Poor Sonics. - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

rabbitproof · 03-03-2008, 05:08 PM

I haven't read Bill Simmons in a while but his latest mailbags, fully composed of Sonics-to-Oklahoma City emails, are kind of quality. I've heard of the move here and there but it is a pretty anguishing situation for a fanbase:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...8&sportCat=nba

thereaper · 03-03-2008, 06:24 PM

Yeah, I wish the Mavs/Cuban would do something to show support for Seattle fans during this. This is some serious BS by Stern and Bennett, and it makes me wonder if the same couldn't happen here.

Generally speaking the owners are going to be on the same page on this, and I wonder if Cuban is any different:
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/s...ves/129881.asp

Quote:

We caught Mavericks owner Mark Cuban on his stepmaster before the Mavericks-Sonics game and he gave his thoughts on the Sonics potential move and the city's reaction to potentially losing the team.

"The question is whether Seattle even wants the team," he said while working up a sweat exercising. "If they want them, they have to figure out a way for them to stay. And if they don't it's just a question of where. I'd love to see them stay in Seattle. It's a great city, great fans, just a shame, you know? But I guess sometimes the rain gets to people."

Cuban said the people of city should make a bigger ruckus if they don't want the Sonics to relocate to Oklahoma City or another locale.

"It's not one of those things where you can force people to want them to stay," he said. "If they want them to stay, they want them to stay. And if they don't, they don't. It wasn't like it was a big uproar and that's the thing. You can play politics all you want but it wasn't like people we're screaming and that's a shame because it's a great basketball city."

Cuban is not sold that the Sonics are headed for Oklahoma and he said he is open to any new ideas.

"I don't know that they're going to Oklahoma City, we have to see," he said. "At least as far as my personal vote, I am going to keep all options open. It's a question of what's the biggest available market and what's going to help the NBA the most. So we'll see.

And if it's not better than Seattle, I'll vote against it. It's all right but they have a (expletive) lease. That's what it is. People can make the argument that's the lease you sign but business changes and that's what's happened."

Cuban said the economics of the league has changed since refurbishing of KeyArena in 1994, making the team's lease even more of an issue.

"The reality of the NBA has changed," he said. "There was a day where you can always depend on the TV contract going way up and that meant all teams got the same boost in revenue. If the TV revenue went up x Seattle got the same as Dallas as New York, but now, national revenue is a declining percentage of team revenues, which means you are more dependant on local revenues."

He continued.

"And the more dependent you are on local revenue, the more important your lease and arena deal is. And the more important you're lease and arena deal is, the worst position that Seattle's in competitively. So I think that the piece the people don't quite understand in Seattle. I think they think it's 1996 and if they can do it think they can do it now.

"But the difference between 10 years ago and today, with the economics of the NBA and the way the collective bargaining agreement is structured is night and day. Night and day. That just puts Seattle is a significant competitive disadvantage.

Cuban isn't sold on Oklahoma City and said he will not vote along with other owners just for the sake of agreement.

"Isn't Oklahoma City bigger than Seattle?" he asked. "In a metropolitan city, I don't know. I haven't seen the numbers. But I don't think it's strong enough. If it isn't I'll vote against it. I am not going in with any preset notions, so we'll see what happens, I am open minded like that."

According to the god of Wiki, Seattle has 582,454 inhabitants, OKC has 537,734. In metropolitan area, Seattle is at 3.2 mil, OKC is at 1.2 - so it's really not even close if you're going by sheer numbers.

dude1394 · 03-03-2008, 08:29 PM

If seattle wanted the team, the team would stay there. Come on...

antoinewalker · 03-04-2008, 12:07 AM

i want the sonics to stay in seattle.

Big Boy Laroux · 03-04-2008, 12:17 PM

rabbitproof, i've been reading those e-mails as well. I used to be of the mindset that you have, dude1394. that if seattle wanted them, they'd stay. but after reading all those e-mails, and information surrounding the Sonics, my opinion has changed.

The buyers from OKC have gone on record saying their intention was to move the team to OKC. Clay Bennett denies that, but his co-owners have said that on the record.

Bennett then asks for the city to fund a 500 MILLION dollar arena with 100% public money (in comparison, The AAC cost about $325 million, and was a mix of public and private) . Of course the city is going to balk at that. that's ridiculous! #1, Key arena was completely rebuilt in 1995, so it's 13 years old. #2, using 100% public money means raised taxes. i don't blame seattle for balking at that - Bennett is holding the sonics captive, and wants ransom money!

so if the city refuses to pay, he can just say, "well, that's that, time to move the team". And stern supports this guy! He and Bennett are lifelong friends! Stern introduced Bennett at the Oklahoma Hallf of Fame. reeks of collusion to me.

basically, this affects everyone because if it could happen in seattle, it could happen anywhere. A new owner can demand a ransom from the city, or he moves the team.

