What's Bruce Levenson's real motivation for selling the Hawks?

[Machiavelli]

Chris Mannix
Sports Illustrated
September 8, 2014

... "I think what happened was he saw how much teams were going for and wanted to make some money,” a rival team executive said. “What he said was wrong but to me it seems like an excuse to sell." ...

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I posted the money quote, but feel free to read the rest.

However, the writer says the expected politically correct things about Levenson's comments being reprehensible, ignorant, and racially insensitive, when in fact Levenson was just expressing concerns from a business standpoint.

Here is the full text of Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson's email.

[truth_seeker]

I read the full memo yesterday. In it he laid out the case for his team having limited potential, so long as the emphasis was on catering to blacks.

And he made the case that blacks drive whites away. He was right.

He probably saw Sterling get $2 billion, and he concluded now was a good time to get out, before it sinks in that many of these organizations will be under pressure to clean up their black thug images, if that can be done.

[MACVSOG68]

I read the full memo yesterday. In it he laid out the case for his team having limited potential, so long as the emphasis was on catering to blacks.

And he made the case that blacks drive whites away. He was right.

He probably saw Sterling get $2 billion, and he concluded now was a good time to get out, before it sinks in that many of these organizations will be under pressure to clean up their black thug images, if that can be done.

Therein lies the problem.  Why is telling the truth racist?  It wasn't how he felt personally about blacks, but what the lack of white fans was doing.  It's funny how that same email would have been fine if it were talking about too few blacks in the stands.  But then diversity is apparently a one-way street with "progressives".

[Lando Lincoln]

I read the whole thing... you're kidding, right?  At most, some of his comments were inelegantly posited.  At most.   They were all from a business perspective on his fan base.  Good grief.

[GourmetDan]

I read the whole thing... you're kidding, right?  At most, some of his comments were inelegantly posited.  At most.   They were all from a business perspective on his fan base.  Good grief.

It doesn't matter and the thought process is as simple as the minds involved.

Whites are racist because they are white.  Blacks cannot be racist because they are black.

That is all you need to know...

[Machiavelli]

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Bruce Levenson Isn’t a Racist; He’s a Businessman

[Relic]

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Bruce Levenson Isn’t a Racist; He’s a Businessman

I disagree with Mr. Jabbar much more often than I agree with him. But I respect him, he's a bright individual.

[jmyrlefuller]

He probably saw Sterling get $2 billion, and he concluded now was a good time to get out

That, and with the Buffalo Bills—a team with the worst long-term malaise in the NFL, locked into a stadium lease in a dying city and outdated stadium for at least the next seven years, and whose ownership refused to sell to anyone who even broached the idea of selling to anyone who could move the team—selling for a record $1.4 billion, the time to sell pro sports teams has never been better.

[Relic]

That, and with the Buffalo Bills—a team with the worst long-term malaise in the NFL, locked into a stadium lease in a dying city and outdated stadium for at least the next seven years, and whose ownership refused to sell to anyone who even broached the idea of selling to anyone who could move the team—selling for a record $1.4 billion, the time to sell pro sports teams has never been better.

I throw out the challenge. The Cleveland Browns are the standard for futility.

[Lando Lincoln]

I throw out the challenge. The Cleveland Browns are the standard for futility.

Cleveland fans - and there are a lot of 'em - deserve a medal for heartbreak alone.  The Drive.  The Fumble.  90's Indians being "one out away"...  Cavs.  My goodness.  Even Willie Mays' 1954 "The Catch". 

[jmyrlefuller]

I throw out the challenge. The Cleveland Browns are the standard for futility.

The Buffalo Bills have not made the playoffs since 1999. They have not had a season at or above 8-8 since 2004.

Since the league expanded to 32 teams in 2002, 31 of them have made the playoffs at least once. The lone exception? The Bills.

There are, to be sure, a few teams that come close. The Browns and Oakland Raiders certainly rank right up there. But in terms of long-term futility in the modern era, the Bills are at the top. At least the Browns have Johnny Football to look forward to... eventually. The Bills pinned their hopes on a quarterback from one of the weakest draft classes in modern memory.

And yet, with all that baggage, the Bills had at least two bids over a billion dollars for the team, one from Toronto (Jon Bon Jovi and a couple Canadian billionaires who were not so secretly trying to relocate the team to Toronto) and another from the locally born and raised wife of a multibillionaire who made his fortune in Pennsylvania gas fracking and cashed out a couple years back. Kim Pegula won. Had the NFL and Ralph Wilson's estate not been so restrictive about keeping the team in Buffalo, LA interests would have bid the price up even higher and might very well have won.

[DCPatriot]

His motivation is $2 BILLION in cash.     

He can make more investing that than staying involved in a thug sport comprised of hijackers dressed in shorts.

As he explained, the Caucasian is not proportionately represented...either on the court or in the seats.

To attend a game with a date will cost a person upwards of $200.  And that's not sitting courtside.

Tickets, parking, drinks, food, merchandise.....that's crazy, when television with it's advanced technology provides you a better view and production without leaving the house.