Why the Sonics need to stay in Seattle.

sennin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXf3lASwjI0

I know it won't happen this year....or even in 4-5 years....but I want it to happen again.

The Sonics Fan, An Anonymous Letter
http://www.kjram.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=sonics.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SEATTLE-WA/KJR-AM/02-22-08%20Sonics%20Letter.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=SEATTLE-WA&NG_FORMAT=sports&NG_ID=KJR950AM&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=&SERVER_NAME=www.950kjr.com&SITE_ID=645&STATION_ID=KJR-AM&TRACK=

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South of Seattle

They need to stay, but . . . didn't they lose though?

xavier mcdaniel

It really is a shame with all the history there from the championship year in the 1970s, Xavier McDaniel, Tom Chambers, Jack Sikma to the 1990s with Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp.

plus any team that used Pink Floyd as the intro song is a plus for me.

suns rival

sonics' history is at stake here...

it's one of the most storied franchises in the NBA. sad to hear that there are plans to relocate the team. hope it won't happen.

sennin

South of Seattle wrote:

They need to stay, but . . . didn't they lose though?

They won that game and went on to play the Bulls in the NBA finals....and lost in 6 games.

Hartydog

I still can't believe that is looks like the league will let them leave. Just a travesty.

Drop The Leash 10

no more sonics in seattle :(

bad for New York, the Knicks aren't going anywhere

tybird

I fondly remember watching the Supersonics win the NBA title on.....tape delay!!! It wasn't until a couple of years later that CBS thought that the NBA deserved to be shown in real-time.

xavier mcdaniel

Drop The Leash 10 wrote:

no more sonics in seattle :(

bad for New York, the Knicks aren't going anywhere

that's fine, because the franchise will out-live the nonsense that's going on there, just like other franchises have moved past their dark periods.

evenflow82

Remember in the 90's when as the first seeded team they got knocked off by the eighth seeded team. Also, didn't a bunch of teams come back from 0-3 deficiets to beat them in seven games? I remember a lot of those games from my childhood.

Drop The Leash 10

evenflow82 wrote:

Remember in the 90's when as the first seeded team they got knocked off by the eighth seeded team. Also, didn't a bunch of teams come back from 0-3 deficiets to beat them in seven games? I remember a lot of those games from my childhood.

i thouhgt the sox were the only sports team to come back from a 3-0 deficet? maybe i'm wrong

xavier mcdaniel

in baseball, it's happened a few times in hockey.

Drop The Leash 10

xavier mcdaniel wrote:

in baseball, it's happened a few times in hockey.

ohhh i see.

hockey sucks.... no offense. its so boring to me

xavier mcdaniel

Drop The Leash 10 wrote:

ohhh i see.

hockey sucks.... no offense. its so boring to me

no offense taken, your loss.

sennin

tybird wrote:

I fondly remember watching the Supersonics win the NBA title on.....tape delay!!! It wasn't until a couple of years later that CBS thought that the NBA deserved to be shown in real-time.

I have Sonic Boom (the Championship recap) on vinyl!

tybird

sennin wrote:

I have Sonic Boom (the Championship recap) on vinyl!

I might still have the Sports Illustrated issue....then again I might not that had Gus Johnson on the cover.

roar

sennin wrote:

I have Sonic Boom (the Championship recap) on vinyl!

I have "Not in Our House" on tape. :P

Byrnzie

sennin wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXf3lASwjI0

I know it won't happen this year....or even in 4-5 years....but I want it to happen again.

The Sonics Fan, An Anonymous Letter
http://www.kjram.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=sonics.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SEATTLE-WA/KJR-AM/02-22-08%20Sonics%20Letter.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=SEATTLE-WA&NG_FORMAT=sports&NG_ID=KJR950AM&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=&SERVER_NAME=www.950kjr.com&SITE_ID=645&STATION_ID=KJR-AM&TRACK=

.

I thought you were talking about the 60's Seattle garage band known for hit's such as 'Psycho', 'Don't believe in Christmas', and 'The Witch'.

aNiMaL

Mayor Nickels, the unlikely new captain of the save-the-Sonics team

The politicians keep changing the lineup and throwing elbows. Here's a look at the newest team and its prospects for keeping pro basketball at KeyArena.

By David Brewster

There as many changes in the lineup of the team trying to save the Seattle SuperSonics as on the basketball team itself, which is about to execute a three-team, 11-player trade. But maybe the team-savers are starting to find a game plan, and a winning combination, to keep the team in town. Maybe.

Mayor Greg Nickels, new team captain and lead rebounder. Nickels is a surprise, since he seemed to be sitting at the end of the bench, brooding and looking for the game to end early. He got taken out of the lineup some years back when the Seattle City Council tied his shoelaces together, telling him he could not, underscore not, go down to Olympia and try to work on a deal that would keep the Howard Schultz Sonics in town. When the new owner, Clay Bennett of Oklahoma City, came calling, Nickels frosted him out. Call the governor, he'd say. Go away, I'm busy.