DelNegro · 03-04-2008, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Boy Laroux

A new owner can demand a ransom from the city, or he moves the team.

How do you think Dallas got the Stars and the Rangers?

Big Boy Laroux · 03-04-2008, 02:15 PM

i'm not saying it hasn't happened before. It obviously has. I'm saying it's a horrible precedent to continue.

This isn't like moving the grizzlies (a recent expansion team) to memphis. Seattle has 41 years of history in the NBA.

And the relationship between Stern and Bennett is a giant red flag for me.

As for the Stars and Rangers - i'm not a Dallas resident - not a fan of the other Dallas teams, so your snide remark holds no water with me. But i do know the Stars came from minnesota (the North Stars).

I'm a nashville resident, and the same thing happened with the titans as they came from Houston. I wasn't living in Nashville when that happened, so i didn't have an opinion then cause it didn't directly affect me. but the people of Houston got screwed just as Bad as Seattle is going to be.

I'm not blaming the residents in OKC for this - they probably don't want a stolen team, they just want a team. It's the owners, plain and simple.

DelNegro · 03-04-2008, 03:03 PM

A snide remark? Please lighten the hell up. All I was trying to do was point out that it's always been this way. I was an Oilers fan so believe me I know how it sucks to lose a team. Still, sports is a business and you either pay to play or lose your team. The Sonics are a privately owned business enterprise and them trying to leverage local governments for a new building isn't any different than some other company trying to leverage tax breaks in order to locate there.

Stern doesn't want the Sonics to leave Seattle. But not to the point where he's going to stop the move. First, Stern works for the owners, not the other way around, and the owners don't want Stern telling them what they can and can not do with their teams. Second, if Stern did intervene he'd kill every other team's chances at getting outside money when it comes time for them to get new buildings.

As for the residents of OKC, they wanted the Hornets to stay so clearly they are okay with stealing a team. Just like every other city that got a relocated franchise was okay with stealing someone else's team. It's business. And business isn't always nice.

Big Boy Laroux · 03-04-2008, 03:41 PM

it was a snide remark, assuming i lived in dallas and didn't know what was going on in my own city. I was pointing out i don't even live in Dallas.

My point is not that owners ask for new arenas - yes that happens ALL the time. I'm talking about the RIDICULOUS demand for a 100% publicly funded 500 MILLION dollar arena. I'm sure Seattle would have agreed to play ball for a less ridiculous price. it's basically bennett pretending to be flexible with a ridiculous demand.

i have zero attachment to Seattle. I've been there once. But i still think it's a ridiculous demand.

Yes, stern works for the owners - but at the same time, there are other ways around this. instead of moving, why not try to work out a way to get out from key's ridiculous lease? cause they simply don't care, they want to move the team. Just because it's happened before doesn't make it right. There really should be some agreements in place.

as for the hornets, the OKC area formed a bond with that team, OF COURSE they wanted them to stay there. But no way stern was going to rip the hornets away permanently from NO after Katrina.

Nashville is currently going through this with the preds, too. I don't care about hockey, but i recognize what the team does for nashville's economy, and it would be a shame to lose them.

DelNegro · 03-04-2008, 04:20 PM

Seattle had ample opportunity to keep the Sonics, but the local support has never been there for them. Bennett only bought the team after the previous ownership decided to sell after getting shot down for $220 mil. This coming less than a decade after Seattle agreed to cough up about $800 mil for new buildings for the Mariners and Seahawks.

Some good background info here.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...sonics14m.html

Big Boy Laroux · 03-04-2008, 09:58 PM

The kingdome was basically falling apart before those stadiums were built. There's nothing wrong with key arena, it just has a bad lease.

As for the support, it was there in the 90's. then Schultz took over and the GM (walker, I believe) made horrible decision after horrible decision. Are Fans expected to support a terrible product? Even with that being said, I'm sure the attendance in Seattle is better than a number of other NBA teams. I'll look it up later.

mqywaaah · 03-05-2008, 02:35 AM

The Oklahoma City Supersonics? Yeah!

