SEATTLE (AP) _ If David Stern has his way inside his own league,
the SuperSonics will remain in Seattle.
The NBA commissioner, an associate of Sonics owner Clay Bennett
for more than a decade since Bennett was the San Antonio Spurs'
representative on the league's board of governors, said he thinks
Bennett will find a way to get a new arena built in the Seattle area
to keep the Sonics in their home for the past 40 years.
If Bennett doesn't find that way by Oct. 31, he has promised to
begin the process of relocating the team, most likely to his
hometown of Oklahoma City or to Kansas City, which is looking for an
anchor tenant for its new arena.
``I think it's just going to work itself out and I hope it
does,'' Stern said Thursday at the NBA final in San Antonio. ``It's
been a good city for the NBA and we'd love to stay there.''
Stern acknowledged that Bennett ``has more than exhausted the
traditional means'' to getting a new arena built in the Seattle
area. Before it adjourned in April, the state legislature rejected a
plan to use King County tax revenues to cover US$278 million of a
proposed $500 million arena in the suburb of Renton.
Short of Bennett asking Gov. Chris Gregoire to call back
lawmakers for a special session to reconsider the issue _ which the
governor's office confirms Bennett has not done _ there is no way
the Sonics can get public money approved for a building before
Bennett's deadline.
``But sometimes in situations like that, something that you
couldn't have contemplated comes to the forefront and maybe there's
some possibility,'' Stern said.
With public financing unavailable, Bennett currently has one
private, Seattle-area investor interested in helping him build a new
arena.
The Muckleshoot Indian tribe owns land that includes and
surrounds the Emerald Downs race track in Auburn, Wash., and its
tribal council is exploring how that land might be used for an
arena, tribal spokesman Rollin Fatland said. The site is 40
kilometres from downtown Seattle.
Representatives of the tribe, which runs one of the state's
biggest casinos, met with Bennett in February in what Bennett called
``purely an introductory meeting.''
``I have not spoken with them since,'' he said. ``I am willing
and ready to respond to anything they want to talk about.''
For now, Muckleshoot leaders are talking among themselves about
whether to proceed. The tribal council was meeting Friday.
Stern said he was vaguely aware of the Muckleshoots' interest.
``I read about some possible Indian tribe involvement but all I
know is what I read,'' the commissioner said.
When Bennett, who last summer bought the Sonics with seven
co-investors who are also from Oklahoma for $350 million, was asked
Wednesday if he would accept Seattle-area investors to become
partners in the team to help keep them in the area, he said: ``I
just don't want to speculate on any deal. We have not been presented
with anything. But we are receptive to listening to any proposal.''
As for Seattle itself, deputy mayor Tim Ceis said Thursday the
city will continue to enforce the lease the Sonics have to play in
KeyArena through 2010, though he acknowledged both sides could agree
to amend their agreement to allow a buyout.
Such an agreement would presumably cover the money the city would
lose should the Sonics leave before 2010. Ceis said the Sonics have
not yet approached the city about renegotiating the lease.
Stern applauded Bennett for working through frustrations in
Seattle.
``It doesn't have the arena of the future and the city itself,
Seattle, has turned a little bit hostile to the team,'' Stern said.
``And the leadership of the city and the owners and the legislature
has refused even to bring the issue to a vote. So I could understand
Clay Bennett's frustration.
``But I also appreciate his efforts to sort of state it honestly
... to be there and to take any call, pursue any suggestion or do
whatever anyone thinks is a good idea. He's demonstrated to me that
he's got staying power, malleability and good humour.''
