Bob Johnson selling the Bobcats?

You're so negative.


edit: NBA is better than it was 5 or even 8 years ago. The US-Spain Olympic game was one of the best basketball games played in recent history, there is a lot to be excited about NBA-wise.

 

DJ, I don't see how you can say the fans bailed. Do you remember some of the shit Shinn did to PISS his fans off? And I ain't talking about screwing around with his whores, either. Everytime one of our stars contracts would come due, Shinn would dump them rather than give then a raise. He was constantly bitching about needing more money even though he was averaging 25000 fans a night. He brought in that ****** Wooldridge to help him alienate his fan base. Let's say the Hornets had an owner like Jerry Richardson, a man who runs his business and keeps his mouth shut and his name out of the paper. Would the team still be here? I think they would be, selling out every game.

 

somebody should do a city/region wide poll about what people think about the NBA or if the care about having an NBA team. My money is on a vast majority not being interested. That's not negativity, that's reality. The majority didn't care when it left and wasn't exicted when it returned.

 

The year before the strike, Charlotte led the league in attendance, averaging 23,406 a game (in 97-98.)

The final year of the Hornets, they averaged 11,286 a game.

Of course I remember how Shinn treated this city, I never said they didn't have reason to bail. But the facts are the facts, they lost over half their fanbase in 4 years, that's bailing.

Shinn cried about needing a new arena, something that has proven to have been a problem league-wide. We couldn't build the arena fast enough when he left town, why? We didn't even have a guarantee of a new franchise at that point. It's because a new arena was needed (and it's fantastic.)

As far as comparing Shinn to Richardson, that's fair. Of course we'd all like more owners like Richardson, but as far as franchise sucess at that point Shinn had a much more sucessful franchise. Multiple playoff appearances vs one, and a streak of 8 or so years at .500 or better.

At the time people thought it couldn't get worse than Shinn, but there are plenty of owners in the NBA and throughout sports that never had the sucess his franchise has achieved. Hell, at least they tried to get something for their assets. He was snakebitten after the LJ contract, we all wish they had had Zo instead. But hindsight is 20/20, and the decisions this city has made have left us with Bob Johnson, by all accounts a worse owner than Shinn.

I hope he sells but at this point I wonder if even that would turn around the Bobcats or their position in this city. As a basketball fan it's sad that this once NBA hotbed has been killed in less than a decade.

Meanwhile the same people who cry about the property tax being raised for a new arena continue NOT to support the Bobcats yet are getting ready to potentially vote the Mayor responsible into Governor. So fucking stupid, I have to think the real reason some of them don't support the Bobcats is the same reason they are voting for McCain, and it isn't his war record.

 

The Bobs are now 0-7 in pre-season.

That building's going to be empty this season. EMPTY.

 

DJ, I agree that blatant racism is involved to a certain extent here, but it works both ways. I have heard complaints that the Bobcats only hire Black people and that the arena is like a ghetto or something. Now I've been to the arena several times and I didn't get that impression, but some people did from what I've read. But racism is just a tiny part of the problem. Mismanagement and poor drafting is a bigger one. If the team starts winning, I doubt people will really care what color their usher is.

 

PantherPaul is the only idiot I've heard complaining about the color of the ushers. They were old white ladies the only time I went.

NBA ratings are half of what they were in the mid 90's. It's not racism, it's that the whole sport is losing people's interest.

 

The fall off in attendance was because the league began dying, then Shinn stuck it to the city and fans. Attendance was down across the league. The coliseum was packed for years when the team sucked, long after the novelty wore off.

The NBA failed to help Charlotte keep the hornets and that is a major reason most of the city has turned it's back on the bobcats. When 60% of the people voted against the arena it was a vote against the NBA and Charlotte leaders should have listened.

 

I never complained about the ushers being black although they were, I laughed at the fact they were too busy discussing their hair weaves to stop me from upgrading from a 10 dollar nose bleed to 6 rows off the court regularly. Johnson can hire whomever he wants but at least get them to do their jobs.


Back to MLB. Did you see the Yankees new stadium box seats that WERE $250 a game were now going to go for $2500 a pop. Can you see a team in Charlotte asking for anywhere close to that

 

If you want to apologize for this statement and talk about what an incredibly ridiculous and stupid thing it was to say, then I think that would be wise.