1. #1
    Bluehorseshoe
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    We have another racist NBA owner.

    Atlanta Hawks controlling owner Bruce Levenson has self-reported to the NBA that he sent a racist e-mail in August 2012 and will sell his interest in the team.

    Levenson reported the e-mail to the NBA in July, almost two years after it was sent but while the league was deep in litigation over the now-completed sale of the Los Angeles Clippers. The investigation was ongoing when Levenson decided to leave the team.

    The e-mail, to Hawks President Danny Ferry, details Levenson's belief that the Hawks' fan base was too heavily African-American. (Scroll down for full text of the e-mail.)

    "I wrote an e-mail two years ago that was inappropriate and offensive," Levenson said in a Hawks news release Sunday morning. "I trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests (i.e., hip hop vs. country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and by stereotyping their perceptions of one another (i.e., that white fans might be afraid of our black fans). By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans."

    Levenson was one of the strongest critics among owners of Donald Sterling, the Clippers owner who was recorded making racist comments and quickly banned for life from the league.

    FULL TEXT OF THE E-MAIL (via the Hawks):

    From: Bruce Levenson

    Sent: 8/25/2012 11:47:02 PM

    Subject: Re: Business/Game ops

    1. from day one i have been impressed with the friendliness and professionalism of the arena staff -- food vendors, ushers, ticket takers, etc. in our early years when i would bring folks from dc they were blown away by the contrast between abe pollin's arena and philips. some of this is attributable to southern hospital and manners but bob and his staff do a good job of training. To this day, I can not get the ushers to call me Bruce yet they insist on me calling them by their first names.

    2. the non-premium area food is better than most arenas, though that is not saying much. i think there is room for improvement and creativity. Levy is our food vendor so we don't have much control but they have been good partners. i have wished we had some inconic offereing like boog's barbeque at the baseball stadium in balt.

    3. our new restaurant, red, just opened so too early for me to give you my thoughts.

    4. Regarding game ops, i need to start with some background. for the first couple of years we owned the team, i didn't much focus on game ops. then one day a light bulb went off. when digging into why our season ticket base is so small, i was told it is because we can't get 35-55 white males and corporations to buy season tixs and they are the primary demo for season tickets around the league. when i pushed further, folks generally shrugged their shoulders. then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:

    -- it's 70 pct black

    -- the cheerleaders are black

    -- the music is hip hop

    -- at the bars it's 90 pct black

    -- there are few fathers and sons at the games

    -- we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel.

    Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience.

    Before we bought the hawks and for those couple years immediately after in an effort to make the arena look full (at the nba's urging) thousands and thousands of tickets were being giving away, predominantly in the black community, adding to the overwhelming black audience.

    My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant season ticket base. Please dont get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arean 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. On fan sites i would read comments about how dangerous it is around philips yet in our 9 years, i don't know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage. 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.

    I have been open with our executive team about these concerns. I have told them I want some white cheerleaders and while i don't care what the color of the artist is, i want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that's our season tixs demo. i have also balked when every fan picked out of crowd to shoot shots in some time out contest is black. I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.

    Gradually things have changed. My unscientific guess is that our crowd is 40 pct black now, still four to five times all other teams. And my further guess is that 40 pct still feels like 70 pet to some whites at our games. Our bars are still overwhelmingly black.

    This is obviously a sensitive topic, but sadly i think it is far and way the number one reason our season ticket base is so low.

    And many of our black fans don't have the spendable income which explains why our f&b and merchandise sales are so low. At all white thrasher games sales were nearly triple what they are at hawks games (the extra intermission explains some of that but not all).

    Regardless of what time a game starts, we have the latest arriving crowd in the league. It often looks and sounds empty when the team takes the floor.

    In the past two years, we have created a section of rowdy college students that has been a big plus. And we do a lot of very clever stuff during time outs to entertain the crowd. Our kiss cam is better done than any in the league.

    We have all the same halftime acts that other arenas have but i question whether they make sense. people are on their cell phones during half time. i wonder if flashing on the scoreboard "$2 off on hot dogs during halftime tonight" just as the half ends would be a better use of our halftime dollars and make the fans happier.

