Seattle Sonics

Open Letter to Clay Bennett

Open Letter to Clay Bennett

Dear Mr. Bennett,
You know and we know that you are a liar and a cheat. You deceived an entire city and took from us a beloved team. Not to mention the businesses you have hurt in the process.

Let this note serve as a reminder to your friends and family (Please don't breed any more, the world is a better place without your kind) who and what you really are.

Seattle Basketball fan

PS - You are not welcome in Seattle, WA. USA

Bye Bye Seattle Sonics

From this. . . . .

To this. . . . .

Seattle, Bennett Slam Door on the Sonics

The deed is done.

The SuperSonics and Seattle reached a settlement of their legal feud: Clay Bennett gets to take the team to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season, while Seattle gets $45 million and another $30 million if the state authorizes a certain level of funding to renovate KeyArena and the city doesn’t get another NBA franchise within the next five years — something NBA commissioner David Stern hinted could happen. The team’s name, logo and colors remain in Seattle.

While the mood in Seattle is despairing, it’s dimly possible that another shoe could drop: Former Sonics owner Howard Schultz, of Starbucks fame, is suing Mr. Bennett’s group to strip them of ownership, arguing that Mr. Bennett reneged on a promise to negotiate in good faith for a new arena before trying to relocate. If Mr. Schultz prevails, the Sonics could potentially be forced to return to Seattle — Mr. Schultz and his lawyer aren’t seeking an emergency injunction to stop the move in hopes of building a better case, and that case isn’t expected to go to trial for nearly a year.

Read full story [Wall Street Journal]

Oklahoma City vote could mean improvements for Sonics' future home

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Voters in Oklahoma City have an upcoming vote on a temporary tax to pay for improvements to the Ford Center -- which could be the future home of the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Sonics have applied with the league to relocate to Oklahoma City, and the city's election, likely to be on March 4th, will come about a month before NBA owners vote on the Sonics' application.

The city expects the extension of a current one-penny sales tax for an additional 12 to 15 months will raise about $100 million for improvements to the Ford Center, which hosted the New Orleans Hornets for two seasons while they were displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Local economic officials estimate the Hornets had a $66 million economic impact on Oklahoma City during their first year in the city.

Make the Sonics, Storm our own

City should buy the teams and wave goodbye to Clay Bennett et al
For everyone who thinks sports should bolster and not betray communities, consider this a call to arms. NBA commissioner David Stern has let it be known that when it comes to the battle for the Sonics, he will stand with owner Clay Bennett and his Oklahoma rustlers over the basketball fans of Seattle.

Bennett, a man who has spent less time in Seattle than the sun, has made it clear that unless a deluxe, publicly funded arena is built, he will take "his team" and move it to his home base in Oklahoma City. Without shame, Bennett is holding economic hostage a city with serious education and health care shortfalls.

Stern's recent comments show that he will back the billionaire Bennett over the people who have supported the Sonics for four decades. "I'd love to find a way to keep the team there," he said, "because if the team moves, there's not going to be another team there, not in any conceivable future plan that I could envision, and that would be too bad."

This hasn't exactly been a great recent run for Stern -- what with a betting scandal involving a referee, the flap over his dress code and a failed experiment with a synthetic basketball -- but this moment is his absolute nadir. Stern is siding with a man who has made it his intention from Day 1 to break Seattle's heart by any means necessary.

Bennett hasn't acted in bad faith, he has acted in no faith.

"When the team was bought from the previous ownership, they told us and everybody in the city that they sold it to a group that they thought would most likely keep the team in the city," former Sonics star Ray Allen, who was traded to the Celtics last offseason, told the Boston Globe. "Everybody thought that was some [garbage]. How is someone from Oklahoma City going to buy a team in Seattle who doesn't have any ties [in Seattle] and has big money in Oklahoma? If things don't go right, everybody's craving for the team to move to Oklahoma City."

Bennett has already filed for relocation. His minority partner Aubrey McClendon said in August that Bennett's group "didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle." There is a slight problem, however, with the plan to put the team in Sooner country: The Sonics' lease at Seattle's KeyArena lasts through the 2009-2010 season.

Read full story [By DAVE ZIRIN - Seattle times]

OKC Sonics no sure thing

Written By TED MILLER
Seattle P-I COLUMNIST

"And I saw when the Reporter opened one of the Press Releases, and I heard the noise of thunder, a Man From Oklahoma City saying, Come and see. And I saw, and beheld a white horse, and he that sat on him had a Threat of Relocation for the Sonics. And, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind."

And everyone knows that an untimely fig shaken by a mighty wind or an out-of-town owner formally announcing his dastardly plans to rip a professional sports franchise away from its home of 41 years is a real bummer of an apocalyptic moment.

Or not.

In a gesture utterly devoid of drama, the lead horseman of the Seattle Sonics apocalypse, Clay Bennett, cast a single 475-word document at this city and then galloped away:

"Given the clear lack of public, political, and business support for a new multi-purpose arena, plus the enactment of Initiative 91 as a City of Seattle ordinance following a public vote authorized by the Seattle City Council itself, and the significant operating losses the businesses are now incurring, we have no option but to commence the NBA relocation process.

"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."

In sum: As soon as the law permits, the Sonics are leaving for Oklahoma City, whether that is next season or in 2010.

Not exactly conquest, war, famine, pestilence and the Whore of Babylon, but it clearly articulates the threat to Seattle's oldest pro sports franchise.

So we arrive exactly at the destination most predicted on July 18, 2006, when Howard Schultz betrayed the public trust by selling the franchise to a group that fully intended relocation from the beginning -- unless, of course, it could finagle a sweetheart deal for a new arena that would generate a revenue stream far exceeding the trickle that could be expected in Oklahoma City.

What now?

Well, the first question is do enough people still care, and the second is do any of them have the means or will to lead the salvation effort?

Read Full Article Here. . .

Seattle attorney calls Sonics owner insulting

The AP - The Seattle city attorney says the Sonics owner is insulting fans by announcing his plan to move the team to Oklahoma City.

City Attorney Larry Carr says the league deadline for Clay Bennett to signal his intent isn't until March 1 and doing it now "continues the current ownership's insulting behavior."

Carr says the city intends to hold the team to its lease to play in the Key Arena through the 2009-2010 season.

And Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels says he'll do everything in his power to enforce the lease and keep the Sonics in the city.

Bennett says he'll relocate Sonics to Oklahoma City

SEATTLE -- Sonics owner Clay Bennett says he'll file with the NBA to relocate the team to Oklahoma City.

Bennett says he notified commissioner David Stern that he wants to move as soon as the team can get out of its Key Arena lease or at the end of the lease in 2010.

Bennett says the Sonics have been losing money and there's been no progress in building a new arena.

Earlier today a group led by a former Sonics minority owner said it's interested in buying the franchise. Dennis Daugs is an investment manager who says his group wants to save the Sonics for Seattle and keep the team playing in the Key Arena.

Bennett has said the team is not for sale. His group of Oklahoma City businessmen bought the Sonics last year for $350 million.