Yet now here's Nickels, the man with a plan. He seems suddenly earnest about trying to press Bennett to give up a team with years of losses in Seattle and settle for the New Orleans Hornets, now that the National Basketball Association seems to have engineered a public relations strategy for extracting the team from hurricane-diminished New Orleans. So Nickels went out and hired scary lawyer Slade Gorton, the former senator, to thump the Okies in court and (probably, this being a Gorton specialty) come up with local owners who can get a little better bargain when the Okies cry for mercy. Assuming a white-knight group emerges, Nickels may have the political courage and cover to put up some public money.

Another critical part of the game plan is to fix up (again) KeyArena. Three new factors make that more likely, if expensive. First is the popularity of the Seattle Storm, the WNBA team that would play there. Another is the decision by Seattle University to field a front-rank basketball team, again, and they could play at a new Key. Third factor is that putting the KeyArena renovations under the flag of a Seattle Center renewal levy would get around restrictions on spending city money for pro sports, per onerous Initiative 91, passed in 2006. And remember, if the deal does not make KeyArena whole, help the finances of Seattle Center, and save all those union jobs there, the mayor and the council will both bail — preferring in this case that the Sonics leave the region entirely.

Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, enforcer. He comes in, when needed, to inflict some ugly fouls on the other side, as when NBA Commissioner David Stern last week violated security arrangements and revealed that the Oklahoma group had offered $26.5 million to buy out the lease and leave town. A power move by Stern, since it roused the appetites of the City Council for that chunk of change. Ceis started throwing elbows, hard.

Nick Licata, whiner in a slump who loves to badmouth the team to the press. The City Council, fearful of all the cuts in popular programs they may have to make as the economy sours for next year's budget, rather likes the cash deal. Some, like new Parks and Seattle Center committee chair Tom Rasmussen, worry that the Sonics might decide to take their lumps in court, play for two more years, paying the rent, and then leave the city holding the bag for about $15 million still owing on Key Arena renovations. A buyout would be "attractive," Rasmussen told me this week.

The council, led by Licata and with an ally in state House Speaker Frank Chopp, has been most eager to show the Sonics the door, scoring points with populists and billionaire-bashers in the process. Now they see a way to hold the door for the departing Sonics (accepting a very nice tip as they do so), but they fear being blamed for losing the team. It will be a test for new council President Richard Conlin to see if the council can work with Capt. Nickels toward a unified city plan.

Ron Sims, the benched three-point-shooting star. The King County executive has long been a partner in Olympia with the Sonics, hoping to divvy up county-based hotel-motel tax revenue and other funds for King County arts, for fixing the roof at Safeco Field some day, and for Sims's parklands scheme for Seattle Center. But Sims is diagramming his own plays these days, and the other players aren't keen on working with him, at least not yet, after his defection on transportation Proposition 1. Still, he'll have to come in, late in the game.

Slade Gorton, the sixth man. Gorton got the city one team, the Mariners, by suing Major League Baseball for spiriting the Pilots out of town (to Milwaukee), and then he saved the team again by rustling up new owners, led by Nintendo. He's a game-changer when he comes onto the court (legal or otherwise), and now he's leading the city's legal strategy of holding the Oklahoma City owners to the lease at the Key. If the city wins this round, and it has home-court advantage (pun intended), it may then be time for summit talks with Oklahoma, the NBA, and New Orleans, cutting a deal where the NBA does not lose one major market while gaining two small-city teams.

That's probably all doable. What is harder to imagine is the city and Olympia coming up with the public money that would have to be part of the deal. The howling from the stands will be something awful, and our local players may get so rattled that they miss the key final shots.

Chris Gregoire, the rookie. For a while, the governor was the only public official (aside from reliable sports booster Pete Von Reichbauer of the King County Council) willing to work the problem actively, meet with the forlorn Okies, try to find a site. None of these balls were going into the net. The big, bad intimidator on the team, House Speaker Chopp, kept stepping in the lane anytime Gregoire broke to the basket, and she lost her confidence. Benched, for now.

Chris Van Dyk, mascot in the gorilla suit. Van Dyk has built a career by opposing subsidies to sports teams, and it's hard to imagine that he could resist an encore, even if a local good-guys group of owners appears, willing to put up more money than Schultz or Bennett offered. A lot depends on framing the new Sonics deal as being about the Storm, the Seattle U. team, rock and roll shows at the Key, and maybe some other non-basketball goodies. (NHL hockey? National conventions? Really good hot dogs?) Similarly, the more ogre-like the local sportswriters are able to make Clay Bennett and his rube co-owners, the more heroic will seem the band of too-rich local guys who ride into town, flashing a wad.

Could happen. And remember, around here we only rescue sports teams when it's too late to do it right.

* David Brewster is Crosscut's publisher. You can e-mail him at david.brewster@crosscut.com.

sennin

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/2004264013_sonics06m.html

Microsoft CEO may chip in millions to keep Sonics
By Jim Brunner and Ralph Thomas

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and wireless magnate John Stanton are among the local investors behind an effort to buy the Sonics and cover half the cost of a $300 million KeyArena expansion to try to keep the team in Seattle, sources confirmed Wednesday.

