The Oklahoma City Thunder and its fans have made Clayton Bennett and the other owners of the NBA team extraordinarily wealthy. Bennett purchased the franchise, then called the Seattle Supersonics, in 2006 for $325 million. He moved the team to Oklahoma City in 2008, where it became one of the NBA's most compelling franchises. The Thunder drafted two future league MVPs, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, to play alongside superstar Kevin Durant, and the trio made a run to the 2012 NBA Finals. Since 2020, the team has undergone a successful rebuild, acquiring multiple talented young players, including All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, along with a massive stockpile of future draft picks. They are, by some accounts,
We had a similar experience with a baseball stadium in Philadelphia. They put it as a referendum on an election ballot, and it was overwhelmingly defeated. "They" decided that people did not understand the question, reworded it, and put it on the next ballot. Again it was overwhelmingly defeated. At that point, they decided that people were "voting against their best economic interests" and built the stadium anyway. As is usually the case, the athletes and team owners have benefited financially. The rest of us? Not so much.
The 6'ers arena could be a similar boondoggle, pushing Chinatown businesses out of that area. The team owners seem ready to foot much of the bill, but likely needs the city to declare eminent domain.
I am a lifelong Phillies fan. I was so pissed when they left Connie Mack for the odious hellhole that was Veterans Stadium that I never saw a home game at that miserable excuse for a venue. I would have voted twice for a new field to get the Phillies out of there.
The only thing I’ve watched at the Vet is a Wham! concert. Standing still on that Astroturf was the most uncomfortable thing. Can’t imagine how people played on it.
Similar story here in Atlanta with the Braves baseball franchise. Moved the entire setup in a middle of the night deal from Turner field (South of downtown) to a northern suburb (now called Truist Park) with no public transit access.
It was a sordid sad story. This country is filled with shameless little mini oligarchs.
You should do a story on how the Illitch family (owners of NHL’ Red Wings and MLB’s Tigers) conned the City of Detroit for tax breaks to build the Little Caesars Arena by promising to build housing and offices around the place - and have done zero of that. Instead they have gone back to the City this year for more concessions to do pretty much the same work… but now on land they done own so they can continue to rake in the $$$ on the many parking lots they own.
If ALL cities took the tact to not subsidize arenas etc for these wealthy sports franchise owners,, the owners would be forced to pay/ invest themselves, or not purchase them. In the end, it's all about the money; but cities can't allow them to blackmail them, so they can make more.
Pulitzer investigative journalist David Cay Johnston has written extensively about exactly this topic. Wikipedia: "He was a Pulitzer finalist in 2003 "for his stories that displayed exquisite command of complicated U.S. tax laws and of how corporations and individuals twist them to their advantage." (He was also a finalist in 2000 "for his lucid coverage of problems resulting from the reorganization of the Internal Revenue Service").
The cities that make these kinds of sports arena deals do so on the backs of taxpayers, and the taxpayers are ALWAYS held up for more.
Tax dollars combine to become the Treasure of the People, and if there was any real justice, would be used for the good and benefit of the people. The wealthy, and corporations demand too much, are given too much, and there is a clear recorded history of how this doesn't work out for The People.
Man, you have a way with words. "Tax dollars combine to become the Treasure of the People, and if there was any real justice, would be used for the good and benefit of the people."
I always did. Corporate giveaways always piss me off. Here in Chicago Walmart announced on a Tuesday that they would close ALL chicago area stores that coming Sunday!
They came in and put all other pharmacies, mom & pop stores, etc out of busines for the most part and all of the TIF financing they were given didn't matter. They were given mucho incentives and boogied anyway, abandoning their investment to "save money" I guess.
Built a $2M "Wellness Center," made everyone in the (low income) area depend on it, then abruptly pulled the plug, leaving all their "valued customers" to scramble desperately to find alternatives.
