Sonics seeking arbitration for KeyArena lease

[bigboydan]

You knew this was coming though.

How can you not feel sorry for Sonics fans. I know if I was a season ticket holder I wouldn't have even renewed them this year.

With deadline looming, Sonics seeking arbitration for KeyArena lease

SEATTLE -- The Seattle SuperSonics have asked for an arbitration panel to rule they do not have to play the final three years of their lease at KeyArena.

In the likely event the Sonics do not secure a new arena in the Seattle area by next month, a favorable finding for the team would help them in their efforts to relocate the franchise.

"As we approach the Oct. 31 deadline, we've seen nothing tangible," Sonics chairman Clay Bennett said Friday, referring to movement toward a new, $500 million building and the deadline he created after the team filed a demand for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association this week.

"It's not working at all today here," said Bennett, who has estimated his Oklahoma City-based ownership group lost $20 million running the team for the first time last season. "We have significant cash loss. Our sales are way off ... just compared to what is happening with the Mariners and the Seahawks.

"The business model today, where we are, cannot continue."

Bennett, whose group bought the Sonics and WNBA's Storm for $350 million in 2006, said he hopes to have a decision from a three-member arbitration panel by January. That would then give Seattle's NBA team since 1967 time to file for relocation with the NBA for the 2008-09 season. Teams must file for relocation with the league by March 1 for the following season.

The Sonics are likely headed to Oklahoma City if they don't get a new arena agreement in the next six weeks.

"I absolutely know the team can survive and be profitable in Oklahoma City," Bennett said. "The Ford Center [there] is quite adequate -- but another building would be needed in the future.

"I can tell you there is high interest in bringing the NBA to Oklahoma City."

Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis has said the city will continue to enforce the lease at KeyArena, which runs through 2010. NBA commissioner David Stern has called the lease the league's worst.

Ceis acknowledged both sides could agree to amend their agreement and permit a buyout.

The Sonics say the cost of such a buyout is contained in the lease, though they haven't determined an exact price tag yet pending the arbitrators' ruling. The figure would presumably cover revenue lost to the city should the Sonics leave before 2010.

Bennett said his Oklahoma City-based ownership will keep the Storm in Seattle for one more season, through next summer, but that his preference is to keep the two teams together beyond that.

He also said he intends to remain "engaged" with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, which funded a just-completed feasibility study that said an arena could prosper on tribe-owned land in Auburn, 25 miles south of Seattle. But Bennett again said Friday that he was concerned about the site's relative remoteness and the traffic issues surrounding it.

Bennett also said he has been approached by potential investors with other proposals -- some of which he wasn't sure were earnest and valid. He said neither the Sonics or the Storm is for sale, though he acknowledged he's fielded some inquiries from Seattle-area business people about potentially buying the teams.

[bigboydan]

I feel sorry for the Sonics fans and all, but a team owner should be able to pick up and move his team if he wants too.

Seattle lawsuit aims to keep Sonics in KeyArena lease deal

SEATTLE -- Seattle officials filed a lawsuit Monday to keep the SuperSonics from leaving town, saying the team's profitability in much-maligned KeyArena "has less to do with KeyArena than perhaps the Sonics' ability to defend the high pick-and-roll."

The lawsuit was filed in King County Superior Court just a few days after new Sonics chairman Clay Bennett issued a demand for arbitration, seeking to buy out the remainder of the team's lease unless an agreement on a new arena is reached by the end of next month. The complaint asks that a judge force the Sonics to stay through the end of the lease, in 2010.

Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr and former Republican U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, the city's legal big gun, said the issue is simple: In exchange for $74 million in renovations to the old Seattle Coliseum in the mid-1990s, the Sonics agreed to play all of their home games there through Sept. 30, 2010.

"The lease is 15 years. We didn't agree to a 12- or 13-year lease term," Carr said. "We simply ask that they keep that agreement."

Bennett's Oklahoma City-based ownership group bought the Sonics and the WNBA's Seattle Storm for $350 million last year, and has insisted that the Sonics need a new, $500 million stadium.

Among the complaints are that KeyArena is the smallest venue in the league and that under the lease agreement the Sonics must turn over too much of their revenue to the city. NBA commissioner David Stern has called the lease the worst for any team in the league.

The demand for arbitration states that the team has lost money every year since 1999 -- more than $55 million in the last five years alone. It says that losses for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2007, will be over $17 million.

Louie Richmond, a Seattle-based spokesman for Bennett, said he did not have any immediate comment on the lawsuit.

