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Another Seattle Newspaper's version: (Some overlap, but some other information.)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basket...3_arena25.html
City sues Sonics to enforce arena lease
Owner Bennett's bid for arbitration spurs move
By GREG JOHNS
While their long-term goal is to find a solution that would keep the Sonics permanently in Seattle, city officials drew their legal sword Monday and engaged in immediate battle with owner Clay Bennett over where the team will play in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.
City Attorney Tom Carr filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court to block the Sonics' attempt to get out of their KeyArena lease before it expires in 2010.
The suit is a direct response to Bennett's decision to file a demand for arbitration Friday seeking relief from the final two years of the lease that he and his Oklahoma City ownership group inherited when they bought the Sonics and Storm 14 months ago.
Carr and former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, representing Gorton's K&L Gates law firm, announced the countermove Monday at the firm's downtown office.
"Too often, pro sports teams just run over local governments," Carr said. "Today we're standing up and saying, no, we have an agreement and we want to enforce that agreement and we want you to honor your promises."
Carr said he expects this to be "a difficult bit of litigation," but said the primary issue is simple. The Sonics' lease extends through 2010 and the city expects that condition to be met.
It will seek a judge's ruling to enforce the terms of the lease.
Bennett and his lawyers didn't return calls Monday, but the ownership group filed its demand for arbitration on the belief that the city can't legally bind the team on the "specific performance" obligation of playing out its contract in an inadequate facility when the Sonics are claiming $17 million in losses for last season.
The Oklahoma City group is willing to pay its remaining KeyArena rent under the lease, but wants the ability to move the Sonics and Storm after the 2007-08 season.
Carr believes the city is en led to specific performance, meaning a financial buyout doesn't fulfill the team's obligation of playing its games at the facility the city rebuilt specifically for that purpose in 1994-95.
"I can't imagine a set of facts where money damages were an adequate remedy to a city that went so far to provide a place for a professional team to play," he said.
The city also believes the lease clearly states that length of the agreement is one of the issues not eligible for arbitration.
Those points figure to make up the legal argument that could begin in a few months, with the court first deciding whether to halt the requested arbitration process and let the lawsuit proceed.
Gorton said the city has "one simple request," that the Sonics fulfill the full 15 years of the lease agreement signed originally by owner Barry Ackerley and inherited when Bennett and his group bought the team from Howard Schultz. Gorton said Friday's arbitration request made it clear the new owners were intent on taking the teams to Oklahoma City.
"This lawsuit," he said, "is designed to prevent that move."
The suit challenges Bennett's claim that the team lost $17 million last year because of KeyArena's shortcomings. Carr noted that the franchise was profitable before the NBA lockout of 1999, but took a downturn with just two playoff appearances in the past seven years.
"The issues with the Sonics' profitability at KeyArena have less to do with KeyArena than perhaps the Sonics' ability to defend the high pick-and-roll," Carr said. "Good teams, compe ive teams, have done well here. People of the city of Seattle have loved the SuperSonics for 40 years. For us to be at this stage is a very sad thing in that relationship."
Gorton previously helped retain Major League Baseball in Seattle when, as attorney general, he filed suit after the Seattle Pilots' departure in 1969, the result being awarding of the Mariners expansion franchise in 1977. After becoming a U.S. senator, he also helped broker the Mariners' ownership sale to Nintendo that kept the team in Seattle in 1991 after owner Jeff Smulyan threatened a move to Florida.
Gorton said recent published statements by Sonics minority owner Aubrey McClendon saying the intent has always been to wind up in Oklahoma City lent further credence to the belief the new group never was committed to Seattle.
"Regrettably, almost from the beginning, those Oklahoma owners gave every indication they did not intend a longtime stay in Seattle," Gorton said.
"They refused the request to have minority owners who were from Seattle. They incorporated the venture in Oklahoma. And more recently, one of the principal owners let the cat out of the bag by saying a move to Oklahoma was their design from the very beginning."
Bennett addressed McClendon's statement last Friday, saying his ownership partner had suffered "a stroke moment" and doesn't remember making such comments. Bennett said the opinion does not mesh with his own and that he's been intent on finding a Seattle solution.
Bennett has consistently said from the day he bought the Sonics that a new arena would be required to keep both the Sonics and Storm in Seattle. He set an Oct. 31 deadline for an arena deal to be in place, then filed the demand for arbitration on Friday while saying city officials have continually offered KeyArena as their only solution.
Gorton said, "In talking about another new and highly expensive arena for basketball in the Seattle area, they made the kinds of demands that from my perspective were almost designed to not be met, with only an extremely modest contribution (from ownership) and a huge investment from taxpayers."
Carr rejected Bennett's claim that Seattle officials aren't interested in the team, pointing to Mayor Greg Nickels' suggestion that the city would put up $100 million to rebuild the arena if the Sonics would match that figure.
"The mayor went out on a very long political limb by offering $100 million and they didn't even return his phone calls," he said. "It's not the city of Seattle that said we don't want the Sonics. It's the Oklahoma ownership that has said we don't want the city of Seattle."
Nickels recently committed $1 million to the expected legal battle. The Associated Press reported Monday that Gorton will be paid $685 an hour and fellow K&L Gates attorney Paul Lawrence will be paid $420 an hour, while some city attorney staff will also work the case.
Ultimately, even a successful suit wouldn't do anything beyond binding the Sonics to KeyArena through September 2010.
Gorton said the best outcome is building a permanent Sonics arena in the area and that remains the goal of both himself and Gov. Chris Gregoire.
"This is a step in that direction," Gorton said. "Whether it means a change of mind of the present owners, their willingness to sell or some other situation, our long-term goal is a permanent Sonics presence here."
Gorton brought Japanese businessman Hiroshi Yamauchi into the Mariners' ownership fold, though the Nintendo boss has never been to a game and the club is controlled by Seattle interests. Gorton left little question of his desired outcome with the Sonics.
"My own personal view is that you're a lot better off with local owners," he said, "and I would hope that some would present themselves."
Bennett said Friday the franchise is not for sale.