We are on the same page. Large corporate interests have the ability and resources to pay their own way, not on the backs of the people. Perhaps if they were required to pay their own way, they wouldn't so blithely pack up and leave after over investing and destroying small town mercantile operators. A good example is the prevalence of a Walgreens or CVS on every damned corner.
Wow. I'm from suburbs and try to stay informed, always wondered how come there's no walmart, now I know. The corporate greed coupled with elected officials' greed have destroyed the well-being of the ordinary, taxpaying Americans.
Chicago doesn't have any WalMarts? That's weird! I'm 2+ hours, taking I-80 west towards IA. We have a WalMart, independent grocery store across the road (same side), and 2 family owned pharmacies. When WalMart moved across the road into a lot bigger building, they had a gas station in front. Sold gas for .99 cents. Made statement in county newspaper that they weren't trying to put anyone out of business, they only wanted to compete. At .99 cents? Please. All gas businesses are still in town except WalMarts....LOL
A friend had a really cool store downtown. She sold candles, whatever holiday it was decor, but different, not cheap like WalMarts is. Just a huge variety of home decorating items. She said right after WalMart opened that they'd run her out of business, so she moved to a town 20 miles away. Except they have a WalMart, too. Which is closer in proximity than when she was here, and she's not visible where she is. I'm honestly surprised she's still in business. WalMart has done nothing to my lil town. They got tif money also. Time's up, they're paying taxes now.
That's horrible! How about considering writing more about this area? Remember that people from Chicago live all over the country and would be interested....
When Clay Bennett absconded with the Seattle SuperSonics, my first real sports love when I was 7 years old, the NBA has been dead to me. People I know in OKC have lionized Bennett as a great local hero. Turns out he’s the money-grubbing mini-oligarch I always knew he was. To make it worse, there’s no doubt in my mind that OKC will pony up, everything else be damned.
He's doing the same thing to Oklahoma City that he did to Seattle. I knew that no matter what Seattelites agreed to, it would never be enough. He never intended to keep the team in Seattle, and he'll leave OKC at the drop of a hat if he doesn't get what he wants. Pure greed.
This will never end until taxpayers end it by telling the billionaire owners to "go ahead, move the team" while telling their politicians that they will vote them out if they give the billionaire one dime to stay and for taxpayers in potential landing sites tell their politicians "not one dime for XYZ team and a new arena".
Yes, yes and yes. Sometimes you just have to stand your ground and hoist an upraised middle finger to erase all doubt about where you stand and what you support!
Problem there is the billionaires and corporations (and their lobbyists) have funded pols’ campaigns and gotten them elected with their influence on “the people.”
Voters in Virginia are pretty adamant about not giving taxpayer money for a new Commanders stadium, but that might have been mostly due to hatred of Dan Snyder's ownership. If you have $6B to buy the team, you can dig up the money to build a new stadium.
Voters in NY were pretty adamant about paying for a new stadium for the Bills, but when the team owners have Hochul and Schumer in their pocket, voter preference be damned.
WELFARE FOR THE FASCIST, TAX-DODGING BILLIONAIRES who seek to undermine this democracy--traitors.
And, while you’re at it, take a good look at the Ricketts family, owner of the Cubs. With the help of Charles Koch, they succeeded in buying a Senate seat for their son, putting Ben Sasse in charge of dismantling education at the U of Florida, and placing a hypocrite pig farmer as Nebraska’s governor, with all the anti LGBQ, anti-Women’s rights rolled up in a blanket of “children’s interests.”
Hahaha! Tell the team to pack their trash and stand by it. The Chicago Bears tried to play hardball and go to Arlington Heights, but the monied residents there were like, "HELL NO!" And now Chicago is once again falling for the okey-doke it appears.
No team rates diversion of city monies to pay for their outright avarice, but the Bears are even LESS deserving than most.
In my opinion, sports teams that try to extort their home cities out of money desperately needed for that city's obligations and activities should be encouraged to leave.
A boot to the rear works wonders towards that end.