    We do all the usual giveways and the fans are usually their loudest when our spirit crew takes the floor to give away t-shirts. It pisses me off that they will yell louder for a t-shirt then for our players.

    Our player intro is flat. We manufacture a lot of noise but because of the late arriving crowd and the fact that a lot of blacks dont seem to go as crazy cheering (another one of my theories) as whites, it is not great. Even when we have just returned from winnng four straight on the road, i am one of the few people in the arena standing and cheering when our team takes the floor. Bob has kicked around ideas like having the starters coming down aisles rather than off the bench during intros. Sounds cool but may highlight all the empty seats at the start of games.

    Not enough of our fans wear hawks jerseys to games. i have just begun to push for ideas like discount food lines for folks wearing jerseys, special entrances, etc. I think we need a committed and perhaps incentivized fan club. We need to realize atl is simply different than every other city. Just adopting nba best practices is not enough. we have to create our own.

    I am rambling and could probably go on forever. If you have any specific areas you would like my thoughts on, let me know.

    Best,

    Bruce

    ps -- I have cc'd todd and ed so they can chime in with additional or different thoughts.

    Sent from my iPad

  2. #2
    Pauulzcappin
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    He is right in the majority of his assessment though.

  3. #3
    TwoWays
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    He's fully aware of coming across as racist. toes the line perfectly, and assesses the problems correctly.

  4. #4
    Vegas39
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    Quote Originally Posted by TwoWays View Post
    He's fully aware of coming across as racist. toes the line perfectly, and assesses the problems correctly.
    He knew exactly what he was doing. As he turned himself into league offices. Maybe a fast way for him to sell

  5. #5
    tony_come
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    Business decision for him to sell to make $$$

  6. #6
    RubberKettle
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    @ the NBA PC Police

  7. #7
    MUHerd37
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    He was right in what he said.

  8. #8
    manny24
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    these racist motherfukkers getting PAID

  9. #9
    Ghenghis Kahn
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    is levenson a jew?

  10. #10
    crustyme
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    didnt know david duke owned the hawks.

  11. #11
    asdf21
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    Where racism

  12. #12
    teaserpleaser
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    picked a hell of a city to worry about if southern whites are comfortable or not because of being out numbered by blacks, Atlanta is chocolate city...if I was ever stupid enough or down on my luck enough to have to live in the south it would be Atlanta I was born there.
    Last edited by teaserpleaser; 09-07-14 at 01:53 PM.

  13. #13
    thunderous
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    I dont think there's anything in that email that is racist....OP you got the title wrong.

  14. #14
    kidcudi92
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    its called running a fukking business

  15. #15
    Mr KLC
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    I guess if the owner was wrong for saying this, then the NCAA and NFL have been wrong about recruiting more black coaches. I guess baseball needs to stop talking, and inventing ways, about getting blacks interested in their sport again. Just wanting to get a fair balance. Nothing wrong with trying to lure a demographic that will make you a profit. He isn't saying anything about kicking black people out of games.

  16. #16
    daneblazer
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    He's right though. Look at McDonalds. Try to find 3 McDonalds commercials without minorities in them. It's a lot harder than you think.

  17. #17
    Bluehorseshoe
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    Quote Originally Posted by thunderous View Post
    I dont think there's anything in that email that is racist....OP you got the title wrong.
    He made a point of the cheerleaders being black.

  18. #18
    BCC585
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    He turned himself in for an email sent in 2012?
    He is definitely looking for a way to pump and dump the team since Sterling got a pretty penny for racism.
    Nomination(s):
    This post was nominated 3 times . To view the nominated thread please click here. People who nominated: Mr KLC, face, and SBRMAN23

  19. #19
    Big Bear
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    saloon dis shiat

  20. #20
    Kermit
    My Finger Smells Like Pork
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    Way to rat yourself out to make that Sterling money.

  21. #21
    TwoWays
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    bear, this is the right topic in the right place.

