If not for Jim Balsillie’s serious misstep last summer, the scene unfolding in Seattle this week might well be happening here in Nashville. The SuperSonics, who have called the Emerald City home for the past 41 years, are attempting to exit their lease to relocate to Oklahoma City in time for the 2008-09 NBA season. Quite understandably, Oklahomans are paying attention as their hopes of securing the state’s first major-league franchise are close to being realized.

A nasty, ugly conflict between the city of Seattle and the team’s current owners has landed in court, and U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman is preparing to issue a verdict. Pechman’s duty will be to decide whether the Sonics must honor the remaining two years of their lease at Key Arena or whether the team can buy its way out and proceed to the Sooner state.

This almost assuredly would have been the endgame for Balsillie and the city of Nashville, whether right now or within a few years, had the Blackberry co-founder not made the egregious error of promoting season tickets in Ontario while proclaiming his willingness to give the Preds a fighting chance in Tennessee. If Balsillie hadn’t committed such a blunder, the ink might have long been dry on the team’s sale agreement before Nashvillians ever experienced the first concrete indication of his real intentions: to move the franchise north of the border.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about the Sonics’ fate. As a Preds fan with fresh wounds from last summer’s crisis, I would hate to see the team leave Seattle. Back in the 80s and early 90s when I still enjoyed NBA basketball, the Sonics were a team I liked to follow. Despite managing only 20 wins this past season, the team has a rich history in Seattle that should be preserved.

On the other hand, I still recall checking the news constantly in 1995 to learn the latest about the New Jersey Devils’ possible relocation to Nashville. I had nothing in particular against the Garden State, but I very much wanted major-league sports to land in Nashville, particularly the NHL or the NFL. (Who’d have thought then that both leagues would arrive so soon?) If not for a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup that season, Nashville would undoubtedly be home to the Devils, not the Preds.

I say all of this to mean that I can’t fault Oklahomans for longing for the Sonics to come to town any more than I can Washingtonians for wanting to keep them out west. At this point, I’m just happy that this blog post is focused a few thousand miles west of here, not in a Davidson County courtroom. Long live the Nashville Predators.

If you’re asking that question, local blogger, twitterer and fellow PR pro Jim Reams may have the answer. Inspired by Tuesday’s popular George Plaster bobblehead giveaway by the Nashville Sounds, Jim is now tracking the movements of “Bobblehead George” around the city (and presuming this gains some momentum, around the globe).

So far George has managed to visit Second Avenue and Sportsman’s Grille in Hillsboro Village. How long will it take George to discover Brightkite?

Do you have a photo of George the bobblehead to share? Send it to wheresbobbleheadgeorge@yahoo.com.

Today’s Nashville Geek Breakfast was a lot of fun, as usual. Here are a few things I learned.

• Special guest Aaron from Iowa is in town for work and decided to check out how we roll in Music City. Aaron participates in a local Twitter group in Des Moines. We all agreed that Tennessee is a better (and drier) place to be than Iowa at the moment, but Aaron reported that conditions there are improving. I hope things continue to get better.
• With the addition of Digital Nashville to our hodgepodge of local tech communities, I have set a personal goal to see the ratio of tech groups to local geeks reach 1:1. I think this is achievable.
• Kelly Stewart volunteers to help create the Cumberland Trail, which will be 300 miles long from Chattanooga to northeast Tennessee when finished. First proposed in the 1960s, the idea is inspired by the Appalachian Trail. About 160 miles of trail (not all of them are consecutive) have been established so far.
• Mitch Canter has a really sweet RSS T-shirt featuring the familiar orange logo that says “Feed Me” on it. Nice!
• Professional Nerd Herder Cal Evans recently launched a local PHP developers Twitter listing  (Note: link corrected from the original post) that is growing by leaps and bounds. Way to go, Cal!
• Geek ringleader Dave Delaney has created a video to commemorate his 8,000 Twitter tweet. It should be noted that only 50 percent of Dave’s tweets are reconstituted blog posts. (Just kidding, Dave.) Congrats on this milestone!
• Jackson Miller and Digital Nashville co-founder Elin Elfler are real, live people, not just digital avatars. I say that because Jackson and I cross paths primarily via the Web, and I saw Elin in person today for the first time. Howdy, y’all!

If you haven’t made it to a Nashville Geek Breakfast yet, you’re definitely missing out. Hope to see you next time.

How much would you pay for Plasmo? Depending on your answer, you might want to check out this eBay listing for one of the George Plaster bobblehead dolls given away at last night’s Nashville Sounds game. Bidding for the bobblehead, which has a single bid so far for $4.99 (plus $6.55 shipping), ends this Saturday (June 28) around noon. Is it just me, or does the bobblehead look more like Sounds General Manager Glenn Yeager? (Hat tip to my friend Chris Woodruff for spotting this auction item.)

Is Bill Purcell’s departure from Nashville a net gain or a tough loss for the city? The former mayor’s critics, who appeared to increase in number during his last couple of years in office, certainly would argue that it’s a plus to have the Philadelphia native headed back to the Northeast.

As someone who took the good with the bad during Purcell’s tenure and thought the mayor served the city very well, I’m sad to see him go. That said, is having a well-spoken (albeit a little long-winded) and passionate advocate for Nashville in an influential community such as Harvard such a bad thing? Where it may hurt Nashville (and Tennessee) the most is in 2010, since Purcell is now unlikely to run for governor. Then again, if Purcell were to run, would Tennesseans really elect a former Nashville mayor as the state’s top official twice in a row?

Is Councilmember Eric Crafton following in former Nashville Mayor Bill Boner’s notorious footsteps?

