Bruce Levenson will sell stake in Hawks cause of racist email

[the Brain]

Levenson selling team. Here is the email.

From: Bruce Levenson

To: Ferry, Danny

CC: Foreman, Todd (ucg.com); Peskowitz, Ed (ucg.com)

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.

My thoughts: Levenson isn't racist. I don't think his comments were racist. I think he was being honest. He's running ideas in his mind & the email has a stream of consciousness to it. So this isn't a well-thought out analysis. Just initial stuff coming out of his head. So yeah, he could have written it in a way that could have conveyed his thoughts w/o causing anyone to ask if he was a bigot.

But I know what he was trying to say: If they want to sell more merchandise & tickets, they are going to have to cater more to those who buy merchandise & tickets. Middle class, middle aged, middle America ain't into rap & gospel music. And while 99% of white America will never admit this, they are afraid of being a minority. They are not used to being outside of their environment (who is? no matter the race?). So they will have trepidations about going into such voluntarily. I sure as heck wouldn't feel comfortable going into a Nextel race.

I went to a playoff NHL game and happened to get shown on the Jumbotron after a call against the Hurricanes. I walk around during the intermissions & strangers are giving me high fives and going "yeah that was a bad call wasn't it?" As a black man, I stood out in that environment. No one did a single harmful thing to me. They treated me like I was "one of them". It was still a little disconcerting. Sorry, but I'm not used to a bunch of white strangers talking to me like they know me. Like we're bros. So while no NBA exec will even publicly say what Levenson said, you best believe every single last one of them, including Michael Jordan, has said the same things.

We are creating a world where we can't have an honest convo about differences in race, gender & sexuality without someone losing their job if they don't say the exact things the media thinks is correct. I think it is good business for an exec to want his product to be appealing to everyone, no matter where the money comes from. And if he sees there is a segment of the population that he isn't selling to, it would make good sense to figure out why & try to change that dynamic.

This was the only statement from Levenson I felt was out of line

I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black

I also have to say, its no coincidence that this came out on the NFL's opening weekend.

 

[buckeye]

Wth is wrong with these old rich bastards? Makes the NBA look bad

 

[MrBill]

The timing of this is curious to me. I'm not shocked at all that some old white guys are racist but why release this yourself now unless you are just wanting to sell out your controlling interest of the team for a heavy profit and do it under the guise of being a confessed racist so that the front office looks like they are showing favoritism if they don't condemn your actions and let you sell.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Levenson selling team. Here is the email.



My thoughts: Levenson isn't racist. I don't think his comments were racist. I think he was being honest. He's running ideas in his mind & the email has a stream of consciousness to it. So this isn't a well-thought out analysis. Just initial stuff coming out of his head. So yeah, he could have written it in a way that could have conveyed his thoughts w/o causing anyone to ask if he was a bigot.

But I know what he was trying to say: If they want to sell more merchandise & tickets, they are going to have to cater more to those who buy merchandise & tickets. Middle class, middle aged, middle America ain't into rap & gospel music. And while 99% of white America will never admit this, they are afraid of being a minority. They are not used to being outside of their environment (who is? no matter the race?). So they will have trepidations about going into such voluntarily. I sure as heck wouldn't feel comfortable going into a Nextel race.

I went to a playoff NHL game and happened to get shown on the Jumbotron after a call against the Hurricanes. I walk around during the intermissions & strangers are giving me high fives and going "yeah that was a bad call wasn't it?" As a black man, I stood out in that environment. No one did a single harmful thing to me. They treated me like I was "one of them". It was still a little disconcerting. Sorry, but I'm not used to a bunch of white strangers talking to me like they know me. Like we're bros. So while no NBA exec will even publicly say what Levenson said, you best believe every single last one of them, including Michael Jordan, has said the same things.

We are creating a world where we can't have an honest convo about differences in race, gender & sexuality without someone losing their job if they don't say the exact things the media thinks is correct. I think it is good business for an exec to want his product to be appealing to everyone, no matter where the money comes from. And if he sees there is a segment of the population that he isn't selling to, it would make good sense to figure out why & try to change that dynamic.

This was the only statement from Levenson I felt was out of line

I also have to say, its no coincidence that this came out on the NFL's opening weekend.

