Does Seattle Really Want Another NBA Franchise?
It has been seven years since an NBA franchise has called Seattle its home.
The Seattle Super Sonics, or as most people referred to them as the Seattle Sonics, moved to Oklahoma City to become the Oklahoma City Thunder before the 2008-09 season. This move came in response to King County declining a $500 million dollar renovation to KeyArena where the Sonics played. After multiple efforts to keep the team in Seattle owner and Oklahoma City business man Clay Bennett decided it was time to leave Seattle and find a way out of the contract that kept the team in KeyArena through 2010. After a few legal battles and controversies the team came to a settlement with the county that allowed the team to leave but could not retain the name or colors of the Sonics. Many people have written books and articles on why and how the Sonics left, however I feel like that would be beating a dead horse, instead I will talk about the possibility and the want for a team to relocate or for the NBA to expand to Seattle.
What was interesting about their relocation was that the Sonics had a relatively large fan base that didn’t want the team to leave especially after they had just drafted the future of their franchise Kevin Durant. And now that Seattle Seahawks have acquired a large and loyal fan base it brings up the question for such a large city and historically loyal fan base why don’t they have an NBA team? especially since the Sonics went from the 14th largest Television base to the 45th in Oklahoma city. But with the NBA growing in popularity wouldn’t now be as good of a time as any to expand? the NBA is close to finalizing their new collective bargaining agreement that could be finalized within a few weeks and in that deal there are “expansion escalators” meaning if the NBA were to expand they would get more money out of the deal. And what does this mean for Seattle? it means there will be a brand new team in Seattle instead of a relocated team which has become more tedious process now because of what happened in 2008. And if the new CBA is reached soon talks of expansion could be announced as early as December or as late as the All-Star game in February. It seems the only thing standing in the way of the NBA coming back to Seattle is the location of the new stadium or finding the money to renovate the old KeyArena. The more likely scenario would be to build a completely new stadium, however that has more complications to it like finding enough land and finding a county willing to approve the taxes required to build the stadium. This also doesn’t mean it needs to be located in King County either they could pull a Dallas Cowboys and build the stadium in another county that has less expensive land and more willing tax paying residents.
A huge step in the right direction came recently when Seattle Seahawks Quarterback Russell Wilson partnered with SonicsArena group, a group dedicated to bringing back the Sonics to Seattle. This is a huge endorsement from a popular athlete and business man who has already made strides twoards contacting companies that will fund a new stadium and help things get done and put stepping-stones in place before the new CBA is finalized. It seems that all of the right tools and people have been put in place and it seems like it is destiny now for The Sonics to return to Seattle. Not only would this bring increased tourism to Seattle but it would also help expand its Television market once again and possibly make Seattle one of Americas greatest sports towns
Illustration by Cameron Frazier
