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Elaine Thompson/AP
Seattle SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett, center, during the city's trial against the team.
Seattle SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett, center, during the city's trial against the team.
Seattle Says Oklahoma Is OK for Sonics
July 03, 2008 1:45 PM
by
Josh Katz
After months of acrimony, the owners of the SuperSonics reached a last-minute deal with the city of Seattle to move the team to Oklahoma City.
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A federal judge was scheduled to rule on Wednesday about an agreement involving KeyArena’s lease, but the sides reached a settlement first, making the case moot.
“Bennett announced that the settlement calls for a payment of $45 million immediately, and would include another $30 million paid to Seattle in 2013 if the state Legislature in Washington authorizes at least $75 million in public funding to renovate KeyArena by the end of 2009 and Seattle doesn’t obtain an NBA franchise of its own within the next five years,” according to The Washington Post.
NBA commissioner David Stern left the possibility open for a new franchise to come to Seattle in the near future. If Seattle were to get another team, the name, logo and colors of the SuperSonics are still available as per the agreement.
Clay Bennett bought the team from Starbucks’ chairman Howard Schultz in July 2006. Many have suspected since Bennett bought the team in July 2006 that the Oklahoma City–based businessman never intended to keep the team in Seattle. With the team playing in the aging KeyArena and a larger, modern arena waiting in Oklahoma City, it was clear that moving was an option.
Schultz has filed a pending lawsuit to take the team back, saying Bennett did not negotiate in “good faith.” E-mails in which Bennett admitted he’d wanted to move the team all along would seem to back up Schultz’ assertion.
The effects of the lawsuit could change the details of the agreement forged yesterday.
“Bennett announced that the settlement calls for a payment of $45 million immediately, and would include another $30 million paid to Seattle in 2013 if the state Legislature in Washington authorizes at least $75 million in public funding to renovate KeyArena by the end of 2009 and Seattle doesn’t obtain an NBA franchise of its own within the next five years,” according to The Washington Post.
NBA commissioner David Stern left the possibility open for a new franchise to come to Seattle in the near future. If Seattle were to get another team, the name, logo and colors of the SuperSonics are still available as per the agreement.
Clay Bennett bought the team from Starbucks’ chairman Howard Schultz in July 2006. Many have suspected since Bennett bought the team in July 2006 that the Oklahoma City–based businessman never intended to keep the team in Seattle. With the team playing in the aging KeyArena and a larger, modern arena waiting in Oklahoma City, it was clear that moving was an option.
Schultz has filed a pending lawsuit to take the team back, saying Bennett did not negotiate in “good faith.” E-mails in which Bennett admitted he’d wanted to move the team all along would seem to back up Schultz’ assertion.
The effects of the lawsuit could change the details of the agreement forged yesterday.
Headline Link: The team is going to Oklahoma
The SuperSonics will be moving to Oklahoma City, to the chagrin of Sonics fans. “Seattle will receive an additional $30 million from the Oklahoma owners if the Legislature approves funding for a new arena or KeyArena remodel in its next session and a new NBA team does not move into that facility by 2013.”
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“It was a tough experience for all of us that were involved in it. There was just so much that happened on both sides, so much misinterpreted, miscommunicated and misunderstood that it was difficult,” team owner Clay Bennett said of the situation.
Source: The Washington Post
Background: From the ownership change to the recent agreement
On April 11, The Seattle Times reports that in a series of three e-mails (available in PDF format), Bennett assured co-owner Tom Ward that the team will be moving to Oklahoma City after the season. The e-mails were obtained as part of a federal lawsuit filed by Seattle officials against the ownership group, which seeks to enforce the Sonics’ lease agreement with the KeyArena through 2010. Seattle officials planned to use the e-mails as leverage in their negotiations with the owners, hoping to either keep the Sonics through 2010 or to increase the price of the buyout.
Source: Seattle Times
The e-mails were exchanged shortly after the team’s $500 million arena proposal was turned down by Seattle officials, prompting Bennett to state that there was “little hope” the Sonics would stay.
Source: Seattle Times
On August 13, 2007, co-owner Aubrey McClendon told The Journal Record in Oklahoma that the ownership group bought the team to move it to Oklahoma City. Bennett released a statement saying McClendon was “not speaking on behalf of the ownership group” and the NBA fined McClendon $250,000.
Source: ESPN
On November 2, after the October 31st deadline had passed, Bennett announced that the team would seek a move to Oklahoma City after the season.
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Opinion & Analysis: A sad moment for basketball
The agreement to pay the city of Seattle does not console the editorial board of the Seattle Times. “There is no prettying this up. Money is coming to the city. Big whoop. Having an NBA franchise called the Sonics is about much, much more.”
Source: Seattle Times
“The NBA should be banned from using the phrase ‘NBA cares’ in any future public service announcement,” writes J.A. Adande of ESPN. In regard to the possibility that Seattle will get a new team within a few years, Adande writes: “That doesn’t mean there’s a suitable solution to this story. It just means that some other city is next.”
Source: ESPN
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