Now that Force 10 has extracted the Storm from the clutches of that nice Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Stern has said the Supersonic's move out of Seattle is an "inevitability" it'll be interesting to watch where the men's team lands.

You'll recall that lawyers for the Sonics have said that their move would have "little economic impact" on Seattle. Which, of course, makes one wonder what would make the team attractive to, say...Oklahoma City?

The Sports Economist blog has been unpicking the projected economic impact. A recent entry links to bigleaguecity.com which reports the results of consultants who are using the temporary relocation of the Charlotte Hornets to Ok. C as a point of reference/projection.

Both the original poster, Dennis Coates (U of MD Baltimore County -- didn't they have a nice run through the America East conference last year?) and a couple of "commenters" seem to have questions about the... accuracy? of the numbers. "I wonder how the consultants explain the job creation figures," asks Coates.

Note that in 2006-07 there were 37 games and direct and indirect jobs created of 289, but in 2005-06 there were 38 games but 229 direct and indirect jobs created. In other words, according to this report, playing one fewer game in OKC in 2006-07 than in 2005-06 brought the city 60 jobs.

It is also interesting that per game attendance fell by 3650 from 2005-06 to 2006-07. Seems like the novelty of having a team wore off pretty quickly.

This is relevant because, writes John Estus of the Oklahoman,

The question Oklahoma City voters are now asked is whether $121 million of their sales tax money that would mostly pay to upgrade the Ford Center is worth trying to change everything yet again. Civic leaders tout the March 4 sales tax election as a referendum on whether the city wants an NBA team — likely the Oklahoma-owned Seattle SuperSonics club that has applied to relocate here.

I have no dog in the hunt, but I gotta say, I sure do wish that nice Mr. Bennett the BEST of luck in finding a new home for his new team. Especially in light of those gray economic clouds that seem to be looming on the horizon.

I mean, it would totally suck to be caught out in the rain with no place for your basketball team to play, wouldn't it?