Mayor Greg Nickels announced this afternoon that the city reached a settlement with Sonics owner Clay Bennett. Ownership agreed to pay the city of Seattle $45 million in exchange for leaving town. Bennett will have to pay another $30 million if the city doesn't find another basketball team and renovate KeyArena by 2013.
The NBA has given no assurances that a team will return to Seattle. In fact, just a few months ago, NBA commissioner David Stern said that expansion or relocation to Seattle was highly unlikely.
So, Seattle Sonics fans, this is what the city is hoping for:
- The city hopes that, with no anchor tenant and no other motivation other than someday attracting an NBA team, the state legislature will extend a tax to renovate KeyArena.
- The city hopes fans will join Nickels in pressuring the legislature to push through a funding package (I thought we already did that).
- The city hopes that their study of KeyArena is correct and that the combination of women’s basketball, more concerts and maybe a Division I Seattle University basketball team will replace all the revenue from professional basketball.
- The city hopes that the NBA isn’t lying to them again, saying that there could be an NBA team in Seattle soon and that they were committed to finding a solution.
- The city hopes that the neighborhood and surrounding businesses don’t fall completely into disrepair (see example: Seattle Center).
- The city hopes by retaining the Sonics colors and history, you won't feel that bad about how this whole thing went down.
- The city hopes 41 years of history doesn't mean much to very many people.
- The city hopes that the strong local ownership interest remains interested now that the Sonics have left town.
- The city and state hope you forget about this whole little fiasco during the November elections.
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