Hey, I've got an idea. Don't go! And don't watch! Then, let's see how the city and the owners feel about things in about 2 years. If it even took that long. In its place, go to the local high school games; go to the local college games. Get your sports fix, AND stick it up the derriere's of the "swells".
<Sigh> and most of Americans are clueless that this is happening daily across our land and sports teams. We are purposefully kept in the dark about how much this would affect, or should I say adversely affects the people living in and around those sports cities. Americans need to become informed on just how much the owners of the sports teams are enriched by a city's subsidizing of a new arena or stadium and how adversely it affects other programs and efforts by the city to manage growth and continuing poverty.
What we could hope would be exciting entertainment (sports at a high level of excellence and competition) and an innocent opportunity to discharge tension appears to be being pushed into the corruption that comes from unmitigated greed. I'm reminded of the corrupt and bloody Roman arena events we've seen in movies [Ben Hur, Gladiator (Russell Crowe as Maximus)]. Juvenal in his satires understood Roman corruption summing up that "bread and circuses" would be enough to keep the populace from rebelling. ...Except that we don't have the bread (grain subsidies) and the circuses are not free!
I didn't move to Minneapolis until 2014, but I will die mad about the tax money used to build not only US Bank stadium, but a city park that the park board *owns,* but the stadium has *control* of like 100 days per year
Nothing new here. Billionaires not wanting to spend their own money...How could the ownership group only contribute 50mil?!?! That's literally nothing to them...Leave it to the Republicans on the board to vote in favor of this.
Never understood the draw in some cities to subsidize sports leagues with huge stadiums, as it's true. Only a small handful make a substantial income from this endeavor; while the jobs created for the employees that support stadium services...not so much.
Speaking of the fervor over all things sports; I live in a relatively small, rural town in NE Georgia. Sports here is worshipped, in some instances it appears to me, tantamount to God. ( Ohhhh go bulldogs!) Some neighbors would skewer me for that hint of sarcasm.
In any case, after I moved here, was dining out one night, local sports pub (one of the few local dining choices here at the time.) My server was a young, bright, attractive college student at UGA. Slow night so occasionally she'd plop down next to me & chat a bit. I asked some questions about the local school system, as I heard it was rated one of the best in the state. She went on to say to not believe all the hype. Much of what she said tracked with some things I heard from another restauranteur in town. Either case, she suggested that if you're a student that doesn't fit the " one size fits all" college track, academic program in this one high-school, they dont want their rating going down; so they push you out to go to their "non college bound" high school...basicly for farmers & "agricultural" studies. She said this town spent a million bucks on a sports stadium for the h.s. in the outskirts of town, but we're going to classes held in a dank basement floor of the school, with roaches running around. While other kids are transferred out, that don't fit in the strictest sense, the college bound student mold, if you're a young, male, successful athlete on the football or baseball team, and you're barely scraping by academically, they are going to apply subtle pressure to teachers & make all sorts of allowances for those people to get by enough grade wise, to be able to play sports. For athletes on away games, the sky $$ was the limit. I asked her how did she know. She said she dated through school a young man, who was a player & that sports was his ticket into college. While she participated in female sports, but academically needed to keep up her GPA pretty high, because that was her ticket into college. As she said, I was the daughter of a working, single mom who couldn't afford to put her daughters through college without scholarships. Kinda the age old story about sports & who gets the gravy..deserved or not...imo.
So the sports & entertainment industry appear to be the areas that many of us fixate on & not the areas in which we as a country, really need to shine. But the money is somehow always found for sports & funneled there. While in towns & cities, folks have to fight like crazy to spend more for teachers salaries, books, etc. Many school supplies are either picked up by teachers on their dime, or are the parents responsibilities now. Nevermind salaries & positions for necessary public safety staff like firemen & police, mental health counselors, city hospitals etc.. These services go begging.
In the end. You can tell a lot about a country by where their priorities lie. What does it say about us.
Enjoyed your thoughtful story about your college student waitress.
