Doug Loudenback
10-27-2008, 08:12 AM
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/60377
Very comprehensive, long article exceeds amount which can be posted in one post; remainder is in Parts 2 & 3 (title should be Street & Smith's, but that can't be changed now) ...
Starting over
Clay Bennett has put two years of losses and lawsuits behind him. Now, one of the most controversial — and least understood — NBA executives speaks about a new lease on life.
By JOHN LOMBARDO
Staff writer
Published October 27, 2008
Inside a posh Oklahoma City dining club, where local power brokers gather to cut deals and filet mignon, hang photographs of the city’s business elite. Look closely and you’ll find a picture of Clay Bennett, the NBA’s newest, and perhaps most retrospective owner, wearing a pair of thick-framed glasses dating back more than a few years.
“And I actually thought it was a great picture of me,” Bennett says with a self-effacing smile.
It’s no wonder Bennett sees himself differently these days given all the turmoil, criticism, lawsuits and cash calls he has encountered since buying the former Seattle SuperSonics for $350 million in 2006 and moving the team to his native Oklahoma City, where the newly christened Thunder is set to open its inaugural NBA season.
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/images/articles/SBJ200810270101-05.jpg
Since buying into the NBA, Bennett, 48, has experienced an onslaught of two things he had steadfastly managed to avoid during his business career: steep financial losses and, equally bad for the low-profile Bennett, public criticism.
This is a private man who is used to doing business from the comfort of his 31st floor, downtown Oklahoma City office, where codes must be punched into the security system to gain entrance. Lunch preferably is served behind closed doors in a back room of the members-only eatery where Bennett can pick at his Cobb salad free from distractions or notice.
But it’s hard to hide when you own a professional sports team. And when you buy a team in a city rich with more than 40 years of NBA history and move it to your hometown small market, you’d better get used to the spotlight, whether it’s public pillory in Seattle, or public praise in Oklahoma City.
“He walked into a buzz saw and I don’t think he knew what hit him,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern. “Clay has learned that as owner of a team, he will be front and center, and I’m not sure he understood it.”
Bennett admits he didn’t fully understand what he was getting into when he bought the Sonics, but holds firm to his belief that he acted honorably in what ultimately was a doomed attempt to keep the team in Seattle.
“I remember being in a meeting with David Stern when we were putting the deal together and he stopped the meeting and told me that I wasn’t just going to waltz into Seattle,” Bennett said. “Of course I didn’t take it to heart. I feel like the past two years have been 10 years.”
A family affair
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/images/articles/SBJ200810270101-01.jpg
Bennett uses his extensive connections in
Oklahoma City to make deals happen.
“I didn’t graduate from college,” Bennett discloses between spoonfuls of soup during a recent lunch in Oklahoma City. “And that is something that, in the past, I would have never talked about.”
It’s hardly the stuff of true confessions, but for Bennett, it’s a signal that he is growing more comfortable with the public nature of being an NBA owner.
Since paying a $30 million relocation fee to the league and a $45 million settlement to the city of Seattle, Bennett has spent the last four months trying to put the last two spectacularly contentious and expensive years behind him as he builds his Oklahoma City franchise. “It’s been an extraordinarily difficult, transformative experience,” Bennett said.
Bennett physically is a big man — he played tackle on his high school football team — but he speaks in quiet, measured sentences. Once comfortable in the company around him, he displays a wry sense of humor and is direct.
“I have learned to appreciate those who are close to me, and that has become a very small circle,” he said.
Closest of all within Bennett’s tight circle is his wife, Louise, and their son and two daughters. Bennett began dating Louise in high school. She is the daughter of Edward Gaylord, who presided over the vast Gaylord family holdings, which includes The Oklahoman newspaper. Edward Gaylord reportedly was worth more than $2 billion when he died in 2003, so Bennett for years has heard all the comments and whispers that his business success comes hand-delivered, given that he married into such a wealthy and powerful family.
“Louise and I connected so early that it never really mattered,” Bennett said. “It has been brought up so much that I’m not bothered a bit by it all.”
A key Bennett business philosophy is simple: Don’t embarrass the Gaylord dynasty, which dates to before Oklahoma was voted into statehood.
