Despite all of the court cases, despite all of the pleading from the fans and despite the possibility of other ownership options stepping in to help keep the Supersonics in Seattle, a majority of National Basketball Association owners voted today to allow the team to relocate to Oklahoma City.
A majority of owners voted to approve the Sonics' move, according to Richard Peddie, president of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NBA's Toronto Raptors.
Peddie didn't give a vote total as he emerged from the closed-door session in New York.
This is a pretty aggressive move by the NBA owners, but entirely shocking. Allowing Clay Bennett to truck the Sonics out of Seattle gives them ridiculous precedent (of the non-legal variety right now) to demand new facilities and upgrades for other teams in various cities simply by threatening relocation.
Still, there's no guarantee that the NBA owners vote will hold up. The Sonics have already been taken to court by both the city of Seattle and Howard Schultz has stated publicly that he intends to sue the team as well. Schultz' case seems like it has the best chance of keeping the Sonics permanently in Seattle, if only because it has the potential to reverse Clay Bennett's purchase of the franchise on the grounds that he negotiated in bad faith by intending to move the team all along.
David Stern has taken some heat and a popularity hit from his support of Bennett -- a longtime friend -- and preferring not to support the city of Seattle -- a long time franchise. But secretly, this works out well for the NBA either way. With the best playoff season in recent memory about to kick off Saturday, all of a sudden all eyes are focusing on the league. Not to mention that this is the type of "outside the basketball niche" controversy that will engage a large number of people well past the NBA season.
Update: Apparently the vote was 28-2 (ouch) and it appears that only Paul Allen (Portland owner and a Seattle native) and Mark Cuban (who already said he would oppose) voted against it.. And Washington state Governor Chris Gregoire just released a statement about the vote, which is both appropriate and not out of the ordinary.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-18-2008 @ 4:13PM
tw said...
This will be interesting to see how it plays out. I hope it works for Clay and his guys since I live in OKC and looking forward to seeing the Sonics there next season.
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4-18-2008 @ 4:21PM
wvpv said...
Up next George Shinn ripping the heart out of New Orleans when he moves the Hornets to Kansas City.
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4-18-2008 @ 4:27PM
Ryne Nelson said...
No surprise here. There's nothing stopping Bennett from doing what he wants, in my opinion. He's the owner, he's the man.
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4-18-2008 @ 5:02PM
Chummy24 said...
Hopefully George Shinn will move the Hornets to OKC as well as the Sonics. You know what, how about we move all the teams besides Portland and Dallas to OKC. That sounds good to me... Yippee!
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4-18-2008 @ 5:05PM
james.jewell said...
You can't really be shocked by this, right? And the only reason Cuban voted against it is that Dallas is by far the closest pro team to OKC and he doesn't want to lose money.
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4-18-2008 @ 6:33PM
oustubbs said...
I don't think this is shocking at all. The current owners of the Sonics had no intention of ever keeping the team in Seattle. Just another example of professional sports letting down fans in one city and exciting fans in another (ie. the Browns move to Baltimore, etc.) Professional sports are big business and like most large corporations decisions are made by a few people, at least Seattle gets to keep the name, mascot and colors.
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4-18-2008 @ 6:46PM
Cruncher said...
No surprise. I was amazed at how hard Bennett worked to secure a deal in Seattle, when nobody else had been able to get that them to come up with a workable deal for a new arena. Apparently Oklahoma City wanted this team more than Seattle.
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4-18-2008 @ 11:11PM
mdeand said...
It's sad that the Sonics are likely leaving Seattle, but it is apparent the local officials there weren't willing to step up when needed. The new owners of the franchise ought to be able to move it to where they are wanted -- which, in this case, is Oklahoma City.
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4-19-2008 @ 4:47PM
Jesus said...
Worst moment in NBA history. Sad that one of the most loved franchises has to move from a amazing city to the middle of inbred country. Stern just went from a great commissioner to a horrible one with the worst dicission a commissioner has ever made. All NBA fans feel for you Seattle
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