http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html
Stern sounds off on Seattle
Commissioner: If Sonics go, NBA won't return to city
PHOENIX (AP) -- NBA commissioner David Stern warned on Thursday that if the SuperSonics leave Seattle he sees no way the league would ever return to the city.
"I'd love to find a way to keep the team there," he said, "because if the team moves, there's not going to be another team there, not in any conceivable future plan that I could envision, and that would be too bad."
At a news conference following his announcement that the 2009 All-Star game would be held in Phoenix, Stern criticized the city of Seattle and the Washington legislature for its handling of the issue of funding a replacement for Key Arena.
Stern repeated earlier criticism of the mayor and city council for promoting a measure, overwhelmingly passed by voters, that requires any funds to help build an arena earn money at the same rate as a treasury bill.
That measure simply means there is no way city money would ever be used on an arena project, Stern said.
He also lamented that the state legislature refused to even consider continuing a tax that helped fund Seattle's baseball and football stadiums.
"To have the speaker of the house say well, they just spend too much money on salaries anyway, so we need it for other things," Stern said, casts aspersions on the whole league's operations. "We get the message. Hopefully, maybe cooler heads will prevail."
He was referring to a remark by House Speaker Frank Chopp last February when funding for a new arena in the Seattle suburb of Renton was proposed.
"They ought to get their own financial house in order when their payroll is over $50 million for, what is it, 10 players? I think that's a little ridiculous," Chopp said at the time. "They need to get their own financial house in order and if they did, they wouldn't have to ask for public help."
Stern's comments were much tougher than the ones he made last June, when he said he believed the issue was "just going to work itself out."
SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett told the NBA last Friday that he plans to move the team to Oklahoma City. When that move would occur depends on outcome of litigation with the city over the franchise's Key Arena lease. The lease calls for the team to play in Seattle through the 2009-10 season, but Bennett wants out sooner.
As the issue becomes more and more contentious, Stern said he hopes "that a white knight that hasn't existed before, somebody who has a building plan of how to keep the team there, will step forward."
The commissioner's comments came at the end of a news conference where he spent most of his time rehashing the one-game suspension of Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for leaving the bench after San Antonio's Robert Horry slammed teammate Steve Nash into the scorer's table in last season's conference semifinals.
NBA rules require a one-game suspension for any player who leaves the bench in such incidents.
This statement demonstrates that the politicians in Washington don't know what the they're talkng about. $50 million salary payroll is obviously one of the better payrolls of the league.
On the other hand, the Muckleshoot Indians have offered to pay the entire cost of a stadium to keep the team in Washington and Bennett has refused to bite on such a ridiculously good offer.
The only people who are really suffering in this are the Sonics fans.
Seattle and washington have some of the most re ed people and lawmakers in the usa. They deserve to lose the NBa. and the mariners and seahawks will never win championships cuz they got suckers for fans and most people are rascist bas s.
david stern is a piece of . the sonics owners are trying to rape seattle citizens again. go move to oklahoma you rednecks.
sad for seattle.
I am sorry, but there are terrible politicians all across the United States. I wouldn't single out Washington State. For instance, Texas is the home to one of the most pathetic Presidents in recent history. Seattle is a major market and the NBA is making a big mistake if they let the team move to Oklahoma City. Just look at what happened when the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis. Clay Bennett never had any intention of staying in Seattle and Stern needs to step in. Why can't Stern look for local buyers and grant Oklahoma City an expansion franchise?
You wanna hear a good one?
Clayton Bennett was elected into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame last night.
His presenter? David Stern.
Fri November 9, 2007
A Stern warning for Seattle
By The Associated Press
Staff Writer
NBA Commissioner David Stern on Thursday night criticized Seattle politicians again for refusing to build the Sonics a new arena, this time adding that the city's continued lack of support for a new facility could result in the permanent loss of the NBA in Washington.
Stern spoke to Oklahoma City reporters an hour before presenting Sonics Chairman Clay Bennett into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. During his eight-minute news conference, Stern argued that Bennett and his Oklahoma-City based ownership group have done everything possible to secure a new arena deal in Seattle. Stern, however, called those same efforts by Seattle politicians "hostile.
"Obviously, if there's not a building whenever it is that the Sonics move, then the (NBA) owners would consider the relocation application. And if the Sonics do move, that would be too bad, because the NBA would be very unlikely to have a team in Seattle again.
Moving down the line'
Last week Bennett filed an application with the NBA to relocate the Sonics and WNBA's Storm to Oklahoma City. The Sonics' future, however, is tied to the result of their pending federal court case with the city of Seattle in which the team is seeking to escape the final two years of its arena contract.
But after his induction, Bennett reaffirmed the team's intent to move either next season or when the arena agreement expires in September 2010 if no arena agreement is reached.
"We're moving down the line, Bennett said. "We're filing for relocation. The only elements that really affect that are the time, and if very quickly a tangible and binding proposal for a building comes forth. I think (Stern) is speaking to try to bring focus to where we are. He's speaking to leadership and hoping that leadership focuses on the issues and determines if in fact this is a public priority or not.
Stern often has referred to laws that have recently passed in Washington, most notably Initiative 91, which prevent public funds from going to new arenas without a fair return rate. He pointed to the legislation again Thursday night.
"The city council of Seattle was helping implement the vote on a provision which made it virtually impossible for the city to subsidize an arena, Stern said. "And the speaker of the House refused to even report the bill that would have added a basketball arena to the tax. So I don't think it's a question of whether Clay put in the effort, because I know he made the best intensive lobbying efforts to date.
"But who knows, maybe some last-minute wonderful angel will drop into the laps of the people of Seattle and come up with an arena plan and funding for it.
Stern, who has been criticized for mediating Sacramento's arena dispute with the Kings while largely sitting out of Seattle's dispute, said he would intervene only if he felt his presence would be beneficial.
"I'm not through, Stern said. "You want to serve a purpose when you think you can and not just parachute in to say you were there. If there's a way for me to be constructively involved, of course, that's my job.
"We've had a team in Seattle for over 40 years. It's been a great city, and it seems almost tragic that as a matter of timing the people who are in power turned against the team at a time that will turn out to have been a time to really go in the other direction.
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