“In Clay’s case, [marrying into the Gaylord family] was motivating him to be successful,” said Tim O’Toole, president and general manager of Oklahoma State Fair Inc., who has worked for and known Bennett for 25 years. “Clay deeply admired Mr. Gaylord and took that side of his relationship very seriously. That family has done a tremendous amount for the city and state, and Clay wants to uphold that tradition.”
It’s not as if Bennett came from the wrong side of the tracks. His family runs the successful Public Supply Co. in Oklahoma City, which sells construction materials. After marrying Louise and dropping out of the University of Oklahoma, Bennett tried to work for his father, Ike, but differences led him to leave the family business and form his Dorchester Capital investment firm.
“I’m very entrepreneurial and my dad wanted me to fit in,” Bennett said. “I wanted to get along at family dinners, so I left the company.”
Establishing his own track record in the shadow of his powerful father-in-law proved to be a strong incentive for Bennett. His first business deal was to buy a condo development for less than $1 million. “And that put me in a cold panic,” he said.
Other deals followed and soon Bennett was making his own mark. What little public information is known about Dorchester is that it typically invests in private companies that have annual revenue between $5 million and $500 million and have had three years of profitability. The firm generally invests between $2 million and $25 million and stays away from startups.
Dorchester’s lobby reflects two of Bennett’s passions: golf and Oklahoma football. A glass case displays various OU memorabilia, and on a shelf rests a set of antique golf clubs and antiquarian golf books of collector quality. Bennett laments that since owning the Thunder he hasn’t been able to golf much with his buddies and whittle down what his friends say is a 16 handicap.
Oklahoma City visitors guide
Population: 1.19 million (ranked No. 44 among U.S. markets, No. 27 among NBA markets)
Population change: Up 8.8% since 2000
Unemployment, August: 3.8% (U.S. rate: 6.1%)
Demographics
White Non-Hispanic 64.00%
Black 15.40%
Hispanic 10.10%
American Indian 5.70%
Other race 4.90%
Sports venues
AT&T Bricktown Park (opened in 1998)
Capacity: 13,066
Tenant: Class AAA Redhawks
Ford Center (2002)
Capacity: 19,711
Tenants: NBA Oklahoma City Thunder, CHL Oklahoma City Blazers, AF2 Oklahoma City Yard Dawgs
Cox Convention Center (1972)
Capacity: 13,846
Notes: The Blazers have averaged nearly 9,000 fans per game over the past five seasons and have led the CHL in attendance for 16 consecutive seasons. The Redhawks have averaged more than 7,000 during the same period and consistently rank in the top 20 among minor league baseball clubs in attendance.
Sports media
FSN Oklahoma launches with the Thunders opening game on Wednesday. The regional sports network also has local rights to select Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys football and basketball games.
KSBI-IND will be the over-the-air broadcast partner for the Thunder, televising all seven preseason games and 17 regular-season games.
WWLS-AM/WWLS-FM, The Sports Animal, has Thunder radio broadcast rights.
Major company headquarters
Devon Energy; Chesapeake Energy; OGE Energy; Loves Country Stores; Hobby Lobby; Sonic
Sources: SportsBusiness Journal research; U.S. Census; Fortune magazine
His interest in sports ownership dates to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the Gaylord family holdings included stakes in the Texas Rangers and San Antonio Spurs. He attended NBA owners meetings, but at the same time was expanding his own investment business within what is a very cooperative relationship between Oklahoma City’s private and public sectors. Bennett also was very involved — behind the scenes, of course — in getting the New Orleans Hornets to temporarily relocate to Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina.
“I first did business with him when he was chairman of the State Fair Board of Oklahoma and we put together a tax package for a $60 million facility upgrade, and then fast-forward to him helping put together a $38 million revenue benchmark for the Hornets, where he was hugely important in getting the deal done,” said Tom Anderson, special projects manager for Oklahoma City. “Clay is very forthright. He tells you what he thinks and he expects the same, and you take him at his word. The city and private sector work closely in Oklahoma City, and I think he may have taken for granted that what works here doesn’t translate elsewhere.”
continued in part 2 ...
