The worse off, I'm not so sure about. As far as economic impact, most sports economists say there is very little direct positive economic impact to having a team. Zimbalist actually does say that there is positive economic impact in western cities with a team located more than 200 miles from the nearest professional sports team, as people from outlying areas tend to travel to see a team. There is also at least one sports economist (cannot remember which one) who says that the first team a city gets is the only one that has a positive economic impact that is significant. That is because of attracting businesses and people due to improved quality of life. So, it's not completely unreasonable to say that the economic impact of having the first team in OKC is different from the economic impact of the third team in Seattle. Hosting playoffs or the NBA finals are different, because they do bring in people from outside the area who stay in hotels and eat at restaurants, similar to the Big Twelve Tournament situation, and if you have a team, you have a chance of hosting playoffs or finals.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I wasn't voting for a new arena because of it's demonstrated dollar economic impact. I was voting for intangible economic impact and quality of life issues. So, this doesn't bother me at all.