DelNegro · 03-05-2008, 10:59 AM

Whether there's anything wrong with the Key Arena or not is pretty much irrelevant at this point. The Sonics want a better building, Oklahoma City is willing to give them one, Seattle is not. It's not about what the Sonics need, it's about what they can get. If another company comes along and offers me a big raise to switch jobs my current employer isn't going to convince me to stay by saying I don't need the extra money.

ty · 03-05-2008, 11:19 AM

Dallas Supersonics. Why not? There are two teams in LA =P

DirkFTW · 04-11-2008, 11:17 AM

Quote:

E-mails contradict Sonics owners
Sonics owners sent messages about Okla. City move

SEATTLE (AP) -- E-mail messages between SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett and team co-owners appear to show Bennett misled NBA commissioner David Stern on the group's intentions to move the team to Oklahoma City before all avenues for a new arena in Seattle were closed.

The messages have become part of the team's dispute with the city of Seattle over the two years remaining on its KeyArena lease. Bennett is trying to buy out the lease so he can move the Sonics to his hometown for the 2008-09 season. The city claims the team must occupy the arena through 2009-10. The trial is scheduled to begin June 16.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman is scheduled to hear the trial. She declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the e-mail messages, which the city first released to The Seattle Times and then to The Associated Press and others.

The NBA's board of governors is scheduled to vote next week on Bennett's application to relocate the Sonics to Oklahoma.

Pechman ruled in February that as part of the lawsuit's discovery process, the ownership group must give Seattle's lawyers copies of e-mail sent from or to all of its eight board members that could potentially be relevant to the case.

In one of those messages, dated April 17, 2007 -- during a one-year period in which Bennett was professing a "good-faith" effort to get a new arena built that would keep the Sonics in Seattle -- team co-owner Tom Ward wrote to Bennett from Oklahoma City: "Is there any way to move here for next season or are we doomed to have another lame duck season in Seattle?"

Bennett replied: "I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys. the game is getting started!"

Ward answered back: "That's the spirit!! I am willing to help any way I can to watch ball here next year"

Co-owner Aubrey McClendon then wrote: "me too, thanks, Clay!"

Stern fined McClendon $250,000 last Aug. 23, two weeks after he told an Oklahoma City publication his group didn't buy the Sonics to keep them in Seattle. The comments by McClendon, an Oklahoma City energy tycoon and one of four original partners who bought the Sonics in July 2006 for $350 million, were at odds with Stern's stated hope of keeping the Sonics in Seattle.

Last Aug. 18, days after McClendon's comments were published, Bennett wrote a lengthy e-mail to Stern. It included a fawning section in which Bennett told the commissioner he was "an extraordinarily gifted executive ... with a rare and unique charisma that brings out the best in everyone you touch ... you are just one of my favorite people on earth and I so cherish our relationship Sonics business aside."

Bennett then wrote moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City was not yet being discussed within the ownership group.

"I would never breach your trust," Bennett e-mailed Stern. "As absolutely remarkable as it may seem, Aubrey and I have NEVER discussed moving the team to Oklahoma City, nor have I discussed it with ANY other member of our ownership group. I have been passionately committed to our process in Seattle, and have worked my (tail) off."

Yet on June 5, 2007, Sonics arena consultant Tim Romani e-mailed Bennett and asked that he talk to Oklahoma City manager Jim Couch before Romani was to "engage in earnest negotiations" with Couch.

Couch declined comment Thursday, citing the ongoing legal process and his pending deposition next week. A spokesman for Bennett, Dan Mahoney, also declined comment.

The e-mail messages also include Ward writing McClendon on Aug. 2, 2006, weeks after they purchased the Sonics and pledged they would attempt to keep them in Seattle.

"I don't think you and I really want to own a team there either ... ," Ward wrote to McClendon, in the context of a partner bailing on the transaction.

When asked about the perception Bennett misled Stern last August that Sonics owners had never discussed moving the team to Oklahoma City, league spokesman Tim Frank declined to comment.

Seattle's motion filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York seeks to enforce the city's subpoena of the financial records for the NBA and all of its teams. The city recently rejected Bennett's group offering $26.5 million to settle the lease dispute and move the team after this season ends Sunday.

Seattle wants access to documents detailing how the league handles the relocation of teams, early termination of leases and what it wrote was "the NBA's direct involvement in the owners' attempts to move the Sonics."

When asked for the league's response to Seattle's subpoena that the NBA open its books, Frank said the league does not comment on pending litigation.

An assistant for Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr said Carr was traveling Thursday and would not comment.

