Olympia may have passed up on the Sonics, but Seattle's Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis says the city is not throwing in the towel. With an April 10 deadline looming to take advantage of the $150 million offered by the new ownership group, Ceis told the TNT's Eric Williams that "we’re going to give it our best shot."Ceis admitted that coming up with the missing $75 million expected from the state will be difficult, but thought something could be done.
Art Thiel has a well thought out piece discussing the situation at the PI, while Greg Johns runs down the possible next steps in this ongoing saga (and gets in more than a few digs at David Stern while he's at it).
At this point, the next move belongs to the city. It seems that the powers there are firmly in support of the Sonics, so the only moves to be made are finding ways to come up with $75 million, whether it be selling the arena to the new owners, adding more tax to the proposed admission tax, or some other machinations.
Ray Allen on the Sonics' possible relocation: "Every guy that played in Seattle or visited Seattle loves that city and says that it would be a travesty not to have a team there. People love visiting."
ReplyDeleteside note: my friend pointed out to me, and has anyone else noticed: They've removed the word Seattle from everywhere on the sonics website? it's just 'supersonics,' not seattle supersonics. f***ing clay bennett et al...
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