Up here in suburban New Jersey (half way and one hour between NY City and Philadelphia), I've noticed that the Chinese, the Koreans and the people of India descent are the serious students in middle schools and highschools. Many end up being accepted at Ivy or very good schools. So, the Anglo White Saxon often privileged students of American descent seem to fall into the non-serious crowd. We all have a great deal to think about....
Agreed. We do. I was born in NYC & grew up in CT. I think what you've said is overall an issue around the nation. Children that are in schools from immigrant parents, or have migrated themselves, have an appreciation for hardships, much more than middle income & wealthy Americans who've been here for generations. We, imo, need to self reflect a bit. But appears in some folks, critical thinking skills have been impaired a bit & aren't being stressed enough in some states school system. " Dummied" down folks are easily led.
So sad that the "masses" will vote to short-change their own long-term economic improvement to have a few moments of feeling good cheering for the home team by agreeing to pay for stadiums for the rich. It happens over and over again. When will they smell the toast burning??
Oklahoma is 50th in education and has always been last or near last. Don’t expect them to do maths or to understand the implications of voting against their interests.
When we as a society see the negative issues that can arise from too much emphasis on TRIBALISM. Fans of one teams hate fans of other teams. TRIBALISM is one tribe of muslims or christians or whatever flavor of dogma one prefers, hating the other, similar dogma, for always stupid, mindless reasons.
Hey Judd! So happy to see you covering OKC. A group of concerned citizens from OKC have been organizing around this subject for a couple months here are some other things folks should know:
The Mayor refuses to meet with sitting City Councilors to discuss this topic. Which is ironic, because Mayor Holt also said there has been almost two years of opportunities for "public discussions" about the stadium. But this is strategically disingenuous. What Mayor Holt means is that he talked about the stadium in a speech to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce (at an event sponsored by the Thunder) two years ago, and therefore the stadium was publicly discussed.
Also, we have provided the Mayor with a brief outline of Community Benefits Agreement we would like to go in hand with the stadium, if the stadium is approved by voters. In the CBA are a lot of great things to help benefit the wider community, but it would appear the CBA won't be a part of the stadium conversation, because Holt refuses to host this conversation.
I hope you continue this coverage and target Mayor Holt because he is as opaque as they come, has no real critical press coverage in Oklahoma, and there is only a short window to shine a light on the stadium heist before it goes to a vote. And that is intentional. Holt knows that holding a vote in the Winter of an off-election year will lead to lower voter turnout. He applied the same tactics to the MAPS 4 vote once people started getting to democratically involved, choosing to hold the election in December of 2019, instead of waiting until one of the election days in 2020 when voter turnout would be higher. That led to the lowest voter turnout in MAPS history. But he'll tell you it was the highest "yes" vote. Wonder why that is?
There's much more to be said about the Thunder, their ownership, and the "jobs" they create at the stadium, but none of those things are possible without the assistance of the Mayor.
So rewarding that Public Information's readership is sharing more of what is really taking place in so many places under the surface. In each case, you who have shared, consider writing up a flyer and putting this information out so that when it's time to vote on these issues people will know when and what to do to support our BEST interests.
It was a virtual meeting, yes. Judd is more than welcome to join us this Saturday before the City Council votes on Tuesday. I would say more folks from this community could join, but we keep our group meetings intentionally small because we don't want our organizing strategies to reach the Thunder owners. Oklahoma City is a very small city. Word spreads quick. The owner class of Oklahoma City is well organized and is known to plant folks into opposition groups to gather intel. (It happened when people were fighting for Julius Jones life.) The working class of Oklahoma City is not well organized yet and unfortunately can be bought at an affordable price.
We had a similar experience with a baseball stadium in Philadelphia. They put it as a referendum on an election ballot, and it was overwhelmingly defeated. "They" decided that people did not understand the question, reworded it, and put it on the next ballot. Again it was overwhelmingly defeated. At that point, they decided that people were "voting against their best economic interests" and built the stadium anyway. As is usually the case, the athletes and team owners have benefited financially. The rest of us? Not so much.