___

AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in New York and AP Sports Writer Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

Link

Wow Bennett comes off like a complete jackass. Lying to everyone, majorly kissing Stern's butt while lying to his face... Classy.

SeattleMavsFan · 04-11-2008, 01:02 PM

Makes me sad. I live in Seattle so this definitely affects me. It's the only way I get to see the Mavs play. Like I've said countless times before, even with the ridiculous demands of 500 million for a new arena, I bet the people do it if the Sonics were kicking ass. bottom line is they suck. I first moved here a little over 10 years ago. People used to have Sonic pride. But like a lot of fans, when the team starts losing, they are no longer a fan. It's sad because Seattle has had the Sonics for over 40 years and they are going to let it go down the drain and not fight for it.

Bennet is a jackass. I hope he rots in hell. He and Stern and be together there forever. He bought the sonics with full intentions of moving to OKC.

Key Arena is in a terrible lease. It's also not in the greatest of shape so it does need some rennovations. Not 500 million worth though. I just hope there is a 3rd party here somewhere that will fork out the money to keep them here. There's been a lot of people that have talked about it but nothing has gone through yet. Problem is, I don't think there is enough money in the world that will prevent Bennett from moving the Sonics to OKC. Sad too because of the numbers that thereaper said above, the Seattle area has a lot more people than the OKC area.

DirkFTW · 04-11-2008, 01:50 PM

Can they renegotiate the lease as a middle ground between giving each other middle fingers where the sun don't shine?

horse900703 · 04-13-2008, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by antoinewalker

i want the sonics to stay in seattle.

West is too good now!

MavsWiLLHaVeRinGs · 04-13-2008, 01:15 PM

Sad to see former NBA Champions move cities. Oklahoma City Sonics sounds weird, but so did New Orleans Hornets for awhile.

nikeball · 04-15-2008, 10:03 AM

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3347564

Reports: Schultz to claim Sonics owners breached terms of sale

The former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics plans to sue the current owners to get the team back, arguing they breached a condition of the sale to make a "good-faith effort" to keep Seattle's oldest pro sports franchise from leaving town, according to Seattle-area media reports.

Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz, who sold the Sonics to an Oklahoma City-based group led by Clay Bennett, will not seek monetary damages, but wants the team back, according to his attorney, Richard Yarmuth.

Page 2: What's Your Price?

Page 2 asks what it would take for you to willingly wave good-bye to your favorite team.

• Jackson: Sonicsless in Seattle?
• Page 2 writers name their prices
• Jones: It's Bennett's right
• Vote: What's your price?
"It's not money damage. It's to have the team returned," Yarmuth said, according to The Seattle Times. "The theory of the suit is that when the team was sold, the Basketball Club of Seattle, our team here, relied on promises made by Clay Bennett and his ownership that they desired to keep the team in Seattle and intended to make a good-faith effort to accomplish that."

The team's ownership group has sought NBA approval to move the team to Oklahoma City for next season. The city has taken the team to court to enforce its lease at Key Arena, which runs through September 2010.

The lawsuit, expected to be filed in the next two weeks, comes after the city obtained and made public e-mails among members of the current Sonics ownership group, in which they are seen privately discussing a move to Oklahoma City at the same time they were publicly pledging to continue "good-faith" efforts to remain in Seattle.

After purchasing the team and the WNBA's Seattle Storm from Schultz in July, 2006 for $350 million, Bennett promised to spend one full year after the purchase was approved to seek a viable home for the Sonics in Seattle. The NBA approved the sale of the Sonics in October 2006.

Bennett's trips to Washington state to lobby for a proposed $500 million arena in suburban Renton and his hiring of a Seattle-based lobbyist and architectural firm have no bearing on the lawsuit, Yarmuth told The Times.

"We're talking about fraud at the time the contract was signed," Yarmuth said, according to the newspaper. "It's not merely what activities, good faith or otherwise, were engaged in after the contract was signed so far as lobbying for a new stadium."

Bennett and ownership partners Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward exchanged e-mails in April 2007 in which they discussed whether there was any way to avoid further "lame duck" seasons in Seattle before the team could be relocated.

Bennett responded: "I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys."

Four months later, after McClendon was quoted by an Oklahoma publication that "we didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here," Bennett told NBA commissioner David Stern in an e-mail that the group had not discussed a move to Oklahoma City.

"I haven't studied them but my sense of it was that Clay, as the managing partner and the driving force of the group, was operating in good faith under the agreement that had been made with Howard Schultz," Stern said on a conference call Monday. "His straight and narrow path may not have been shared by all of his partners in their views, but Clay was the one that was making policy for the partnership."

