Sonics Should Just Go Ahead and Leave Seattle Now

By Bethlehem Shoals
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I live in Seattle and cover the NBA, so I guess I should care about this:
[quote="The Seattle Times"]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.
...
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.[/quote]
Numbers and taxes confused the hell out of me, so I haven’t really followed all the lackluster offers this city’s cobbled together. But there’s a basic failure to communicate here: Clay Bennett and his cowboy cabal are near-fanatical in their desire to take this team from Seattle. David Stern has already purchased the headstone. This city’s rich people and officials seem to be the only ones who think this is still negotiable, and they’re still acting like they’ve got leverage when they don’t. At all.
I’m a total blue state snob, but in this case, I’ve got to take the other side: The stench of entitlement here is overwhelming. I’ve yet to see government or private citizens pull anything that wasn’t half-hearted, when that final reckoning is hanging in the air. There’s so much private money in this town that I get rich walking down the street, so why no frantic power moves until now? And there’s also this veneer of indifference: The NBA lags way behind baseball, football, and stuff like cycling and rock-climbing, and decreased carbon footprints.
Seattle, wake up: Unless the city agrees to pay for a new arena in full, or Bill Gates offers Bennett ten times what the franchise is worth, the fight is over. Fine, this husk of a team might hang around until the lease formally expires. But honestly, I’d rather they just go ahead and exit. And then, we sit back and watch the Sonics shrivel up and die in OKC.
Remember that whole trial Hornets run? The Hornets were decent. They had Chris Paul. They could win. Bennett was an idiot to not swap franchises with Shinn, since all he’s got now is a crappy team in a city no one wants to be in. And a should-be superstar who’s about to lose his patience.
UPDATE: Yep, this sure is promising news:
[quote="The Seattle P-I"]Lawmakers said the Legislature will not extend taxes to help remodel KeyArena for the city and a new ownership group that is trying to buy the Sonics.
House Speaker Frank Chopp, a strong opponent of public subsidies for a privately owned NBA team, deferred to Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Anacortes, to speak for the Democratic caucus.
Morris said it is simply too late to bring up a controversial bill - one that has not in fact been drafted yet - in this year’s legislative session, which is scheduled to adjourn next week.
“There is absolutely no chance of us considering it this legislative session,” Morris said.[/quote]↵