As I recall the same thing happened in Seattle with the stadium being built after the voters rejected it.
In America you can’t give poor people, or even ordinary taxpayers, the benefit of tax dollars. Only the wealthy are worthy.
The 6'ers arena could be a similar boondoggle, pushing Chinatown businesses out of that area. The team owners seem ready to foot much of the bill, but likely needs the city to declare eminent domain.
Yes - watching this one closely.
Could the people not sue the city and the decision makers? This is outrageous. You had a vote and they lost and they still did it anyway.
I am a lifelong Phillies fan. I was so pissed when they left Connie Mack for the odious hellhole that was Veterans Stadium that I never saw a home game at that miserable excuse for a venue. I would have voted twice for a new field to get the Phillies out of there.
The only thing I’ve watched at the Vet is a Wham! concert. Standing still on that Astroturf was the most uncomfortable thing. Can’t imagine how people played on it.
Similar story here in Atlanta with the Braves baseball franchise. Moved the entire setup in a middle of the night deal from Turner field (South of downtown) to a northern suburb (now called Truist Park) with no public transit access.
It was a sordid sad story. This country is filled with shameless little mini oligarchs.
Thanks Judd...great story and eye opening.
You should do a story on how the Illitch family (owners of NHL’ Red Wings and MLB’s Tigers) conned the City of Detroit for tax breaks to build the Little Caesars Arena by promising to build housing and offices around the place - and have done zero of that. Instead they have gone back to the City this year for more concessions to do pretty much the same work… but now on land they done own so they can continue to rake in the $$$ on the many parking lots they own.
If ALL cities took the tact to not subsidize arenas etc for these wealthy sports franchise owners,, the owners would be forced to pay/ invest themselves, or not purchase them. In the end, it's all about the money; but cities can't allow them to blackmail them, so they can make more.
Thanks for reporting an equivalent abuse of the same kind of power.
Pulitzer investigative journalist David Cay Johnston has written extensively about exactly this topic. Wikipedia: "He was a Pulitzer finalist in 2003 "for his stories that displayed exquisite command of complicated U.S. tax laws and of how corporations and individuals twist them to their advantage." (He was also a finalist in 2000 "for his lucid coverage of problems resulting from the reorganization of the Internal Revenue Service").
The cities that make these kinds of sports arena deals do so on the backs of taxpayers, and the taxpayers are ALWAYS held up for more.
Tax dollars combine to become the Treasure of the People, and if there was any real justice, would be used for the good and benefit of the people. The wealthy, and corporations demand too much, are given too much, and there is a clear recorded history of how this doesn't work out for The People.
Great piece PopInfo!!
Man, you have a way with words. "Tax dollars combine to become the Treasure of the People, and if there was any real justice, would be used for the good and benefit of the people."
Hell yeah!
Thank you, Adam. I hope that every American starts thinking about our tax dollars this way.
The Treasure of The People.
I always did. Corporate giveaways always piss me off. Here in Chicago Walmart announced on a Tuesday that they would close ALL chicago area stores that coming Sunday!
They came in and put all other pharmacies, mom & pop stores, etc out of busines for the most part and all of the TIF financing they were given didn't matter. They were given mucho incentives and boogied anyway, abandoning their investment to "save money" I guess.
Built a $2M "Wellness Center," made everyone in the (low income) area depend on it, then abruptly pulled the plug, leaving all their "valued customers" to scramble desperately to find alternatives.
We are on the same page. Large corporate interests have the ability and resources to pay their own way, not on the backs of the people. Perhaps if they were required to pay their own way, they wouldn't so blithely pack up and leave after over investing and destroying small town mercantile operators. A good example is the prevalence of a Walgreens or CVS on every damned corner.
And perhaps there would be a little less corporate money lining the pockets of our so-called leaders.
