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So, this post is about the Sonics and their struggles, torn between their lease and their home city of Seattle and their owners, who are determined to break the lease and move them to Oklahoma City. I never post about stuff like this, but today I was unusually motivated.
Against all odds, this lease issue has gone all the way to a court trial. The city and the former owners feel duped (as they didn't realize that Clay Bennett and his contingent of Oklahoma owners would want to move the team, not to mention break the lease on KeyArena and move two years early) and the owners want the team free to relocate to OKC NOW. Various bad faith stuff has been done, negotiations have stalled, people have generally been pissed off and gotten stubborn and felt that righteousness was theirs, by God, and so on and so forth. So in spite of all good sense, here we are in court. I've been reading the daily blog reports, and today they're questioning Bennett. In reading over the information, I learned something of note that makes this whole mess make sense: Bennett married into the Gaylord family.
For those playing along at home, the Gaylords are descended from E.K. Gaylord, a gentleman (heh) who founded the first newspaper and the first radio station in Oklahoma. From that meager beginning was founded the Gaylord Entertainment Company, which grew over the years and now owns the major newspapers in Oklahoma, at least three radio stations there, one or more TV stations, the Grand Ole Opry, Opryland USA, Country Music Television (CMT) network, hotels, a Christian-focused music/publishing company and lord knows what else. Bennett married Louise Gaylord (in this family, they keep their maiden names as their middle names) -- they were evidently high school sweethearts, or at least that's the story on wikipedia, make of that what you will.
Privately, the family owns more land and oil than you want to think about. Their corporation's principle competitors are Viacom and the Walt Disney Company. They are also some of the most unscrupulous bastards to ever walk the earth -- conservative and old money as you can get, but with that certain entrepenurial, frontier, cutthroat aspect you usually get in organized crime and unsettled outskirt nations. Which, I suppose, describes Oklahoma pretty well in some respect. To a large extent, they are to blame for what Oklahoma is and has become.
I don't like the Gaylord family.
Among other things, the Gaylords don't tolerate failure very well. Bennett marrying into the Gaylords means he has incredible amounts of pull behind him (that whole getting on the NBA Board of Governors and such is directly attributable to this), but it also means that he is expected to empire-build, and the Gaylord empire is firmly based in Oklahoma. There's a bit of regional feudalism involved, but suffice it to say, Bennett's job was to acquire an NBA team and bring them to OKC (and help the family Profit!!!), and he's been building to this with help from the family for a long, long time. If he doesn't succeed, there will be a lot of fallout for him personally; while it may well be that he'll be willing to sit on the team for another two years and then bring them to OKC, I would not be surprised if the decision is that this process has damaged the property too much and they have to find another patsy... er, I mean, team for sale.
I found it very interesting that he initially inquired into the Hornets, but since he couldn't buy a controlling share of the team, he gave it up upon hearing he had another option. That was stupid of him... he might have eventually gotten full control of the Hornets if he'd been patient, and they were both happy to be in OKC and weren't especially wanted back in NOLA. It doesn't speak well of his long-term planning, which isn't a good thing when you're dealing with the Gaylords. He's a flunky, not a member of the ruling elite, and if he doesn't get his shit together and succeed, he won't ever be, no matter who in the family he married.
So, yeah. Bennett's lawyer shut down any discussion of his in-laws at the trial, but that one bit of information was enough for anyone with the background to get it. Bennett won't ever leave the Sonics in Seattle, not as long as he owns them. He can't afford to, and his family has David Stern in its back pocket. Welcome to the dark side of the Oklahoma Political Machine, one of the few remaining good ol' boy networks. I'm sorry, Seattle. You couldn't have known.
Against all odds, this lease issue has gone all the way to a court trial. The city and the former owners feel duped (as they didn't realize that Clay Bennett and his contingent of Oklahoma owners would want to move the team, not to mention break the lease on KeyArena and move two years early) and the owners want the team free to relocate to OKC NOW. Various bad faith stuff has been done, negotiations have stalled, people have generally been pissed off and gotten stubborn and felt that righteousness was theirs, by God, and so on and so forth. So in spite of all good sense, here we are in court. I've been reading the daily blog reports, and today they're questioning Bennett. In reading over the information, I learned something of note that makes this whole mess make sense: Bennett married into the Gaylord family.
For those playing along at home, the Gaylords are descended from E.K. Gaylord, a gentleman (heh) who founded the first newspaper and the first radio station in Oklahoma. From that meager beginning was founded the Gaylord Entertainment Company, which grew over the years and now owns the major newspapers in Oklahoma, at least three radio stations there, one or more TV stations, the Grand Ole Opry, Opryland USA, Country Music Television (CMT) network, hotels, a Christian-focused music/publishing company and lord knows what else. Bennett married Louise Gaylord (in this family, they keep their maiden names as their middle names) -- they were evidently high school sweethearts, or at least that's the story on wikipedia, make of that what you will.
Privately, the family owns more land and oil than you want to think about. Their corporation's principle competitors are Viacom and the Walt Disney Company. They are also some of the most unscrupulous bastards to ever walk the earth -- conservative and old money as you can get, but with that certain entrepenurial, frontier, cutthroat aspect you usually get in organized crime and unsettled outskirt nations. Which, I suppose, describes Oklahoma pretty well in some respect. To a large extent, they are to blame for what Oklahoma is and has become.
I don't like the Gaylord family.
Among other things, the Gaylords don't tolerate failure very well. Bennett marrying into the Gaylords means he has incredible amounts of pull behind him (that whole getting on the NBA Board of Governors and such is directly attributable to this), but it also means that he is expected to empire-build, and the Gaylord empire is firmly based in Oklahoma. There's a bit of regional feudalism involved, but suffice it to say, Bennett's job was to acquire an NBA team and bring them to OKC (and help the family Profit!!!), and he's been building to this with help from the family for a long, long time. If he doesn't succeed, there will be a lot of fallout for him personally; while it may well be that he'll be willing to sit on the team for another two years and then bring them to OKC, I would not be surprised if the decision is that this process has damaged the property too much and they have to find another patsy... er, I mean, team for sale.
I found it very interesting that he initially inquired into the Hornets, but since he couldn't buy a controlling share of the team, he gave it up upon hearing he had another option. That was stupid of him... he might have eventually gotten full control of the Hornets if he'd been patient, and they were both happy to be in OKC and weren't especially wanted back in NOLA. It doesn't speak well of his long-term planning, which isn't a good thing when you're dealing with the Gaylords. He's a flunky, not a member of the ruling elite, and if he doesn't get his shit together and succeed, he won't ever be, no matter who in the family he married.
So, yeah. Bennett's lawyer shut down any discussion of his in-laws at the trial, but that one bit of information was enough for anyone with the background to get it. Bennett won't ever leave the Sonics in Seattle, not as long as he owns them. He can't afford to, and his family has David Stern in its back pocket. Welcome to the dark side of the Oklahoma Political Machine, one of the few remaining good ol' boy networks. I'm sorry, Seattle. You couldn't have known.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-17 10:07 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 12:25 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 05:15 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 05:36 pm (UTC)From:I'd heard of the Gaylord hotels brand before and I've been to the Gaylord Texan a couple of times.
The first time I went there, it was because the Mickey Mouse 65th birthday statues were on tour and had landed at the Texan. I wonder if somebody high up in the Gaylord hierarchy had the final say on how/where the statues were placed because holy marathon,Batman! There were a total of 15 statues (I think) and we had to walk up, down, sideways and backwards all over the damn hotel to find them. It was a real pain in the ass, let me tell ya.