Very comprehensive, long article exceeds amount which can be posted in one post; remainder is in Parts 2 & 3 (title should be Street & Smith's, but that can't be changed now) ...
Starting over
Clay Bennett has put two years of losses and lawsuits behind him. Now, one of the most controversial — and least understood — NBA executives speaks about a new lease on life.
By JOHN LOMBARDO
Staff writer
Published October 27, 2008
Inside a posh Oklahoma City dining club, where local power brokers gather to cut deals and filet mignon, hang photographs of the city’s business elite. Look closely and you’ll find a picture of Clay Bennett, the NBA’s newest, and perhaps most retrospective owner, wearing a pair of thick-framed glasses dating back more than a few years.
“And I actually thought it was a great picture of me,” Bennett says with a self-effacing smile.
It’s no wonder Bennett sees himself differently these days given all the turmoil, criticism, lawsuits and cash calls he has encountered since buying the former Seattle SuperSonics for $350 million in 2006 and moving the team to his native Oklahoma City, where the newly christened Thunder is set to open its inaugural NBA season.
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/images/articles/SBJ200810270101-05.jpg
Since buying into the NBA, Bennett, 48, has experienced an onslaught of two things he had steadfastly managed to avoid during his business career: steep financial losses and, equally bad for the low-profile Bennett, public criticism.
This is a private man who is used to doing business from the comfort of his 31st floor, downtown Oklahoma City office, where codes must be punched into the security system to gain entrance. Lunch preferably is served behind closed doors in a back room of the members-only eatery where Bennett can pick at his Cobb salad free from distractions or notice.
But it’s hard to hide when you own a professional sports team. And when you buy a team in a city rich with more than 40 years of NBA history and move it to your hometown small market, you’d better get used to the spotlight, whether it’s public pillory in Seattle, or public praise in Oklahoma City.
“He walked into a buzz saw and I don’t think he knew what hit him,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern. “Clay has learned that as owner of a team, he will be front and center, and I’m not sure he understood it.”
Bennett admits he didn’t fully understand what he was getting into when he bought the Sonics, but holds firm to his belief that he acted honorably in what ultimately was a doomed attempt to keep the team in Seattle.
“I remember being in a meeting with David Stern when we were putting the deal together and he stopped the meeting and told me that I wasn’t just going to waltz into Seattle,” Bennett said. “Of course I didn’t take it to heart. I feel like the past two years have been 10 years.”
A family affair
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/images/articles/SBJ200810270101-01.jpg
Bennett uses his extensive connections in
Oklahoma City to make deals happen.
“I didn’t graduate from college,” Bennett discloses between spoonfuls of soup during a recent lunch in Oklahoma City. “And that is something that, in the past, I would have never talked about.”
It’s hardly the stuff of true confessions, but for Bennett, it’s a signal that he is growing more comfortable with the public nature of being an NBA owner.
Since paying a $30 million relocation fee to the league and a $45 million settlement to the city of Seattle, Bennett has spent the last four months trying to put the last two spectacularly contentious and expensive years behind him as he builds his Oklahoma City franchise. “It’s been an extraordinarily difficult, transformative experience,” Bennett said.
Bennett physically is a big man — he played tackle on his high school football team — but he speaks in quiet, measured sentences. Once comfortable in the company around him, he displays a wry sense of humor and is direct.
“I have learned to appreciate those who are close to me, and that has become a very small circle,” he said.
Closest of all within Bennett’s tight circle is his wife, Louise, and their son and two daughters. Bennett began dating Louise in high school. She is the daughter of Edward Gaylord, who presided over the vast Gaylord family holdings, which includes The Oklahoman newspaper. Edward Gaylord reportedly was worth more than $2 billion when he died in 2003, so Bennett for years has heard all the comments and whispers that his business success comes hand-delivered, given that he married into such a wealthy and powerful family.
“Louise and I connected so early that it never really mattered,” Bennett said. “It has been brought up so much that I’m not bothered a bit by it all.”
A key Bennett business philosophy is simple: Don’t embarrass the Gaylord dynasty, which dates to before Oklahoma was voted into statehood.