Neither Stanton nor Ballmer could be reached for comment Wednesday night. The other members of the investment group, Costco CEO Jim Sinegal and Seattle developer Matt Griffin, have previously disclosed their own involvement.

Seattle leaders are pushing the offer of private cash as a "game changer" that ought to sway state legislators to pass an arena package to keep the Sonics from moving to team owner Clay Bennett's hometown of Oklahoma City.

The proposed 50-50 split beats anything put on the table by Sonics owners. Even some usual critics of taxpayer subsidies for pro sports — including anti-stadium activist Chris Van Dyk and Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata — say it could be a good deal.

But Bennett has repeatedly said the Sonics aren't for sale. And the effort to push a bill through the Legislature in the waning days of the session may share the fate of similar proposals over the past three years that showed up late and fell flat.

"They do the same thing every year. They come in at the last minute," said House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam. "I don't see it happening."

Lobbyists for the city circulated draft legislation Wednesday that would authorize taxpayer money for the KeyArena project. Under the proposal, the investors who hope to buy the Sonics or another NBA team would contribute $150 million in cash, with the remaining $150 million to be covered by public funds.

"It's late. It's very last minute, all the parties acknowledge that," said Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, referring to the Legislature's scheduled adjournment next week. But if lawmakers pass up this chance, Ceis said, "the offer won't necessarily be there next year."

The possible involvement of Ballmer and Stanton has been the subject of much speculation, but their roles have been kept secret even from many of the lawmakers in Olympia being asked to approve the tax package. Stanton, who founded Western Wireless, was a part-owner of the team under the previous ownership group, led by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

Ceis declined to comment Wednesday on whether Ballmer or Stanton were involved.

The proposal calls for raising $75 million by temporarily extending car-rental and restaurant taxes. Those taxes, collected only in King County, are currently used to pay off the debt on Safeco Field. The remaining $75 million in public funds would come from the city of Seattle, through an admissions tax at KeyArena or other revenues generated by the building.

The tax money would be tapped only if Ballmer's group is able to buy the Sonics or another NBA team and agrees to a "legally binding commitment" to pay $150 million, according to the draft legislation.


Griffin, who would not discuss the identities of other investors, said they all believe the team is a crucial part of Seattle's quality of life.

"Our friends believe that having good professional sports teams is important to a community just like great universities, operas and theaters," Griffin said. "Nobody goes to all of them, but they're the attributes that allow you to attract the best elements to a town."

The latest effort comes as the Sonics appear to be getting closer to a move to Oklahoma City.

Voters there Tuesday overwhelmingly approved $120 million in taxes for an arena upgrade and practice facility aimed at luring the Sonics.

Bennett is fighting the city in court to get out of the KeyArena lease before 2010.

Next month, NBA owners will meet to decide whether to approve Bennett's request to move the team.

Even if a competing arena plan is approved in Olympia, Ceis acknowledged there is no guarantee that Bennett would sell the team back to local owners. Bennett and a group of Oklahoma businessmen purchased the Sonics and Storm in 2006 for $350 million from Schultz's group. The Storm was sold in January to a group of Seattle-area owners for $10 million.

Ceis said without a viable arena plan here, the NBA won't consider another bid by a local ownership group to buy the Sonics or bring another franchise here as a replacement.

"There is a window here that this ownership group sees. A decision by the NBA will be made in the next couple months," Ceis said. "They believe now strategically is the right time."

Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, who sponsored a previous Sonics arena-tax proposal, said backers are trying to dodge pitfalls of previous bills.

"They're definitely more savvy. They're definitely going at it with a lessons-learned approach," Pettigrew said.

In addition to the offer of private money, backers of the latest plan have quietly briefed critics of past arena plans to try to win their endorsement.

Licata, the Seattle city councilmember who drew the ire of Sonics fans a couple of years ago when he told Sports Illustrated the team's departure would have little impact on Seattle, said the latest proposal is headed in the right direction.

"Their intentions are good if they're looking to keep public contributions to a minimum and then maximizing private contributions, which is more than anybody else has mentioned," Licata said.

In 2006, Schultz's ownership group offered $18 million toward a proposed $220 million KeyArena expansion. Bennett last year offered $100 million toward a $500 million arena he wanted to build in Renton.

Van Dyk, the anti-stadium activist, said he thinks the latest proposal could be a good deal for taxpayers.

Van Dyk said he's been briefed on the plan and thinks it would meet the requirements of Initiative 91, approved by Seattle voters two years ago. The measure requires any arena subsidies for pro sports teams to turn a profit for the public.

Van Dyk suggested the arena plan may not even require a public vote.

"If it meets the terms of I-91, as far as I'm concerned, the public has already had its say-so," Van Dyk said.

But another powerful critic of pro sports subsidies, the Services Employees International Union (SEIU), is withholding judgment.

"We continue to be highly skeptical of any plan which takes scarce public resources and uses them primarily for the benefit of a for-profit, private sports team," said David Rolfe, president of SEIU Local 775.

But Rolfe said his union could come around if the proposal is broadened to include public benefits such as low-income housing or health care.