Submitted from the great state of Washington!

I’ve been up here — sleepless in Seattle–visiting family. They are transplants to Seattle who were born and reared in Ogden before being whisked off to work for Boeing. Mark & Kristin, my aunt and uncle, have four daughters (seems to run in our family).

Mark & Kristin are SIGNIFICANTLY older than me–12 whole years. But, they too remember the Stockton to Malone days with fond memories. There were die hard Jazz fans and Weber State fans for that matter (Go Wildcats!!). Slowly, they were converted to Sonic fans. This has caused great contention among the family. None so great as when the Sonics and the Jazz were both in the playoffs! It has been ugly in the past. The phone calls were NOT polite.

But as the Jazz have hit hard times, so have the Sonics and hopes for both teams to get back to prior glory days are diminishing. I was ‘discussing’ some of the frustrations of this season (Kirilenko) with my aunt Kristin and she said they are having a similar battle here in the great ol’ state of Washington.

In previous years when we would visit, we would get tickets for all of us, kids and all, to go to a Sonic’s game. However, the past few years, Sonic ticket prices have gone through the roof. Now under new ownership, there is talk of moving the Sonics to Oklahoma. OKLAHOMA??!!!! The reasons being ‘discussed’ are that the fans are not doing enough for the team. They want a bigger arena, more support, WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH. They have priced the tickets right out of the family market. Now, my aunt and uncle, the once adamant fans of the Sonics, have said they prefer to watch college basketball. Where it is pure, raw and unmarred from financial glory. She even went so far as to say she’s more interested in Jazz basketball because of Coach Sloan and his “dynasty”.

So, things are tough all over. The consolation that I get from it all is THE JAZZ ARE IN BETTER SHAPE THAN SEATTLE. Guess we should appreciate what we’ve got.

Signing off from Seattle -

Megan