A whole hell of a %$%^%$&*^$$%^* less mister. Each and every one of them has money. And just about every one of them thinks that it's not enough.
Wow. I'm from suburbs and try to stay informed, always wondered how come there's no walmart, now I know. The corporate greed coupled with elected officials' greed have destroyed the well-being of the ordinary, taxpaying Americans.
Nowadays it takes REAL effort to "stay informed" and I, to my chagrin fall short of my ideals ALL the damn time! Hahaha.
Chicago doesn't have any WalMarts? That's weird! I'm 2+ hours, taking I-80 west towards IA. We have a WalMart, independent grocery store across the road (same side), and 2 family owned pharmacies. When WalMart moved across the road into a lot bigger building, they had a gas station in front. Sold gas for .99 cents. Made statement in county newspaper that they weren't trying to put anyone out of business, they only wanted to compete. At .99 cents? Please. All gas businesses are still in town except WalMarts....LOL
A friend had a really cool store downtown. She sold candles, whatever holiday it was decor, but different, not cheap like WalMarts is. Just a huge variety of home decorating items. She said right after WalMart opened that they'd run her out of business, so she moved to a town 20 miles away. Except they have a WalMart, too. Which is closer in proximity than when she was here, and she's not visible where she is. I'm honestly surprised she's still in business. WalMart has done nothing to my lil town. They got tif money also. Time's up, they're paying taxes now.
That's horrible! How about considering writing more about this area? Remember that people from Chicago live all over the country and would be interested....
When Clay Bennett absconded with the Seattle SuperSonics, my first real sports love when I was 7 years old, the NBA has been dead to me. People I know in OKC have lionized Bennett as a great local hero. Turns out he’s the money-grubbing mini-oligarch I always knew he was. To make it worse, there’s no doubt in my mind that OKC will pony up, everything else be damned.
He's doing the same thing to Oklahoma City that he did to Seattle. I knew that no matter what Seattelites agreed to, it would never be enough. He never intended to keep the team in Seattle, and he'll leave OKC at the drop of a hat if he doesn't get what he wants. Pure greed.
This will never end until taxpayers end it by telling the billionaire owners to "go ahead, move the team" while telling their politicians that they will vote them out if they give the billionaire one dime to stay and for taxpayers in potential landing sites tell their politicians "not one dime for XYZ team and a new arena".
Yes, yes and yes. Sometimes you just have to stand your ground and hoist an upraised middle finger to erase all doubt about where you stand and what you support!
Problem there is the billionaires and corporations (and their lobbyists) have funded pols’ campaigns and gotten them elected with their influence on “the people.”
Voters in Virginia are pretty adamant about not giving taxpayer money for a new Commanders stadium, but that might have been mostly due to hatred of Dan Snyder's ownership. If you have $6B to buy the team, you can dig up the money to build a new stadium.
Voters in NY were pretty adamant about paying for a new stadium for the Bills, but when the team owners have Hochul and Schumer in their pocket, voter preference be damned.
WELFARE FOR THE FASCIST, TAX-DODGING BILLIONAIRES who seek to undermine this democracy--traitors.
And, while you’re at it, take a good look at the Ricketts family, owner of the Cubs. With the help of Charles Koch, they succeeded in buying a Senate seat for their son, putting Ben Sasse in charge of dismantling education at the U of Florida, and placing a hypocrite pig farmer as Nebraska’s governor, with all the anti LGBQ, anti-Women’s rights rolled up in a blanket of “children’s interests.”
Hahaha! Tell the team to pack their trash and stand by it. The Chicago Bears tried to play hardball and go to Arlington Heights, but the monied residents there were like, "HELL NO!" And now Chicago is once again falling for the okey-doke it appears.
No team rates diversion of city monies to pay for their outright avarice, but the Bears are even LESS deserving than most.
In my opinion, sports teams that try to extort their home cities out of money desperately needed for that city's obligations and activities should be encouraged to leave.
A boot to the rear works wonders towards that end.