That question is admittedly somewhat unfair to Crafton, who hasn’t humiliated local residents with his harmonica playing, extramarital affairs or tales of “seven-hour-long passion” on national television. By accounts I’ve read, Crafton’s personal life is free of the level of nonsense that Boner seemed to champion. Nonetheless, last year Crafton revelled in the opportunity to discuss his English First ballot initiative on Fox News for viewers across the U.S. to see. For anyone who’s proud of the great city Nashville has become in the past 20 years, it wasn’t pretty.

The news that Nashville’s Metro Council had passed an English-first bill generated media attention, much of it casting the city in an unwelcome light, in cities nationwide. Only then-Mayor Bill Purcell’s subsequent veto helped to balance the coverage with a more positive view of Nashville.

For a city that’s a lot closer to being progressive and cosmopolitan than it was when Boner served as last lead executive in 1991, it’s unfortunate, in my opinion, to have a local elected official drawing attention to a measure that will accomplish very little–other than casting our city as an intolerant and unwelcoming place and possibly resulting in costly legal expenses down the line.

The good news this time around is that Crafton’s posturing and shortsighted initiative is focused squarely on his work as a Council member (and not on any Boneresque antics that involve infidelity or musical instruments). No, Crafton isn’t Boner (at least not yet), but in my opinion he’s doing much more harm than good when it comes to Nashville’s image and identity.

Adam “Pacman” Jones, whom I am happy to refer to as a former Titan, has things backward: You have to change your behavior before you can change your nickname.

A friend of mine in college had established a pattern of bad decisions and had endured plenty of ridicule for them. One semester, he declared that he wasn’t the same fellow anymore and that those days were behind him. He made this announcement loudly and frequently, but his actions never matched his words. The ridicule never stopped, either.

Hopefully Jones will reach a point where he realizes that he’ll have to keep his nose clean for a long period of time before his legacy as “Pacman” is behind him. I don’t think he’s there yet, but we’ll see.

It wasn’t that long ago that this quote would have never been realistic for the Preds:

With the players they did choose, the Predators came away with two defensemen, a left wing, a center and a goalie. None of Nashville’s draftees this weekend are expected to play in the NHL next season [emphasis added].

Say what you will about the team’s off-ice drama the past two seasons, but Executive VP/General Manager David Poile has done an excellent job of building the Preds for on-ice success. I’m excited about the potential for these latest draft picks, but I’m even happier that the Preds have the luxury of waiting for them to develop.

The Preds are closing their ranks behind goalie Dan Ellis, who barely made the roster out of training camp but shined down the stretch and in the playoffs, and have traded fellow netminder Chris Mason to the division rival St. Louis Blues.

Even though Ellis looked shaky at times during the season, I think this is the best move for the team. Mason is a class act who thrived in Tomas Vokoun’s shadow in the 2006-07 season but struggled at times in the limelight as the Preds’ #1 goalie. I hate to see him go, but the team couldn’t tie up the millions it invested in Mason and also sign Ellis, who had become a hot commodity around the league after his performance this spring. Here’s hoping the Preds made the right choice … and that sending another player to a division rival doesn’t come back to haunt them.

The next time you get a parking ticket, don’t post your strategy for getting out of it on the Internet. A local motorist received a ticket at the end of May and proceeded to ask for advice about his avoidance strategy online:

Ok, so I got a parking ticket last night in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. I didn’t notice the sign, and know I had seen motorcycles parked there before. Anyway, so I met the cop as she arrived and started writing my ticket. She was very rude, but that’s beside the point.

I am just wondering if my plan to get out of paying the ticket would work. Since the officer did not check the vin#, or write it down, couldn’t I just say that my tag was stolen, and that I was not in Nashville that night? How would they know otherwise, unless they read this!!?? Also, my license was not checked or anything else. Can’t I just deny that I was there, and say that someone borrowed or stole my bike tag??

As users responding to the post pointed out, this is a good strategy for winding up in jail, not for avoiding a ticket. To be fair, the motorist claims later in the thread that he never actually intended to follow through on his plan, but you have to wonder. After all, he did take the time to seek out an advice Web site to check his scheme out. I dread parking tickets as much as the next guy, but admittedly probably not as much as this guy.

Thoreau once wrote, “For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.” It’s regrettable that so many of us are distracted by silly diversions that fail to address the real problems we face as a society, but it’s also encouraging that some go out of their way to give generously and with compassion to help people in need.

It’s even more amazing when one of those people is a child. Ellie Ambrose is a teenager these days, but she hasn’t lost her motivation for helping people facing desperate situations:

Ellie’s Run for Africa is the God-given dream of a young American girl to help families and children in Africa. Combining educational efforts in area churches and schools with a 5K run and family fun day, Ellie’s Run for Africa raises awareness of and funding for Africans who struggle to meet basic needs such as health care, food, water, shelter, clothing and education.

I admire this amazing effort, which will mark its fifth-annual race this weekend on Saturday morning (June 14) at Percy Warner Park. There’s still time to make an online donation if you’re interested in lending a hand toward a little root-striking. Thanks for making a difference, Ellie.

Troubled co-owner Boots Del Biaggio attempted to sell his stake in the Preds to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie as recently as two weeks ago, according to Canada’s National Post.

For a team sorely in need of some off-ice stability, any hint of Balsillie’s reemergence is salt in the wound inflicted by Del Biaggio’s impending financial implosion. Both Boots and Balsillie are eager to have majority ownership in an NHL team. Even though Del Biaggio is likely no longer a threat because he is expected to file bankruptcy, for local Preds fans Balsillie is bad news that just won’t go away. The sooner the local ownership group can find a way–preferably from a Tennessee source–to fill Boots’ shoes, the better.

(Hat tip to Walker Duncan at Nashville Post for unearthing this news from north of the border.)

Update: Del Biaggio has filed for bankruptcy.