is that?

[Guest]

So what it sounds to me that you're saying is that we need to get in touch with Gearon's doctors to have them declare him mentally incompetent, then a sale of his shares can be shoved through without his consent. How hard is that?

Ok - that was funny lol.

[lerspec]

Yup.

He is purposefully misleading the public too. He keeps comparing this situation to Sterling and how Sterling was suing the league and yet that did not stop the sale. Well, Sterling was voted out by the NBA Owners. Unanimously if I am not mistaken. There has been 0 vote on Levenson. Levenson controls the sale. Yet Reed keeps clamoring like he has a say in it. Outside of him throwing a subsidy at potential owners, he really has nothing.

I f***ing hate politics.

 

Oh the subsidy....that's a big LOL.

 

He's promising a subsidy that when it would go into effect, he would be long gone.

 

That's just mayor pillow talk.

 

FRAUD

[Jody23]

In CViv's latest article, he says the portion of the Hawks that's for Sale is now in question. Before it was said that the Atlanta group were not going to sell and now their saying that decision hasn't been made yet.

[AHF]

In CViv's latest article, he says the portion of the Hawks that's for Sale is now in question. Before it was said that the Atlanta group were not going to sell and now their saying that decision hasn't been made yet.

Please, please, please, please, ...

[curtmcgirt]

They only own 34% which is far less than I thought. This could still turn out pretty well. If someone buys the Washington and NY portions they may have overwhelming control.

[AHF]

They only own 34% which is far less than I thought. This could still turn out pretty well. If someone buys the Washington and NY portions they may have overwhelming control.

 

Levenson already had overwhelming control (51% = 76% for all practical purposes).  Gearon waited until in the weeds to attack.  If I were buying in, I would absolutely demand a full cleansing of the current ownership.  Too much money to spend to buy into this dysfunction.

[curtmcgirt]

Levenson already had overwhelming control (51% = 76% for all practical purposes). Gearon waited until in the weeds to attack. If I were buying in, I would absolutely demand a full cleansing of the current ownership. Too much money to spend to buy into this dysfunction.

I just thought it was closer. I had no idea the NY group had that much. I wonder who they are and their intentions.

[DrReality]

wouldn't it be in the league's best interest to sit down with potential buyers and give them the lay of the land to try and put an end to this. To let them know where the land mines are, how the factions have undermined each other and to support them to deal with it. .  It's been how long? A decade? here's hoping there is an end in sight. 

[AHF]

No.  The best thing would be for the league to apply every bit of pressure it can to get the Atlanta and NY groups to join in and sell 100% of the team to new, good owners.  

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Be careful what you wish for.

 

You sell 100% to an owner who has no real reason to commit fully to Atlanta, and it could lead to disaster for the city and the franchise.  Especially when you have 3 markets ( Seattle, Kansas City, and Anaheim ) that could easily support another team.

 

While Gearon SHOULD be gone, if I'm picking a faction of ownership to roll with, it's definitely the Atlanta group.   They're the ones that could at least advise the new ownership on what the Atlanta market is all about.

 

A sole owner who has enough money to buy everybody out, is also a guy with enough money to buy the Hawks out of their lease at Philips, and move the team.   While improbable, that scenario is not impossible.   And whose to say that a new owner keeps ANY of these guys in power . . . from Ferry, to Bud, to even Koonin and Nique.

 

The NBA may say RIGHT NOW that they're committed to Atlanta, but this league has always followed the money trail.   They've allowed 4 franchises to move just in the past 15 years, more than any of the big 4 professional sports leagues.   

 

If you guys don't trust the mayor's involvement in this, or trust that the Atlanta people within the Hawks organization right now can't be trusted, how can you trust an owner who may be a complete outsider to Atlanta?

[curtmcgirt]

Stern let teams move like that, I don't think Silver has that level of desire to go for money grabs. He already stuck up for Milwaukee and Sacramento.