This is a great post, I agree with ever single word.

We have cultivated a society where it is impossible to speak frankly about race without being accused of being racist. He went out of his way to call the whites in the community bigots, and to point out that despite the heavy black customer base has contributed to a bad reputation of the area that there is little to no crime to support that rep. He isn't suggesting that he wants less black customers, he's suggesting that he wants more white ones. And he wants customers of any color that will spend money, which his data suggests his current customer base isn't doing compared to what the hockey customer base was in the same buiding. He isn't tossing out stereotypical drivel with no statistical data to back it up.

He's not racist, he's a capitalist businessman trying to figure out ways to make money. Nothing in that email contains venom towards blacks, even if some of his wording could use some work. But at the same time, this was an internal document, which is akin to talking to your buddies at a bar where you don't have to watch every word you say.

 

[the Brain]

The timing of this is curious to me. I'm not shocked at all that some old white guys are racist but why release this yourself now unless you are just wanting to sell out your controlling interest of the team for a heavy profit and do it under the guise of being a confessed racist so that the front office looks like they are showing favoritism if they don't condemn your actions and let you sell.

He probably was getting blackmailed. Sterling's camp may have gotten wind of it & was threatening to use it.

I'm as big a skeptic as anybody when it comes to corporate America. But I find sincerity in Levenson's actions. Call me a gullible ignoramus if you will. Nowhere in that email did he say stop bringing black people to the game like Sterling did. He didn't say, I don't want them at the games. And he criticized people for being undercover racists when they talked about the arena's neighborhood. When he said the kiss cam was "too black", he made himself look bad. But we've got to stop labeling people for little slips of the tongue.

Some years ago, some coworkers & I were having a convo. My tongue got tied & I said Arnold Scwarzenigger. One of my coworker said, "Is that one of your relatives?" Now I didn't say anything @ first, but knew that was dead wrong. One of the co workers that heard it came to me & said I should call her out on it. But I had thought about it. This co-worker used to be my supervisor & hired me "off the street" even though I had no experience for the job. Now if she was a racist, would she have given me that opportunity? So I just told myself she didn't know what she was saying. Next day, she comes to me & says she relayed that "joke" to her husband & then realized how ugly it was what she said. She was embarrassed & ashamed about what came out of her mouth & asked me to please forgive her. Now if I got all high & mighty right @ the get go, I would have lost a friend over a minor mistake. She wasn't racist. She was imperfect. We've got to recognize the difference.

This is a great post, I agree with ever single word.

We have cultivated a society where it is impossible to speak frankly about race without being accused of being racist. He went out of his way to call the whites in the community bigots, and to point out that despite the heavy black customer base has contributed to a bad reputation of the area that there is little to no crime to support that rep. He isn't suggesting that he wants less black customers, he's suggesting that he wants more white ones. And he wants customers of any color that will spend money, which his data suggests his current customer base isn't doing compared to what the hockey customer base was in the same buiding. He isn't tossing out stereotypical drivel with no statistical data to back it up.

He's not racist, he's a capitalist businessman trying to figure out ways to make money. Nothing in that email contains venom towards blacks, even if some of his wording could use some work. But at the same time, this was an internal document, which is akin to talking to your buddies at a bar where you don't have to watch every word you say.

I'm with you until that last statement. We shouldn't feel comfortable saying anything just because we are w/our buddies. I call out my black friends when they use "ni----" or "-a" & they know not to use it around me. Bigotry continues because people think its ok in certain situations. It should never be ok. And this was a business email. You don't want people in your company thinking it's ok to let loose w/hidden prejudices when in the boardroom. & emails can always become public.

 

[jeffx]

I'm with you until that last statement. We shouldn't feel comfortable saying anything just because we are w/our buddies. I call out my black friends when they use "ni----" or "-a" & they know not to use it around me. Bigotry continues because people think its ok in certain situations. It should never be ok. And this was a business email. You don't want people in your company thinking it's ok to let loose w/hidden prejudices when in the boardroom. & emails can always become public.

