Update...
So the settlement is this, however Nickels sugarcoats it: the team is gone, though we get the team colors and history.
Bennett is on the hook for $75 million, with $30 million of that payable in 2013 if Seattle hasn't gotten an NBA team by then. But that $30 million is only payable if the state legislature ponies up money to renovate KeyArena. So, Nickels is trying to shift the onus/blame back to the state legislature.
The NBA, according to Nickels, says that "renovated KeyArena is an acceptable solution." But that requires absolutely no commitment by the league.
Here's what the NBA has committed to, according to Nickels: "The NBA will notify us when teams are for sale, or when there are plans for expansion."
"We think we have opened a better door for a new team...but there is no guarantee."
"What we would like to do is have the basketball fans go to the legislature, get the funding we need, we have a committed local ownership, and we are the 13th largest market in Seattle."
"We think we would've won the case...but that would've just kept the team here for two years, and at the end of that time we would've had a very bad relationship with the league."
"We think [the settlement] is a better option for us to keep the team here."
City Attorney Tom Carr on the Schultz case: "If Schultz wins, then the team stays here and this deal goes away."
This thing about how "the NBA agrees that a renovated KeyArena is an acceptable facility" is silly. It doesn't matter what the NBA says--it matters what an owner says. An NBA owner could play in the Ingraham High gym if he felt like it (ok, not really, but you get the idea).
PRESS CONFERENCE OVER.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Bye-Bye Sonics
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2 comments:
So, the city settled because after two "lame duck seasons" they'd have a bad relationship with the league and the team would be gone.
Given what Stern has said about city officials, I'd say the two are already on fairly bad terms. I don't really see how this helps relations.
Oh well, can't wait to hear how bad of a basketball town OKC is. Lets see them sell out games in April with this current line-up.
"A bad relationship with the league..."
This is a reason to capitulate? What exactly would they have done? Fix more games? Turn down a sale of the team to someone local?
Greg "Gutless Wonder" Nickels just lost another game of chicken in the most cowardly way possible, and tries to pass it off as good news. I mean, seriously, why not settle before going to court? Bad PR? Why go to court in the first place?
He doesn't realize that he has now become the political scapegoat for all of this, when previously it was going to go to Gregoire.
But, again, that may just be my bitterness coloring my thoughts on the matter. Apparently, the voo doo dolls aren't doing their job.
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