[AHF]

I'm not overly worried about someone moving the team given how high NBA television viewer numbers are in Atlanta, the size of the city, and the connections to the NBA and community (TNT, players who live here, etc.) ......   after the NBA already protected a marginal market like Sacramento.  I would definitely not want the team to move or for it to be purchased by someone with designs on moving it but Atlanta seems like a less at risk market than Sacramento and Milwaukee.

[MaceCase]

I don't know how people are still oblivious to the landscape after Seattle.  Seattle was a massive black eye to the league so much so that they've worked repeatedly to prevent any such cases happening again.  Since Seattle the NBA took over the Hornets specifically to ensure that they were sold to an owner that would keep them in New Orleans.  Since Seattle the NBA allowed Sacramento to put in an almost $100 million less bid to keep the Kings.  Since Seattle the Bucks were sold with the explicit stipulation that a new arena be built in Milwaukee by the end of 2017 or the NBA would buy the franchise back.

 

You're getting a rather clear picture here that the NBA is operating under a pretty concrete model.  They aren't going to reverse heel on the Hawks, a team in a larger market and with a newer arena.  It would seem to fly in the face of logic that the NBA would step in to save smaller markets with worse arenas but then ship the Hawks off to smaller markets and most without quality arenas themselves.  The only franchise to move since Seattle? The Nets moved a grand total of 45 minutes away within the same metropolitan area, wow.  The Warriors too are discussing relocating all the way from Oakland to San Francisco.  In summary, it's highly unlikely the Hawks are going anywhere. 

[Jody23]

Agree that there's virtually zero chance the Hawks go anywhere. As far as current ownership, there obviously are no good factions. But the Atlanta faction led by Gearon has been extremely detrimental as they have:

•Meddled in personnel decisions that have led to poor outcomes;

•After not having a problem with the atmosphere of the organization for years, suddenly attempted to sensationalize it in the media to serve their purpose even though it meant a black eye for the organization and more anguish for the fans;

•Were one of the first to point the finger at the fans and blame them for not supporting their mediocre product.

The only good they and the rest of ASG could do now is sell.

[NekiEcko]

Well with the new TV deal done, I have a very bad feeling that those bozos will stay as owners because the money they will be getting from that. 

 

or you might see somebody pay about 1 bil or more to get them out of here.

[taz]

Oh don't even get me started. No doubt I blame the Braves first and foremost. They didn't negotiate in good faith and at the end of the day there was probably nothing Kasim could do. But it doesn't change the fact that the Braves had no will to stay and no faith in the city to work with them. A good leader doesn't get blindsided like this no matter how shady the other side is. And then when it was all said and done Kasim blamed everyone but himself in true Kasim fashion. If he had no other issues I'd say yeah the Braves are assholes and the blame is totally on them, but after these years with the mayor I"d say it's probably 70/30 if we're assigning blame.

Not trying to make this a political thread. I'll stop but obviously I haven't recovered from the Braves thing and when I see him touching the Hawks I get nervous. I guess the best case is the city dumps money on the Hawks in some way which would be bs for my taxes but at least maybe it will help the team and keep them here.

The braves shut down anything the surrounding communities wanted to do to fix the area. Unless the braves controlled it fully they wanted nothing to ever happen. F the Braves

[taz]

To be honest turner field became the opposite of what ted turner meant to this city. The braves were a cancer to that area and to be honest itll be better off without them.

[Randy]

Didn't the mysterious NY group just buy in a few months ago, or last year?  Might not want to sell so soon.  Another issue, which may matter to all of the owners except the DC owners who are leaving for sure is taxes.  They could get hit with a big tax bill if they make a profit on selling the team.  That was Sterling's biggest gripe. It might be they would want to sell out over time for tax reasons. So there are a lot of things that go into a deal.

[AHF]

Didn't the mysterious NY group just buy in a few months ago, or last year?  Might not want to sell so soon.  Another issue, which may matter to all of the owners except the DC owners who are leaving for sure is taxes.  They could get hit with a big tax bill if they make a profit on selling the team.  That was Sterling's biggest gripe. It might be they would want to sell out over time for tax reasons. So there are a lot of things that go into a deal.

 

Has any significant owner of a sports team sold over time?  That seems a lot easier with stock than with a % ownership in a team.