OKC Officials Say Sonics Now Must Relocate, Are Prepared To Sue
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Oklahoma City Officials Say Sonics Must
Relocate At End Of KeyArena Lease |
Oklahoma City officials, in a nine-page legal letter sent Thursday to an attorney for Starbucks Chair & CEO and former Sonics Owner Howard Schultz, said that the Sonics "must relocate by contract to Oklahoma City 'regardless of who owns the Team,'" according to Nolan Clay of the DAILY OKLAHOMAN. Oklahoma City officials added that the city is "prepared to sue in federal court to force the relocation." Schultz has filed suit against Sonics Owner Clay Bennett to have his '06 sale of the team "overturned because ... the new owners never intended to keep the team in Seattle, as promised." Oklahoma City Assistant Municipal Counselor Wiley Williams, in the letter, said the city already has "valid and enforceable agreements with the Team requiring it relocate to Oklahoma City at the end of the current" KeyArena lease. Williams said that Oklahoma City will spend "as much as $120[M] on projects to upgrade the Ford Center and build a practice facility," and that the city would be "obligated to sue on behalf of its taxpayers to force the team to relocate." Williams added that the city also "could seek damages." Williams said in the letter, "Damages ... will be substantial" (DAILY OKLAHOMAN, 5/10). Schultz' attorney Richard Yarmuth Friday said that Schultz "will not drop his lawsuit and intends to resell the team to owners who will keep the team in Seattle." Yarmuth: "It (the Oklahoma City letter) doesn't affect his lawsuit in any way. Neither the purpose, the prosecution or the likely outcome" (SEATTLE TIMES, 5/10).
RENOVATION REJECTED: In Seattle, Greg Johns reported a survey conducted at the request of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's investment group "showed statewide voters opposed their idea of a KeyArena renovation to save the Sonics by nearly a 2-1 ratio a week after the Legislature declined to act on the proposal in March." The relationship of the survey to the Sonics' legal case is "unclear," but Seattle developer Matt Griffin, a member of Ballmer's investment group, agreed to "unseal this particular document" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 5/10).
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: In a special to the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, The Bonham Group Chair Dean Bonham and VP/Communications Don Hinchey wrote there are "at least three completely different ways to look at" Seattle's "painful problem" with the Sonics. First, Seattle-area officials "don't recognize the value of an NBA franchise to a community; otherwise, they would make the necessary sacrifices to obtain a new facility that would keep the Sonics there." Second, the Sonics' Owners "don't understand the time-honored franchise doctrine that major league teams have a compact with their cities to stay regardless of fan support or quality of facilities because the cities supported them in their early years." Third, the "realities of modern-day sports are that many cities around the country covet an NBA franchise and are capable of supporting one. The inability of a franchise to relocate actually prevents viable markets such as Oklahoma City from enjoying the benefits of having their own team" (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 5/9).
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