"I don't think it's been fully read yet. That's all I can say," he said. "I take Mr. Bennett at his word. ... The Sonics ownership's goal is to get an arena built in Seattle. It always has been."

Carr and Gorton argued that Bennett's demand for a new arena was presented so late in the legislative session and required so much public funding that it appeared designed to fail, clearing the way for a move to Oklahoma. The team had offered to pay 20 percent of the cost.

"The city, with the help of some fine lawyers, is standing up to a pro sports team," Carr told a news conference. "Too often, pro sports teams have run over local governments."

The two noted that the Sonics made money at KeyArena until 1999, and Carr suggested it's the quality of the team, not the quality of the venue, that is the problem.

"The issues with the Sonics' profitability at KeyArena have less to do with KeyArena than perhaps with the Sonics' ability to defend the high pick-and-roll," Carr said.

Gorton, a lawyer who sued the American League to help Seattle land the Mariners and who was instrumental in preventing the departure of the Seattle Seahawks under former owner Ken Behring, said at the news conference that while many disputes that could arise under the lease are subject to arbitration, the duration of the lease is clearly excluded.

[bigboydan]

I knew it was only just a matter of time before this process would take place.

Looks like here is the Sonics first step of moving the team to Oklahoma City.

SEATTLE -- The Seattle SuperSonics' new owner told the NBA on Friday that he plans to move the team to Oklahoma City.

Clay Bennett had set a Wednesday deadline for having a plan to replace KeyArena, which he says is outdated. He and the city are in a dispute about the arena lease.

He has until March 1 to file for relocation with the NBA if he wants the team to play the 2008-09 season anywhere besides Seattle. The Sonics are the city's oldest major professional sports franchise.

Bennett briefly backed off his deadline, not wanting to distract from the start of the season. He watched Thursday night's home opener against Phoenix from his suite, spending most of the second half chatting with Hall of Famer Bill Russell while fans chanted "Save our Sonics!" during the game.

"Today we notified commissioner [David] Stern that we intend to relocate the Sonics to Oklahoma City if we succeed in the pending litigation with the city, or are able to negotiate an early lease termination, or at the end of the lease term," Bennett said in a lengthy statement.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank confirmed in an e-mail that the league has received an application for relocation from the Sonics and is referring the matter to the owners' relocation committee.

Bennett became owner just more than a year ago and also owns the WNBA's Seattle Storm. He bought the Sonics from a local group led by Starbucks Coffee chairman Howard Schultz for $350 million and has said the club is not for sale. Schultz, also unhappy with KeyArena, and his group paid $200 million for the team in 2001.

Bennett is trying to void the final two years of the lease. The city wants to hold the Sonics to the agreement, which calls for the team to play at KeyArena through the 2009-10 season.

Bennett said the team lost $17 million last year because of the lease. The Sonics had sought arbitration to decide the matter, but this week a federal judge blocked the team from seeking an escape through arbitration. That kept alive the city's attempts to gain a court order forcing the Sonics to play in Seattle.

Bennett championed a proposal this year for a new arena in the suburb of Renton that called for about $300 million in public money. The plan failed to get backing in the state Legislature.

"We now understand and respect that there is very limited public support for such a public investment," Bennett said.

Bennett long has said he had no intention of splitting the Sonics and Storm, but appeared to hedge on that Friday. He said plans are not set for the WNBA team, which will play the 2008 season in Seattle.

"Mr. Bennett's announcement today is a transparent attempt to alienate the Seattle fan base and follow through on his plan to move the team to Oklahoma City. The deadline for notifying the league of his intent to move is March 1," Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr said. "Making this move now continues the current ownership's insulting behavior toward the Sonics' dedicated fans and the citizens of the city."

"The move today was no surprise," Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said. "We continue to work with others on the arduous process of keeping the Sonics and Storm in Seattle."

A few hours before Bennett's announcement, a group of local investors offered to buy the Sonics and keep the city's oldest major league professional sports franchise from moving.

The group headed by Dennis H. Daugs, a private wealth manager and managing director of Lakeside Capital Management LLC, issued a news release Friday saying it had written a formal letter of interest to Bennett.

"We want to recapture the spirit and love of basketball in Seattle by bringing the Sonics and Storm back to local ownership," said Daugs, a former minority owner of the NBA franchise.

Dan Mahoney, a spokesman for Bennett, had no comment on Daugs' offer, other than to reiterate that the "teams are not for sale."

"This town loves the Sonics and Storm," Daugs said in the statement. "We have a genuine appreciation of the fan base. We respect the many loyal fans and we want to build a populist movement to keep the teams here. We believe there is strong local support for the Sonics and Storm."