@kg01 - Between needing to focus on GT hoops & the Knicks being awful, I haven't been paying attention. I love my Knicks, but I can take this year off to stay on top of GT hoops.
I hear you. I'm kinda the opposite as a Hawks fan. I've definitely been more hands-off w.r.t. GT bball this year.
Oh and on the possible move to Seattle, Simmons is just trolling as usual. The Seattle folks were always going to make a bid (which is all he's "reporting" in that story).
IIUC, it'd cost about $200 million in addition to the cost of the franchise to move the Hawks when you take into consideration what it'd cost to break the Phillips arena lease and pay back the bonds owed to the city. The part I'm not 100% sure on is the bond portion. I know they'd have to be paid but I'm not positive on the $ amount.
On top of that, Atlanta is a top 8 TV market (Seattle is top 15) and the league has a strong relationship with TNT. Both of which should anchor the franchise to this city. I know folks always point to attendance as a reason franchises move but that's really quite down the line in order of importance. Support from the Atlanta City Council has always been strong for the Hawks (the Thrashers move was an Atlanta Spirit thing). This was not the case in Seattle and other places which moved due to lack of support for new stadiums. There's allegedly already support for a new Hawks stadium when needed.
There's obviously a lot of nuts/bolts to this which I glossed over so I apologize for anything I missed.
