Motion Includes E-mails Indicating Sonics Owners' Plan To Move
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City Of Seattle Claims E-Mails From Bennett
Show He Was Negotiating In Bad Faith |
E-mails obtained by lawyers for the city of Seattle indicated that Sonics owners were "talking enthusiastically last April about moving the franchise to Oklahoma City -- despite telling the public and the NBA they were still interested in keeping the team" in Seattle, according to Jim Brunner of the SEATTLE TIMES. The city yesterday filed a motion in U.S. District Court in N.Y. "seeking to enforce a subpoena for NBA financial documents and other records." The e-mails, which were cited in the city's motion, revealed that on April 17, 2007, Sonics Owner Clay Bennett and team investors Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward "talked about whisking the Sonics away to Oklahoma as soon as possible even though it would mean breaching the KeyArena lease." Ward wrote in an e-mail: "Is there any way to move here (Oklahoma City) 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: "That's the spirit!! I am willing to help any way I can to watch ball here (in Oklahoma City) next year." Brunner notes the exchange occurred "just after the Washington Legislature refused to authorize taxpayer money for a $500[M] Renton [WA] arena Bennett had proposed."
SONIC BOOM: Another e-mail from McClendon to Bennett and Ward, sent just after the group purchased the Sonics from Starbucks Chair & CEO Howard Schultz, included the subject line "the OKLAHOMA CITY SONIC BOOM (or maybe SONIC BOOMERS!) baby!!!!!!!!!!" As part of the city's lawsuit to hold the Sonics to their KeyArena lease through September 2010, the city obtained "thousands of e-mails from Bennett's ownership group," and Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr said that the e-mails "provide further evidence that Bennett's group did not live up to its promise ... to make a good-faith effort through October 2007 to keep the team in Seattle." The city's immediate goal in filing the motion yesterday is to "enforce a subpoena for 20 categories of internal NBA records, including financial statements from every team in the league" (SEATTLE TIMES, 4/10). Meanwhile, in Seattle, Jayda Evans today writes the second article in a five-part Seattle Times series titled "The Five Stages of Grief," which focuses on the possibility of the Sonics moving. Evans writes under the header, "Anger: Sonics Fans Have Their Say." The other four parts are denial, bargaining, depression and acceptance (SEATTLE TIMES, 4/10).
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