Hey, I've got an idea. Don't go! And don't watch! Then, let's see how the city and the owners feel about things in about 2 years. If it even took that long. In its place, go to the local high school games; go to the local college games. Get your sports fix, AND stick it up the derriere's of the "swells".
Better yet, let's not find the venues to begin with.
<Sigh> and most of Americans are clueless that this is happening daily across our land and sports teams. We are purposefully kept in the dark about how much this would affect, or should I say adversely affects the people living in and around those sports cities. Americans need to become informed on just how much the owners of the sports teams are enriched by a city's subsidizing of a new arena or stadium and how adversely it affects other programs and efforts by the city to manage growth and continuing poverty.
What we could hope would be exciting entertainment (sports at a high level of excellence and competition) and an innocent opportunity to discharge tension appears to be being pushed into the corruption that comes from unmitigated greed. I'm reminded of the corrupt and bloody Roman arena events we've seen in movies [Ben Hur, Gladiator (Russell Crowe as Maximus)]. Juvenal in his satires understood Roman corruption summing up that "bread and circuses" would be enough to keep the populace from rebelling. ...Except that we don't have the bread (grain subsidies) and the circuses are not free!
I didn't move to Minneapolis until 2014, but I will die mad about the tax money used to build not only US Bank stadium, but a city park that the park board *owns,* but the stadium has *control* of like 100 days per year
Nothing new here. Billionaires not wanting to spend their own money...How could the ownership group only contribute 50mil?!?! That's literally nothing to them...Leave it to the Republicans on the board to vote in favor of this.
Never understood the draw in some cities to subsidize sports leagues with huge stadiums, as it's true. Only a small handful make a substantial income from this endeavor; while the jobs created for the employees that support stadium services...not so much.
Speaking of the fervor over all things sports; I live in a relatively small, rural town in NE Georgia. Sports here is worshipped, in some instances it appears to me, tantamount to God. ( Ohhhh go bulldogs!) Some neighbors would skewer me for that hint of sarcasm.
In any case, after I moved here, was dining out one night, local sports pub (one of the few local dining choices here at the time.) My server was a young, bright, attractive college student at UGA. Slow night so occasionally she'd plop down next to me & chat a bit. I asked some questions about the local school system, as I heard it was rated one of the best in the state. She went on to say to not believe all the hype. Much of what she said tracked with some things I heard from another restauranteur in town. Either case, she suggested that if you're a student that doesn't fit the " one size fits all" college track, academic program in this one high-school, they dont want their rating going down; so they push you out to go to their "non college bound" high school...basicly for farmers & "agricultural" studies. She said this town spent a million bucks on a sports stadium for the h.s. in the outskirts of town, but we're going to classes held in a dank basement floor of the school, with roaches running around. While other kids are transferred out, that don't fit in the strictest sense, the college bound student mold, if you're a young, male, successful athlete on the football or baseball team, and you're barely scraping by academically, they are going to apply subtle pressure to teachers & make all sorts of allowances for those people to get by enough grade wise, to be able to play sports. For athletes on away games, the sky $$ was the limit. I asked her how did she know. She said she dated through school a young man, who was a player & that sports was his ticket into college. While she participated in female sports, but academically needed to keep up her GPA pretty high, because that was her ticket into college. As she said, I was the daughter of a working, single mom who couldn't afford to put her daughters through college without scholarships. Kinda the age old story about sports & who gets the gravy..deserved or not...imo.
So the sports & entertainment industry appear to be the areas that many of us fixate on & not the areas in which we as a country, really need to shine. But the money is somehow always found for sports & funneled there. While in towns & cities, folks have to fight like crazy to spend more for teachers salaries, books, etc. Many school supplies are either picked up by teachers on their dime, or are the parents responsibilities now. Nevermind salaries & positions for necessary public safety staff like firemen & police, mental health counselors, city hospitals etc.. These services go begging.
In the end. You can tell a lot about a country by where their priorities lie. What does it say about us.