THIS

 

[Senser81]

My take is that this probably reads very similar to the NBA Owners Meeting minutes. There really isn't anything "outlandish", and I assume most NBA owners have the same ideas as Levinson. David Stern was always trying to find the middle ground between "turning a profit" and "being overtly racist". Same thing is still going on...how can we get white people to watch a black product?

 

[TeflonDonny]

There are a couple articles and such about what lead to this coming out now. I think 2 things are in play here.

1. A power play by the new CEO
2. Levenson saw the profit that Sterling just turned and decided the shame was worth the ROI

What I found interesting is that Danny Ferry is also receiving a punishment from the team for something he said that sparked the whole investigation.

 

[the Brain]

What we should be getting on the NBA for is why aren't they concerned that only 10% of the fans in their arena are people of color.

 

[buckeye]

He probably was getting blackmailed. Sterling's camp may have gotten wind of it & was threatening to use it.

I'm as big a skeptic as anybody when it comes to corporate America. But I find sincerity in Levenson's actions. Call me a gullible ignoramus if you will. Nowhere in that email did he say stop bringing black people to the game like Sterling did. He didn't say, I don't want them at the games. And he criticized people for being undercover racists when they talked about the arena's neighborhood. When he said the kiss cam was "too black", he made himself look bad. But we've got to stop labeling people for little slips of the tongue.

Some years ago, some coworkers & I were having a convo. My tongue got tied & I said Arnold Scwarzenigger. One of my coworker said, "Is that one of your relatives?" Now I didn't say anything @ first, but knew that was dead wrong. One of the co workers that heard it came to me & said I should call her out on it. But I had thought about it. This co-worker used to be my supervisor & hired me "off the street" even though I had no experience for the job. Now if she was a racist, would she have given me that opportunity? So I just told myself she didn't know what she was saying. Next day, she comes to me & says she relayed that "joke" to her husband & then realized how ugly it was what she said. She was embarrassed & ashamed about what came out of her mouth & asked me to please forgive her. Now if I got all high & mighty right @ the get go, I would have lost a friend over a minor mistake. She wasn't racist. She was imperfect. We've got to recognize the difference.


I'm with you until that last statement. We shouldn't feel comfortable saying anything just because we are w/our buddies. I call out my black friends when they use "ni----" or "-a" & they know not to use it around me. Bigotry continues because people think its ok in certain situations. It should never be ok. And this was a business email. You don't want people in your company thinking it's ok to let loose w/hidden prejudices when in the boardroom. & emails can always become public.

That's still one of my biggest pet peeves. Those words aren't OK for anyone to say. We as a society HAVE to eliminate them from our vocabulary.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

 

[jeffx]

My take is that this probably reads very similar to the NBA Owners Meeting minutes. There really isn't anything "outlandish", and I assume most NBA owners have the same ideas as Levinson. David Stern was always trying to find the middle ground between "turning a profit" and "being overtly racist". Same thing is still going on...how can we get white people to watch a black product?

Thank you - I heard the exact same shit back in the 70s, when the NBA had a serious image problem.

Bill Russell said during his playing days, a survey was done to find out why the Celtics weren't selling out home games during the regular season. The prevailing answer was 'too many blacks on the team'.

 

[jeffx]

That's still one of my biggest pet peeves. Those words aren't OK for anyone to say. We as a society HAVE to eliminate them from our vocabulary.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

It's too late, pandora's box was opened a long time ago. Like Brain, I'm old skool, so it bugs the shit out of me hearing black & latino youth using those words in public, especially on the subway right in front of white folks. Makes me want to cringe. Now asian & indian kids have jumped on the bandwagon......sigh....

 

[jeffx]

I came across this. Weird remark for Danny Ferry to make.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/source...-initiated-hawks-investigation-162901096.html

 

[the Brain]

I came across this. Weird remark for Danny Ferry to make.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/source...-initiated-hawks-investigation-162901096.html

What the heck does that even mean?

 

[ThomasTomasz]

I agree with Brain in that it seems like this could be a blackmail issue coming from the Stern camp. I think that it's an honest, business perspective. Whenever you look at where you place a store or business, you look at the surrounding areas including ethnicity. There was nothing vulgar in the email, just matter of fact observations he saw as the owner of the business. There is no reason for him to step away and sell the team unless there is an outside influence pressing in.