Oklahoma City cashed in on an opportunity that not will be afforded many cities.

Thanks to Clay Bennett, Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward major players in PBC, this city will have something added to the sports family in which we all can rally behind.

Seattle will be trying to get back into the NBA.

Louisville is building a 22,000-seat riverfront arena and they will be the next break-through city in the mix.

Las Vegas is not willing to take the NBA off the betting boards, so they will be stagnant for quite some time and this last referee betting scandal, all but put the coffin nails in Las Vegas getting anything on the major professional level.

Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Hampton Roads was on the scene bidding against Oklahoma City in that rat race during the NHL most recent wave of expansion. It turned out for the better that Columbus got that last franchise. They sold 5,000 season tickets during that campaign. Virginia wants and NBA franchise for that area; so, if Oklahoma City can, they can! Memphis and New Orleans beat out the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area in the relocation of the Grizzlies and Hornets respectively. This is currently the largest metropolitan area without any major professional sports.

I want to thank the taxpayers of Oklahoma City for their overwhelming approval back on March 4.

So many thank yous can be passed out; especially what Clay Bennett had to endure in Seattle.

If this team needs a new arena ten years form now and the demand and support is still there, I'll be on board to vote yes, one more time!

What are your thoughts? Did I leave out something?

Seattle Times Sonics forum responses:

View topic - Laramie On OKC Talk...... | The Seattle Times (http://forums.seattletimes.nwsource.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=138108&st=0&sk=t&sd=a)

I checked out what you linked to the seattle forum.
Not impressed.
Since I live in San Diego, I am familiar with west coast posters.
Typical seattle, Don't pay attention to them keep building your city, stay positive.
These are the guys who have to play USC and CAL and UCLA every year.
Envy is envy.
You have the NBA, make the most of your opportunity, that will be your best response.

Thanks, NativeOkie!

I finally got them to stop some of the bashing of OKC by putting the attention on myself.

Since I don't post there anymore, they manage to keep everyone posted as to my lastest forum accounts.





Anyway, Clay left Seattle and managed to get away with the Grand Prize!

I go over and check out the ST forum once in a while, check out one topic, can't get thought more then a couple of posts. If this is any indication of the general population in Seattle area they are a city in decline and decay. The negativity is over-whelming.

I agree, OKC timing and luck over the past 3-4 years afforded the city the opportunity to move ahead of several mid tier cities. We are on a roll and in no small part due to the faith in our city and it's citizens people in positions of authority or influence are workng together to move the city forward. This is an extremely exciting time for OKC and all of Oklahoma.

wow, I spent about 3 minutes over there and left.

I think it makes it worse for OK and OKC's image to go to their boards. They are so upset and so insulting, it's tempting to return the insults and gloat.

But, I know we should all take the high road and just let them recover from this blow without rubbing salt into their wounds.

I remember when we had the same issue with the Hornets and New Orleans.. it would get so heated with insults and criticisms.. I know we made lots of enemies during that situation.

The last thing we need now is to have more people against OKC.

Seattle is a nice place. It's beautiful (but wayyy too much rain and too many gray skies for me ... I like sunny days).

The beauty of it is that we are all different and choose to live where we live for various reasons - we can all find positives and negatives about our various homes.

Yes, it is understandable that they are mad and they want to retaliate by putting down our city and state....it's pretty sad... I just wish people would let people live their lives.

I say let's move on, leave them alone and go buy our NBA tickets.

"Very Well Said!"

I hope the Seattle posters can finally come to grips with losing the Sonics to Oklahoma City.