A group of folks has purchased the Seattle Supersonics; they have a 12-month window to try to reach an agreement with the city fathers there on a new arena deal and if that fails, they can move the franchise to Oklahoma City. The Sonics' arena deal expires sometime around 2010 so that would probably be the timing of such a move. There will be lots of folks who say that the league is trying to extort a new arena from the city with this threat and others who say that the modern landscape of sports is that localities that spend money get teams. Take whatever side of that argument you like; they are both more true than false. I'd like to turn the clock forward to 2010 and imagine that the Sonics have their bags packed and are on their way to Oklahoma City. What happens then?

Well, Paul Allen has been at odds with the city fathers in Portland and claims he may have to sell the Blazers because his stadium deal there is so burdensome. Even losing tens of millions a year, Allen can hold on financially until 2010; so what would keep him from moving the Blazers to Seattle then? He could build his own arena and make money the old-fashioned way - - coming and going. I'm going to be following the stories in The Oregonian related to the Blazers' dealings with the politicos there more closely in the coming months.

M.L. Carr is a minority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Someone from the Boston Globe asked him about the Bobcats' first round pick, Adam Morrison. Carr's reply was interesting:

"I see a cross between Pistol Pete and Larry Bird. That's where Adam will be, somewhere in between them. He's got the Pistol's hair and Larry's mustache."

There's no denying that the companies that own newspapers are scrambling to contain costs and to find ways to increase revenues. Cutbacks in the newsrooms around the country are not shocking events any more. However, two recent developments are very interesting. According to BenMaller.com, the LA Times will no longer send its reporters to cover road games played by the LA Kings or the Anaheim Ducks. There are also rumors of further cost containment measures about to come down at the Dallas Morning News where travel would be restricted to the paper's columnists. Taken literally, that would mean no Cowboys' coverage for road games by beat reporters nor any road coverage for Texas or Texas A&M football games. Wow!

If the LA situation is as reported, that is a slap in the face for the NHL; the paper will travel to cover other teams but not the hockey teams. But there could be a significant indirect cost to the LA Times here as well as to other newspapers that might follow suit. The writers and editors at newspapers look down their noses at bloggers as part of the great-unwashed masses of humanity. They scoff at many of the bloggers' pronouncements because the bloggers don't have locker room access or spend time with the teams. The conclusion they ask you to draw is that bloggers are merely amateurs who live in a fantasy world but don't have "the inside scoop". After all, you can't know what's going on inside a team just by watching on TV.

Well, that's precisely what the reporters in LA - and perhaps in Dallas - would be forced to do under these travel restrictions. And so, someone from the great-unwashed masses of humanity might ask one of journalism elite how they are different any more? Surely, one of the elite will eventually refer to the training, education, and ethics of the journalism profession. When you hear that, remember the scene from The Wizard of Oz where the wizard confers a degree on the scarecrow…

Prosecutors in the Department of Justice flexed their muscles over the weekend in their "get tough on Internet gambling" movement. They arrested the CEO of a British company, BetOnSports, as he was changing planes in Dallas on his way from London to Costa Rica. He's been charged with racketeering and participating in an illegal gambling enterprise. Here is what I don't get:

BetOnSports is a UK company doing something legal in the UK and listed on the London Stock Exchange. People bet via the company website, which is also in the UK. But because US citizens bet there too, he is arrested and charged with violating US laws?

Americans also bet in casinos in London; they are legal enterprises there. Does this mean that the owner of any casino in London should expect to be arrested if he traveled to the US?

It seems as if the CEO for BetOnSports is being charged because he did not keep Americans from using his website - a not insignificant task to be sure. Lawyers like to talk about "the slippery slope"; this one seems "ice-covered" to me. Remember, Playboy Enterprises runs a sportsbook, which they say is not for US citizens. But if just one were to have found a way to open an account there, should we expect a DoJ raid on Hef's grotto? Don't hold your breath on that one.

I'm sure you saw the pictures of the medical folks rushing to get Michele Wie off the golf course when she succumbed to heat exhaustion in the John Deere Classic over the weekend. I truly hope that she has recovered by now and will be able to continue to play with no lasting effects. However, the cynic in me has to wonder if the fact that she was eight-over par at the time with the cut line looking to be somewhere in the range of par or one-over par had anything to do with the magnitude of the symptoms she displayed. That was a field of nobodies with regard to the PGA Tour and was set up for her to make the cut and she was not in the same area code with the folks who were going to make the cut. So, instead of ignominy, she garners some sympathy for herself. Convenient? Contrived? It's possible…

Finally, here's an observation from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald that is perfectly on point:

"Joe Theismann blasted [Ricky] Williams as a disgrace who wasted his chances. Coincidentally, Theismann's career has been similar. He has wasted every chance he has ever had to shut the [bleep] up, for God's sake."

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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