Enjoyed your thoughtful story about your college student waitress.
Up here in suburban New Jersey (half way and one hour between NY City and Philadelphia), I've noticed that the Chinese, the Koreans and the people of India descent are the serious students in middle schools and highschools. Many end up being accepted at Ivy or very good schools. So, the Anglo White Saxon often privileged students of American descent seem to fall into the non-serious crowd. We all have a great deal to think about....
Agreed. We do. I was born in NYC & grew up in CT. I think what you've said is overall an issue around the nation. Children that are in schools from immigrant parents, or have migrated themselves, have an appreciation for hardships, much more than middle income & wealthy Americans who've been here for generations. We, imo, need to self reflect a bit. But appears in some folks, critical thinking skills have been impaired a bit & aren't being stressed enough in some states school system. " Dummied" down folks are easily led.
So sad that the "masses" will vote to short-change their own long-term economic improvement to have a few moments of feeling good cheering for the home team by agreeing to pay for stadiums for the rich. It happens over and over again. When will they smell the toast burning??
Oklahoma is 50th in education and has always been last or near last. Don’t expect them to do maths or to understand the implications of voting against their interests.
When we as a society see the negative issues that can arise from too much emphasis on TRIBALISM. Fans of one teams hate fans of other teams. TRIBALISM is one tribe of muslims or christians or whatever flavor of dogma one prefers, hating the other, similar dogma, for always stupid, mindless reasons.
And then there's political parties, the ultimate in tribalism. But do you see much written or analyzed about tribalism?
Hey Judd! So happy to see you covering OKC. A group of concerned citizens from OKC have been organizing around this subject for a couple months here are some other things folks should know:
The Mayor refuses to meet with sitting City Councilors to discuss this topic. Which is ironic, because Mayor Holt also said there has been almost two years of opportunities for "public discussions" about the stadium. But this is strategically disingenuous. What Mayor Holt means is that he talked about the stadium in a speech to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce (at an event sponsored by the Thunder) two years ago, and therefore the stadium was publicly discussed.
Also, we have provided the Mayor with a brief outline of Community Benefits Agreement we would like to go in hand with the stadium, if the stadium is approved by voters. In the CBA are a lot of great things to help benefit the wider community, but it would appear the CBA won't be a part of the stadium conversation, because Holt refuses to host this conversation.
I hope you continue this coverage and target Mayor Holt because he is as opaque as they come, has no real critical press coverage in Oklahoma, and there is only a short window to shine a light on the stadium heist before it goes to a vote. And that is intentional. Holt knows that holding a vote in the Winter of an off-election year will lead to lower voter turnout. He applied the same tactics to the MAPS 4 vote once people started getting to democratically involved, choosing to hold the election in December of 2019, instead of waiting until one of the election days in 2020 when voter turnout would be higher. That led to the lowest voter turnout in MAPS history. But he'll tell you it was the highest "yes" vote. Wonder why that is?
There's much more to be said about the Thunder, their ownership, and the "jobs" they create at the stadium, but none of those things are possible without the assistance of the Mayor.
So rewarding that Public Information's readership is sharing more of what is really taking place in so many places under the surface. In each case, you who have shared, consider writing up a flyer and putting this information out so that when it's time to vote on these issues people will know when and what to do to support our BEST interests.
We will be meeting again tonight. If you want an invite, it would be a pleasure.
Is it a Zoom (that Judd and crew could see)?
It was a virtual meeting, yes. Judd is more than welcome to join us this Saturday before the City Council votes on Tuesday. I would say more folks from this community could join, but we keep our group meetings intentionally small because we don't want our organizing strategies to reach the Thunder owners. Oklahoma City is a very small city. Word spreads quick. The owner class of Oklahoma City is well organized and is known to plant folks into opposition groups to gather intel. (It happened when people were fighting for Julius Jones life.) The working class of Oklahoma City is not well organized yet and unfortunately can be bought at an affordable price.