Professional Basketball Club's Clay Bennett, National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett in March 2008. Photo/Mark Hancock
The City of Seattle and the Oklahoma City-based owners of the Seattle SuperSonics National Basketball Association franchise announced today they have reached a settlement that will allow the team to break their Key Arena lease and play their games in Oklahoma in November.
“We made it,” PBC owner Clay Bennett said in a press conference at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel. “The NBA will be in Oklahoma City next season playing their games. The move begins tomorrow morning."
PBC will pay an initial $45 million to the City of Seattle and possibly another $30 million in five years. The contingency will not be paid if another NBA team settles in Seattle.
“It was a tough experience for all of us. I don’t feel victorious, I feel I am pleased there is certainty, what is behind us is behind us. I am tempered by all the work that is ahead,” Bennett said. “I am very happy for those of us in Oklahoma who wanted it. Now it is the Real McCoy.”
Another element of the settlement is that the franchise will not use the name Sonics or SuperSonics, the team logo or colors. Bennett said a new name, logo and colors will be announced soon.
Bennett said immediately there will be a data capture platform to take names for ticket holders in two ways: on the Web site SuperSonics.com with a link to NBA OKC (the temporary logo for the team) and a phone bank 1- 888-618-HOOP.
In April, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced the league approved the relocation application for the Sonics’ owners to move the team to Oklahoma City pending the outcome of litigation between the City of Seattle and the Oklahoma City-based Professional Basketball Club ownership.
Stern said the vote was 28-2 to approve the application with the Dallas Mavericks and the Portland Trail Blazers’ representatives voting against the measure.
PBC announced its intention to purchase the team in July 2006. The NBA’s Board of Governors approved the $350 million sale Oct. 31, 2006. In November 2007, PBC President Clay Bennett informed the NBA Commissioner, David Stern, that the ownership group intended to relocate the team to Oklahoma City.
Stern said March 25 he would recommend the application be approved after visiting Oklahoma City. A group of representatives – three NBA team owners including the Los Angeles Lakers’ Jeanie Buss, the Indiana Pacers’ Herb Simon and the New Jersey Nets’ Lewis Katz -- looked and listened as city, state and business leaders presented their plan for hosting a professional team as officials visited Oklahoma City.
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