The NBA's owners are expected to vote on the proposed Sonics move Friday. The league's relocation committee has already approved the move.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Also from True Hoop:
You know how the Sonic owners have had an obligation to make a "good faith" effort to keep the team in Seattle?

That was not, legally speaking, an obligation to the fans of the team (ultimately the most important stakeholders in any team, yet a group that is almost never represented during a sale). It was not an obligation to the NBA. It was not an obligation to the City of Seattle, nor to the State of Washington.

The obligation to make a good faith effort to stay was to Starbucks honcho Howard Schultz and his group of former Sonic owners. Howard Schultz

So, as evidence has mounted that the current owners have not honored that commitment, the question has been -- well, does Howard Schultz want to do anything about it? Are those former owners hot under the collar about this, and do they want to go to the trouble of trying get their (newly well-managed low payroll/high draft pick) team back?

It seemed that would be the best possible ray of light for anyone who wanted, and it also seemed like a longshot.

But it is happening.

Percy Allen of the Seattle Times:

Nearly two years after selling Seattle's NBA franchise to Oklahoma City investors, the Starbucks mogul has hired a lawyer and is preparing to file a lawsuit against Sonics chairman Clay Bennett to rescind the July 2006 sale.

Attorney Richard Yarmuth confirmed Monday that his Seattle-based law firm, Yarmuth Wilsdon Calfo, is representing Schultz and plans to sue Bennett's Professional Basketball Club in the next two weeks.

"The damages that are being sought is to rescind, unwind the transaction," Yarmuth said a day after the team played what could have been its final home game in Seattle.

"It's not money damage. It's to have the team returned. The theory of the suit is that when the team was sold, the Basketball Club of Seattle, our team here, relied on promises made by Clay Bennett and his ownership that they desired to keep the team in Seattle and intended to make a good-faith effort to accomplish that."

Also, today we are once again hearing about a "side letter" that was part of the sale. You can hear an archival radio interview with Schultz about that letter from 950 KJR from 2006. According to Schultz in that radio interview, that letter commits Clay Bennett to:

... honor the four-year lease in terms of the 2010 terms, and use his best efforts over the next 12 months. And that word 'best effort' is important legal language that really, I think, articulates the fact that not only do they have an obligation but a desire.

What I understand him to have said to me personally, and in the letter, is that they're going to honor the lease and they're going to work as hard as they can over the next twelve months to try and get something done with the city and the state.

Through this fiasco, Schultz has become enemy number one of Seattle fans. Jerry Brewer of the Seattle Times thinks this whole suit is such a long shot that it is most likely just an attempt for Schultz to save some face in his hometown, even as the Sonics will inevitably leave.

I think that's a hasty assessment from a non-lawyer, without access to the full evidence of the case. There are actual lawyers who see a real opening here.

I'll reserve judgment, and watch with an open mind to see if the legal process can catch up the the changing tone of the public conversation, where things have been shifting mightily in the last few days.

A theory that strained credibility -- the fathers of a city starved for an NBA franchise didn't intend to move their money-losing team to that city? -- can now plainly be disproved with information in the public record.

That means there is not a lot of wiggle room to argue for the integrity of the effort to stay. Doing so, in the face of the new evidence, makes you sound a little out of touch.

And with this morning's news, there are three more pieces of the puzzle:

* People who have been approved as NBA owners and are willing to own the team in Seattle right now, even with its current stadium predicament.
* A legal theory to seperate the Oklahoma-based ownership from the team without their consent.
* Most importantly: a new fire of optimism lit in the hearts of those fighting to keep the team in place.

nikeball · 04-15-2008, 10:04 AM

If the Sonics were to relocate to OKC..would there be a realignment in the divisions?? OKC cannot be in the Northwest anymore.

Some Guy · 04-15-2008, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Boy Laroux

The kingdome was basically falling apart before those stadiums were built. There's nothing wrong with key arena, it just has a bad lease.

As for the support, it was there in the 90's. then Schultz took over and the GM (walker, I believe) made horrible decision after horrible decision. Are Fans expected to support a terrible product? Even with that being said, I'm sure the attendance in Seattle is better than a number of other NBA teams. I'll look it up later.

Are you saying that the fans should not have to support the team, because it is a "terrible product", but that those fans should still have control over the team?

dude1394 · 04-15-2008, 11:44 AM

F'em ....They didn't want the team and that's what you get in these days, the aughts.

