City of Seattle sues its own team: Something is wrong

Today, the city of Seattle filed a lawsuit against the current owner of the Seattle SuperSonics, Clay Bennett (at right). The lawsuit claimed that Bennett must agree to keep the team in Seattle until 2010 like it stated in the contract that he signed when he bought the team, instead of moving them to Oklahoma City like Bennett has implied post-purchase. Bennett issued an ultimatum stating that if the city did not vote to build a new arena for the team by this fall, he would opt out of the contract, pay the remainder of the money due to the city from the team, and move to Oklahoma City where his company is based. Doing so will most likely significantly decrease fan support in the team until they leave, thereby losing even more money for the city of Seattle. After all, who do they really have to cheer for if they know that the team will be gone before they know it?

Now I can see how this would anger the fans in Seattle, so I set it upon myself to explore the blogosphere and see what other bloggers were saying about these recent events. I found two bloggers, one a group of lawyers, and another a talk radio host, who had opinions on these events. I posted my reactions to their comments on their blogs, which are both displayed below.

Seattle suit has a familiar ring
The moment I saw that Seattle had filed this lawsuit against Clay Bennett and the Seattle SuperSonics, the first thing I thought of was that lawsuit that you referenced with the Minnesota Twins. The Twins wound up staying in the Twin Cities, but I don’t feel that this is going to be the case with the SuperSonics. There’s now going to be perennial bad blood between the ownership and the fan base, most likely resulting in a significant drop in attendance.

Will the new presence of second overall pick Kevin Durant (at left) make a difference? I don’t think so. The city of Seattle feels that it have been misled by the new owners. I don’t think that the new group ever felt that they were going to stay in Seattle, and had always planned on going to Oklahoma City as soon as possible. To do this, they set an impossible date for the city to match in order to agree to a lucrative new arena deal. The city has spent exorbitant amounts of money in the past years building two new stadiums – Safeco Field and Qwest Field – for the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks respectively.

Like in the case of the Twins, “the Twins got the state to pony up for a new stadium, so the team is now here for the long haul.” There’s no way that this will be the case for the Sonics. In the end, I think Bassett’s group will opt out of their contract as soon as possible because the city of Seattle isn’t ready to pony up even more dough for another professional sports team – especially a losing team like the Sonics. Give it one more year and the Seattle SuperSonics will be the Oklahoma City “insert generic professional sports team name here.” And after that, there’s no chance that a team will move into Seattle. With the lawsuits filed today, within a year, professional basketball in Seattle will be done.


It’s about to get real ugly in Seattle – City sues Sonics
I couldn’t agree more with you that “Bennett has been lying since day one.” He never intended for the team to stay in Seattle, but instead had his own best interests in mind and wanted to move to Oklahoma City as soon as possible. Thus he set an arbitrary, unobtainable date for the city to come up with enough cash to erect a new arena. He knew that Seattle had just paid for Safeco Field and Qwest Field, two very expensive, state-of-the-art stadiums for two amazing and well-loved Seattle franchises. The Sonics, on the other hand, have had atrocious years recently. Why would the city of Seattle want to pay for a new arena for a team that has made the playoffs only 3 times in the past 10 years? Especially when they already have a very nice facility in the Key Arena, pictured on the right.

How do you think this will affect the team in the long run? I can almost guarantee that attendance will go down, but will the team even try anymore. Will they be the laughing stock of the Western Conference? Granted they now have one of the more electrifying players to come into the league since Lebron James, but can that really make that big of a difference to a team with absolutely no leadership? This team is a train wreck waiting to happen.

You pose the question as to whether or not the city of Seattle will ever be able to lure another professional NBA franchise to the city or not. I don’t think they will. The city feels betrayed by Bennett’s group and the team in general. I can’t see a lot of support from the city when another franchise comes calling and their only demand is that “the city brings together enough money to build a new arena.” That definitely is not going to happen. Good luck getting another franchise, Seattle, this one is over.