“In Clay’s case, [marrying into the Gaylord family] was motivating him to be successful,” said Tim O’Toole, president and general manager of Oklahoma State Fair Inc., who has worked for and known Bennett for 25 years. “Clay deeply admired Mr. Gaylord and took that side of his relationship very seriously. That family has done a tremendous amount for the city and state, and Clay wants to uphold that tradition.”
It’s not as if Bennett came from the wrong side of the tracks. His family runs the successful Public Supply Co. in Oklahoma City, which sells construction materials. After marrying Louise and dropping out of the University of Oklahoma, Bennett tried to work for his father, Ike, but differences led him to leave the family business and form his Dorchester Capital investment firm.
“I’m very entrepreneurial and my dad wanted me to fit in,” Bennett said. “I wanted to get along at family dinners, so I left the company.”
Establishing his own track record in the shadow of his powerful father-in-law proved to be a strong incentive for Bennett. His first business deal was to buy a condo development for less than $1 million. “And that put me in a cold panic,” he said.
Other deals followed and soon Bennett was making his own mark. What little public information is known about Dorchester is that it typically invests in private companies that have annual revenue between $5 million and $500 million and have had three years of profitability. The firm generally invests between $2 million and $25 million and stays away from startups.
Dorchester’s lobby reflects two of Bennett’s passions: golf and Oklahoma football. A glass case displays various OU memorabilia, and on a shelf rests a set of antique golf clubs and antiquarian golf books of collector quality. Bennett laments that since owning the Thunder he hasn’t been able to golf much with his buddies and whittle down what his friends say is a 16 handicap.
Oklahoma City visitors guide
Population: 1.19 million (ranked No. 44 among U.S. markets, No. 27 among NBA markets)
Population change: Up 8.8% since 2000
Unemployment, August: 3.8% (U.S. rate: 6.1%)
Demographics
White Non-Hispanic 64.00%
Black 15.40%
Hispanic 10.10%
American Indian 5.70%
Other race 4.90%
Sports venues
AT&T Bricktown Park (opened in 1998)
Capacity: 13,066
Tenant: Class AAA Redhawks
Ford Center (2002)
Capacity: 19,711
Tenants: NBA Oklahoma City Thunder, CHL Oklahoma City Blazers, AF2 Oklahoma City Yard Dawgs
Cox Convention Center (1972)
Capacity: 13,846
Notes: The Blazers have averaged nearly 9,000 fans per game over the past five seasons and have led the CHL in attendance for 16 consecutive seasons. The Redhawks have averaged more than 7,000 during the same period and consistently rank in the top 20 among minor league baseball clubs in attendance.
Sports media
FSN Oklahoma launches with the Thunders opening game on Wednesday. The regional sports network also has local rights to select Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys football and basketball games.
KSBI-IND will be the over-the-air broadcast partner for the Thunder, televising all seven preseason games and 17 regular-season games.
WWLS-AM/WWLS-FM, The Sports Animal, has Thunder radio broadcast rights.
Major company headquarters
Devon Energy; Chesapeake Energy; OGE Energy; Loves Country Stores; Hobby Lobby; Sonic
Sources: SportsBusiness Journal research; U.S. Census; Fortune magazine
His interest in sports ownership dates to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the Gaylord family holdings included stakes in the Texas Rangers and San Antonio Spurs. He attended NBA owners meetings, but at the same time was expanding his own investment business within what is a very cooperative relationship between Oklahoma City’s private and public sectors. Bennett also was very involved — behind the scenes, of course — in getting the New Orleans Hornets to temporarily relocate to Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina.
“I first did business with him when he was chairman of the State Fair Board of Oklahoma and we put together a tax package for a $60 million facility upgrade, and then fast-forward to him helping put together a $38 million revenue benchmark for the Hornets, where he was hugely important in getting the deal done,” said Tom Anderson, special projects manager for Oklahoma City. “Clay is very forthright. He tells you what he thinks and he expects the same, and you take him at his word. The city and private sector work closely in Oklahoma City, and I think he may have taken for granted that what works here doesn’t translate elsewhere.”
continued in part 2 ...