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Hawks owner Bruce Levenson to sell team... Appropriate or PC run amok?

Hawks owner Bruce Levenson to sell team... Appropriate or PC run amok?

  • Yes, appropriate.

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • No, not appropriate, but it's the climate we live in.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • This is why we can't solve anything, we can't even talk about anything involving race.

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • No, wholly over-reacting. We need to quit this crap.

    Votes: 3 23.1%

  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    13
radcen

radcen

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All I know is Bruce Levenson is a grade A ASSHOLE! When the Thrashers were here, these are the bastards that sold our team away, we had season tickets and went to a season ticket holder meeting that included Bruce Levenson. One of the fans complained about how ticket prices weren't as low as they were advertised, and in front of about 300 season ticket holders and their children he proceeded to call this fan an asshole and to just deal with it.

Yeah, **** this guy.
 
Do we have a release of the email's content? I saw an article about it, but just the term "racially-charged."

He did this quietly and seemingly​ voluntarily. This tells me it is the new norm, and will become less and less controversial as time goes on.
 
Fiddytree said:
Do we have a release of the email's content? I saw an article about it, but just the term "racially-charged."

He did this quietly and seemingly​ voluntarily. This tells me it is the new norm, and will become less and less controversial as time goes on.
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"Seemingly" is your key word, IMO. Makes me wonder if this is why the actual e-mail hasn't been released. :shrug:
 
radcen said:
"Seemingly" is your key word, IMO. Makes me wonder if this is why the actual e-mail hasn't been released. :shrug:
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The league probably doesn't want another Sterling episode distraction. They made an example of Sterling and set a precedent.
 
Fiddytree said:
The league probably doesn't want another Sterling episode distraction. They made an example of Sterling and set a precedent.
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But the way the article was worded it also made me wonder about the depth of the (allegedly, since we can't actually see them) racist comments. Is it possible that the gist of the conversation was simply to attract more people with more money to spend (which would probably be white, granted)? He might have used questionable terms or phrases, but the underlying purpose was legit.

Even with the recent Sterling debacle, you have to put it out there. Covering it up pretty much never works. It only causes people to question why it's being withheld.

I don't say that lightly, because in a general sense I firmly reject the "If you have nothing to hide..." line of thought, but in this case they came to us and announced what was being done and why it was being done.
 
Your Star said:
All I know is Bruce Levenson is a grade A ASSHOLE! When the Thrashers were here, these are the bastards that sold our team away, we had season tickets and went to a season ticket holder meeting that included Bruce Levenson. One of the fans complained about how ticket prices weren't as low as they were advertised, and in front of about 300 season ticket holders and their children he proceeded to call this fan an asshole and to just deal with it.

Yeah, **** this guy.
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Don't even get me started on Atlanta Spirit and the Thrashers.

Anyway. The third poll option made me literally LOL. Racial minorities want to talk about race more, not less.
 
Phys251 said:
Don't even get me started on Atlanta Spirit and the Thrashers.

Anyway. The third poll option made me literally LOL. Racial minorities want to talk about race more, not less.
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I could complain about that **** for HOURS! **** all of those guys. I hope they all become disgraced.
 
He could hurt the bottom line, so the NFL is getting rid of him. It's not really more complicated than that.

People who whine about "PC" are really just whining that the free market sometimes does things they don't like.
 
This is nothing like the Sterling thing, I mean, that was just ugh. But, it was still in bad taste.

Still, he doesn't cross me as some racist piece of **** and rather a guy too caught up in appeasing white, suburban fans with a PoV that just goes about stereotyping without a care in the world. The whole exchange is really just business minded, albeit in a very crude way. That's just going off the content of the email that I've seen so far though.

This is weird. However, I think it's best that he sold his share in the team. I'm impressed that he skipped over the dropping and took the L.

And.....life goes on.
 
Here's some excerpts from the email:

In the email sent in August 2012, Levenson shared his observations of the fan experience at Hawks games. He said he concluded "southern whites'' were uncomfortable at games.

"My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base,'' Levenson said in the email released Sunday by the Hawks.

"Please don't get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arena back then. I never felt uncomfortable, but I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority.''

Levenson said Hawks crowds are 70 percent black, the team's cheerleaders are black and hip-hop music was played.

