Hawks owner will sell team after racist e-mail surfaces

Brian Windhorst has the details:

Sounds like a great organization.

 

Aren't the Hawks still owned by multiple partners? Levenson is a majority owner, I believe, but it's not as simple as Sterling.

 

The email is a blunt interpretation of why the Hawks are having trouble selling tickets, merchandise etc. If Sterling's rant was a 9, this email is a 3.

There isn't an "Oh my God" line in the email. There are several, "Well, that could have been said differently." lines.

 

With the ease of MARTA you would think that The Hawks would
be able to draw from the suburban cities north of Atlanta.

 

The oldest and most politically incorrect joke about MARTA is what does it stand for?

 

The last step was Levenson pushing for a statue of Larry Bird hitting a jumper over 'Nique outside the Hawks arena to commemorate the mano-a-mano duel.

 

He has legitimate business concerns. He's selling a high-end discretionary spending product, and doesn't target the most affluent segment of the local population with the way that product is delivered. Still, tearing down the things that are successful for the fans that do attend games seems short-sighted even without the racial component.

Now, if he really wants to attract more season ticket holders, what's happening between the lines needs to be addressed. The fan experience component will never really matter until the team drags itself out of mediocrity.

FWIW, the Braves are moving to the suburbs for many of the same reasons he laid out in that email. They just had the good sense not to use that kind of language, at least that we know of.

Boom - recognizing that you might have posted sarcastically, I'll note that MARTA doesn't run to cities north of Atlanta. It pretty much stops at the county lines.

 

I've taken The MARTA red line from airport to both Buckhead and Sandy Springs
and they both seem fairly affluent. Is that not the case?

 

This is why John Rocker doesn't go to Hawks games.

 

Indeed it is. Buckhead and Sandy Springs are in Fulton County. I was thinking cities in Cobb and Gwinnett when I read your post.

 

If they had brought any consultant in to find out why they were having issues selling tickets and merchandise, they would have gotten a similar report, they just (likely) would have been more careful about what words were used.

 

Sounds more like he's directly asserting that his potential white fanbase is racist; not that he himself is.