  22. #22
    Ralphie Halves
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    Anyone who has ever taken a business or marketing course already knows all of these things. You have to if you want to succeed.

    Your PC people out there usually have no money and will never make any impact in the business world because their world is fantasy and based on ideals instead of reality.

    And yet we have to cater to them.

  23. #23
    Chi_archie
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    he was talking demographics which include race

    talking about race as it pertains to your business demographics isn't racist

  24. #24
    ChalkyDog
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ralphie Halves View Post
    Anyone who has ever taken a business or marketing course already knows all of these things. You have to if you want to succeed.

    Your PC people out there usually have no money and will never make any impact in the business world because their world is fantasy and based on ideals instead of reality.

    And yet we have to cater to them.
    Absolutely. Marketing is one big racist, genderist, ageist stereotype exercise put into action to maximize profits.

    Political Science is literally the science of stereotyping certain voting patterns/behaviors based on race, economic status, gender, age etc to predict outcomes and create targeted campaign strategy.

    Poli Sci and Marketing are very similar in this regard.

    The PC world is a cancer, IMO. It does nothing but separate further due to creating a void in meaningful conversation on a subjects merits. Everyone has to tiptoe through the tulips due to this notion that a persons feelings trumps all.

  25. #25
    Sam Odom
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ralphie Halves View Post

    Your PC people out there usually have no money...

    But they LOVE to take/tax $$$ from people who have it...

  26. #26
    newguy
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    Anyone here that can explain how it's racist??

  27. #27
    rm18
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    Unreal what a joke

  28. #28
    gauchojake
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    I'm offended by the southern whites comment.

  29. #29
    wikkidinsane
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    He wants more white people in the stands. I think this will grant him his wish. When this blows up on the "National Media" scene I hope my fellow black men and women don't attend his games and lets see if his backwards ass theory of "Whites scared of blacks" will get him more $. I live in South Florida. We have a mix community down here; but based on my experiences and observations, Southern whites are everything but scared of "black people".

  30. #30
    TiredPro
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    Why is a white man a racist when they make comments about blacks, but a black man is never a racist when they make comments about whites ? You can thank the media for racism.......they make a lot of money off of it and they create it. Excuse me, thank the LIBERAL media. Didn't see any flags thrown this week in the NFL for anyone using the N word.........I'm sure the league got their attention with threatening to throw a flag.....It's great to hear the Atlanta Hawks owner call it like he sees it. We need more people doing it.

  31. #31
    Big Bear
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    MJ is a racist too.

    except he hates whites.

    But on the real we are all a little racist we just dont make it public.

  32. #32
    jjgold
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    Who cares

    Let's pick winners

    Everyone hates everyone

  33. #33
    timbaland99
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    There is a large discrepancy between the Atlanta Hawks and the Clippers. They are not even in the same league when it comes to value. It is also very difficult to change an attendance demographic when the city of Atlanta is made up of more black people than white. The only way to change his attendance issue would be to move the team to an area with a different demographic and with more disposable income.

    It's like saying why are there so many Mexicans attending soccer games in Mexico.

    Maybe southern whites don't have as much interest in basketball games.

    There is also such a thing as white pick pockets.

  34. #34
    BCC585
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    Quote Originally Posted by wikkidinsane View Post
    He wants more white people in the stands. I think this will grant him his wish. When this blows up on the "National Media" scene I hope my fellow black men and women don't attend his games and lets see if his backwards ass theory of "Whites scared of blacks" will get him more $. I live in South Florida. We have a mix community down here; but based on my experiences and observations, Southern whites are everything but scared of "black people".
    If people actually protest these games they are pathetic as Levenson's email.

    Levenson even said....
    "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."

    But of course everyone is going to read the "whites scared of blacks" part that is plastered over the media.
    The purpose of the email is to expand the demographic of his business since it had an appearance of catering to only the black community (70% black attendance, black cheerleaders, hiphop music, etc.).

    Society is way too soft if they're getting upset over this crap story.

  35. #35
    bigtymer56
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    If anybody should be offended by that email, its white people in ATL.

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