"Then I start looking around at other arenas,'' Levenson said. "It is completely different.''

Levenson said he often heard fans say the area around Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta is dangerous.

"This was just racist garbage,'' Levenson said. "When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.''

Though he said he disagreed with the conclusion, he said he told team executives to add white cheerleaders and music "familiar to a 40-year-old white guy.''

Added Levenson in the email: "I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.''
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Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson selling team - ESPN

As far as selling the team, I think he seen how the court of public opinion has treated Donald Sterling and is pre-emptively bowing out (after issuing a public mea culpa) rather than put himself and his family through a possible ****storm.
 
Levenson said he reported the email to the NBA himself. So either a. he's lying, or b. this guy has a serious conscience.
 
Kobie said:
Here's some excerpts from the email:

Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson selling team - ESPN

As far as selling the team, I think he seen how the court of public opinion has treated Donald Sterling and is pre-emptively bowing out (after issuing a public mea culpa) rather than put himself and his family through a possible ****storm.
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I really don't see what's wrong with what he said... race is a perfectly reasonable demographic to use in business decisions. I've heard worse in some meeting rooms. That he has to sell the team because of perfectly normal business language is ridiculous. A fine? Yes. Selling his team? No.
 
Hatuey said:
I really don't see what's wrong with what he said... race is a perfectly reasonable demographic to use in business decisions. I've heard worse in some meeting rooms. That he has to sell the team because of perfectly normal business language is ridiculous. A fine? Yes. Selling his team? No.
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Nobody's making him sell; he's doing it voluntarily.
 
Kobie said:
Nobody's making him sell; he's doing it voluntarily.
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I didn't say anyone was making him. I said he has to sell. The precedent set by D. Sterling is pretty evident here. This was an unexpected decision made after the overblown **** storm that forced Sterling to sell his team. You think this owner didn't get worried that once this e-mail from 2 years ago got in the wrong hands, it would make him sell his team too? That he'd become persona non-grata at the NBA if he didn't sell? At least this way he has a chance to buy into another team before the media makes a big fuss.
 
He was talking about trying to reach different demographic groups as part of a marking strategy. IMHO he did nothing wrong.
 
Based on the content of the e-mail (which is ultimately complaining about not generating enough revenue) and the fact that he himself has made all of the decisions here (turning in the e-mail, selling his share of the team) it sounds like:

1. He is the person who is overreacting to his own e-mail
2. He jumped at a reason to sell the team that would be something other than "It doesn't make money for me"



I also find it interesting that he stereotyped white people more than black people in his e-mails: White people are too scared of black people to go to games, white people don't like hip hop, white people don't like looking at black cheerleaders, etc.

His only "stereotype" of black people was that they were generally poorer than white people.
 
I think the biggest take away is that there are a lot of assholes running sports teams
 
Kobie said:
Nobody's making him sell; he's doing it voluntarily.
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Is he? I wonder if he's doing this truly voluntarily, or if a back-room ultimatum was presented to either save face and sell gracefully, or get kicked out ala Sterling?
 
The full text of the email can be found here:

Bruce Levenson: Atlanta Hawks owner to sell team after racist e-mail.

Its just another case of rich white guy talking about black people. You just dont put that stuff in writing or on tape.... ever. Its a standard overreaction in our society, mostly because its a lot easier to react to stuff like this then the real issues of inequality, incarceration and education...
 
This isn't PC running smock in Atlanta, it's racism running smock. White racism.

So Mr. Honky-ass team owner has low attendance and a lot of the attendance he does have is Black?

Serve his racist lily white butt right if the Blacks stick a boycott down one end of his GI tract, and up the other end. And the NBA Commish needs to give him the Sterling treatment pronto.
 
radcen said:
Is he? I wonder if he's doing this truly voluntarily, or if a back-room ultimatum was presented to either save face and sell gracefully, or get kicked out ala Sterling?
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Well, judging by what we know, he's doing it voluntarily. I'm not going to judge based on speculation.
 
Probably the biggest problem in the email is that he more or less admitted to breaking the law. Saying he wanted more white cheerleaders makes him guilty of racial discrimination in hiring. While obviously not hateful like sterling, that kind of crap is arguably actually a much worse problem. Not getting a job because your boss thinks your skin color will scare the white customers is unfortunately common.
 
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