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I know the Supersonics staying in Seattle has pretty much been given up for dead at this point. After all, David Stern more or less made that clear the other day. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and wireless magnate John Stanton are among the local Seattle investors behind an effort to buy the Sonics and cover half the cost of a $300 million KeyArena expansion to try to keep the team in Seattle.
Normally I'm against heartless corporations like Microsoft, but here I'll make an exception.
Here's what the Seattle Times had to say about the deal:
Seattle leaders are pushing the offer of private cash as a "game changer" that ought to sway state legislators to pass an arena package to keep the Sonics from moving to team owner Clay Bennett's hometown of Oklahoma City.
Lobbyists for the city circulated draft legislation Wednesday that would authorize taxpayer money for the KeyArena project. Under the proposal, the investors who hope to buy the Sonics or another NBA team would contribute $150 million in cash, with the remaining $150 million to be covered by public funds.
Bennett is also fighting the city in court to get out of the KeyArena lease before 2010.
I'm not an expert on public taxes and everything else in the proposed deal, but I do know two things. One is that no team should ever be in Oklahoma City. It would instantly become the mid-western version of the former Vancouver Grizzlies - as in no one in their right mind would ever want to play there. And two, everyone has a price. If Seattle wants to keep the Sonics, they'll eventually have to overpay Bennett for the team, but they're certainly capable of doing it.
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