Especially F shultz, trying to make nice-nice now that he's screwed the pooch. Good faith effort doesn't mean putting your head in the sand and watching the ship go down..

You want the team, you support the team, you raise hell about it being moved. Tough..

Windmill360 · 04-18-2008, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikeball

If the Sonics were to relocate to OKC..would there be a realignment in the divisions?? OKC cannot be in the Northwest anymore.

Interesting question. I was about to pose this question myself.

Would they play in our devision?

Move the mavs to the northwest division!

jthig32 · 04-18-2008, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windmill360°

Interesting question. I was about to pose this question myself.

Would they play in our devision?

Move the mavs to the northwest division!

Good God I hope you're joking. I already have to deal with frequent west coast road trips for the Rangers, and Stars fans have the same problem.

The Mavs are where they belong.

Windmill360 · 04-18-2008, 09:18 PM

Yea, the stars are in the pacific (go figure) so it could happen lol.

mavs_rock41 · 04-18-2008, 09:35 PM

well at least i get to see the mavs play since im only 2 hours away from OKC.

Kirobaito · 04-18-2008, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikeball

If the Sonics were to relocate to OKC..would there be a realignment in the divisions?? OKC cannot be in the Northwest anymore.

If they could do it, I'd try to move Milwaukee to the Northwest, and Memphis to the Central in the East, but I doubt that would happen. I think the Sonics could still be in the Northwest, because they're not all that far away from Denver, and Minnesota is also in that division, remember.

Windmill360 · 04-18-2008, 10:18 PM

Denver is pretty up there though, Oklahoma is not north at all.

chumdawg · 04-19-2008, 01:04 AM

Hell, the St Louis-cum-Arizona Cardinals played in the NFC East for a while, so it's not that big a deal.

ty · 04-19-2008, 01:43 AM

Why poor Sonics? They're not the ones that are gonna lose 4 in a row to the Mavs in the first round.

alby · 04-19-2008, 02:14 AM

haha ty

DevinHarriswillstart · 04-19-2008, 08:06 AM

What about Orlando? Did they come to an arena agreement, because their arena still has giant light bulbs sticking down from the ceiling...

Edit: Found the Orlando article, interesting....they have a go for a new arena and it's 480 mil.

http://www.slamdunkcentral.com/2008/...ic-arena-a-go/

bernardos70 · 06-16-2008, 11:56 AM

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3446394

Quote:

City lawyer says Sonics' obligation rooted in KeyArena renovation

Associated Press

Updated: June 16, 2008, 12:23 PM ET

SEATTLE -- A deal is a deal, and the Sonics should stay.

That was the message from city of Seattle lawyers as a federal trial began Monday to determine whether the NBA franchise will be forced to stay at KeyArena until its lease expires in 2010.

Sonics owner Clay Bennett has gained the league's approval to move the team to his hometown of Oklahoma City.

But in his opening statement Monday, Seattle lawyer Paul Lawrence said the city only agreed to renovate the old Seattle Coliseum -- now KeyArena -- at a cost of more than $80 million in the mid-1990s because the team agreed to stay until 2010.

He told the judge the city has every right to hold the Sonics to that bargain.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

PWNED

SeattleMavsFan · 06-17-2008, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bernardos70

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3446394

PWNED

I want them to stay for several reasons, most importantly, if they leave, I will never see the Mavs in person again. But this is getting ridiculous. The stupid new owner is going to move them to OKC. Why postpone that until 2010? I guess the ONLY good thing about the Sonics staying for two more seasons is that hopefully SOMEONE will step up and do something to get them to stay. I don't have much hope for that though...

DirkFTW · 06-17-2008, 03:53 PM

The Ghost of Athletic Sean Kemp will visit them this holiday season.

RonMexico · 06-18-2008, 10:58 AM

Somewhere Vin Baker is having a cold one.

Gus · 07-02-2008, 07:53 PM

Didn't see this posted here yet. Sonics are moving to OKC for the 08-09 season. But they won't be the Sonics anymore.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3471503

Quote:

Originally Posted by RonMexico

Somewhere Vin Baker is having a cold one.

Underdog · 07-02-2008, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gus

Didn't see this posted here yet. Sonics are moving to OKC for the 08-09 season. But they won't be the Sonics anymore.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3471503

wtf???

[acting like I care about the Sonics...]

Flacolaco · 07-02-2008, 09:54 PM

That will change their travel arrangements quite a bit....probably for the better in a lot of cases. That franchise is going to have a busy ass summer.