Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan tells ESPN readers in his column yesterday, “Stand up for your team, Sacramento!”
He begins,
You could say that I am a sore loser, but I really come to this topic as a citizen who sees the importance of local economies staying local. I am also a fan who has seen the darkness that the NBA–and its teams' owners–can dispense on us loyal dorks . . . you know, the ones who buy tickets, jerseys, beer and parking. But sometimes, that is just not enough.
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Sacramento Kings fans are on the verge of being left with nothing for all their emotional investments . . . and ticket, food, parking and merchandise purchases. Sacramento Kings fans, I know what you must be going through right now. I am a Seattleite. Our Sonics used to go to war with your team. I know how ardent and gnarly the average Kings fan is. Seattle is a great basketball city, too. And we could not foresee–or at least hid our eyes from the fact–that once the Sonics' owner, Howard Schultz, had decided to sell the team to an outsider, Clay Bennett, our team was lost. We should have fought harder.
He goes on to say:
If you are a Sacramento Kings fan and want your team to stay, you might want to raise a lot of hell now–before it's too late. I'm not sure about law when it comes to this sort of thing, but wouldn't it seem right for the collective of a fandom to have a right in these types of things.
How about this: If an ownership group wants to move a franchise to a certain city, then maybe that fan base should get a majority vote in things that pertain to a move. Fans have and will, after all, invest a majority of the money into the team. Make sense? Okay, maybe a majority vote for us fans is being a little irrational and wouldn't pass muster when a team is losing money (we fans don't think straight and clear sometimes, especially when we feel rooked).
