The Seattle Times reported over the weekend that the Milwaukee Bucks are one of the potential NBA teams that might become available for purchase and move to Seattle as part of the new Chris Hansen arena deal.
Quoted in the piece was Paul Swangard, managing director of the University of Oregon’s Sports Marketing Center, who said that Milwaukee, “stands as one of those markets that without a sizable increase in local support and with an aging facility and an aging owner that it has the characteristics one would look for in saying that's a team ripe for ownership change and quite possibly location change.”
And wouldn’t stealing the loose-ball Bucks away from Beer City to replace the Sonics be sweet, if somewhat delayed revenge? Old-timers and even youthful grudge-nursers have never forgotten that Milwaukee’s Major League Baseball team, the Brewers, were born and lived just one painful season back in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots.
Whatever happens, it’s nice to have an intercity revenge fantasy like this every once in a while, since a Brewers-Mariners World Series match-up isn’t likely anytime soon.
