Maybe Sonics really do want to stay

When Clay Bennett and his group of Oklahoma City businessmen bought the Sonics and Storm this summer, many fans kissed the teams goodbye.

Though Bennett has insisted at every turn he aims to keep the teams in the Seattle area, skeptics assume that's just for show. He wouldn't spend $350 million to own a team 2,000 miles from home, would he?

Maybe he would.

With Bennett expected any day now to unveil an arena proposal to take to the Legislature, he has offered several signs in recent months that he means to land a deal to keep the Sonics and Storm here.

Bennett has hired nationally respected arena architects and planners. He has enlisted lobbyists and public relations advisers with ties to Gov. Christine Gregoire and top Democratic state lawmakers. And Bennett recently named Lenny Wilkens, who coached the Sonics to their 1979 NBA championship, as team vice-chairman and adviser on the campaign.

There is no guarantee Bennett will succeed. Critics of taxpayer subsidies for professional sports promise they'll fight any demand for a hefty taxpayer contribution to a new arena.

The team's previous owners, led by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, complained they would never make a profit unless KeyArena — the NBA's smallest venue — was expanded. But Schultz failed to get far during the last two legislative sessions with proposals for taxpayer help.

Some Sonics' supporters who were initially suspicious of Bennett now believe he is serious — and is approaching the arena fight with more savvy than Schultz did.

"When we first started this we thought our role was going to be watchdogging and potentially adversarial with the organization," said Brian Robinson, director of the nonprofit group Save Our Sonics and Storm.

But after observing the new owners' actions, Robinson said, "I have been convinced of their sincerity at almost every level."

Sports-industry consultant Marc Ganis said Bennett doesn't have a choice — NBA Commissioner David Stern won't willingly trade the large Seattle market for much-smaller Oklahoma City.

"From everything I have heard and picked up in the industry, this is a serious effort," said Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd., a Chicago-based consulting firm.

"You wouldn't even want to try and move a franchise unless David Stern approves. I think he wants to make sure every possible avenue in the Seattle market is exhausted," Ganis said. "If after that it comes back it is not feasible, that's when a team owner can come back to the league and say I tried everything, you've got to do something."

NBA spokesman Tim Frank said, "We're not even looking" at letting the Sonics move. "Seattle is a terrific market. Mr. Bennett realizes that, and he wants to try to get a deal done."

As a business proposition, the advantages of remaining in the Seattle area are clear. The Seattle market is the nation's 13th largest, while Oklahoma City comes in at 45th, according to Nielsen Media Research.

However, public sentiment has not been on the Sonics' side in recent months. Seattle voters last month overwhelmingly approved an initiative to restrict taxpayer money for professional sports teams. Initiative 91 cemented the Sonics' decision to give up Seattle as a long-term home after the team's KeyArena lease expires in 2010. Bennett's group is looking at the suburbs, including locations in Bellevue and Renton.

Chris Van Dyk, the Bainbridge Island activist who filed I-91, said he doesn't buy the notion that Bennett really wants to keep the Sonics in the region.

The Sonics did not spend a dime fighting I-91. And Bennett recently said he opposed a public vote on arena subsidies — a possible deal-killer for state politicians who have said a public vote would be necessary. "They are further alienating the voters, as if that were possible," Van Dyk said.

Yet there is some evidence that Bennett's ownership group of oil, banking and other executives is approaching the looming arena fight with a strategy that could be more effective than efforts by the previous owners.

Bennett recently announced the hiring of HOK Sport, a top arena architectural firm that has built hundreds of stadiums and arenas, including Denver's Pepsi Center and San Diego's PETCO Park.

Bennett also has hired a public-relations and lobbying team with ties to Gregoire and top lawmakers.

That effort is headed by Jim Kneeland, a former press secretary to Gov. Booth Gardner and a longtime friend and political adviser to Gregoire.

The Sonics also have tapped lobbyists including Greg Pierce, former top staffer to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and Brad Jurcovich, a former aide to House Speaker Frank Chopp, as well as lobbyists Linda Hull and Vicki Austin, a mother and daughter team whose clients have included Alaska Airlines and the pharmaceutical company Merck.

Bennett has pledged to bring a proposal to the Legislature by the first week of the session. By contrast, Schultz's group showed up late during the past two sessions, demanded hundreds of millions of dollars for KeyArena and alienated even some potential allies.

The group already has impressed some with its approach compared with the previous owners. Where Schultz ignored some potential allies, Bennett has tried to embrace them.

For example, last year the Washington Restaurant Association balked at Schultz's proposal to indefinitely extend the 0.5 percent tax on restaurant bills in King County to help pay for a Sonics arena. The tax, which is currently devoted to paying off Safeco Field debt, is scheduled to end by 2015.

Schultz brushed off a possible compromise with the restaurant group. Since the restaurant tax has come in faster than expected, the Safeco bonds are likely to be paid off by 2012. The association said it would support leaving the tax in place until 2015, raising some $60 million to devote toward a Sonics arena.

While Schultz rejected that offer, Bennett's group has been receptive, said Anthony Anton, president of the restaurant group.

"The really dramatic difference is this group reached out to us; they engaged us; they said, 'OK how can we help each other keep professional basketball in the region.'

"Did they have to do that with us? No. Is it smart politics? Yes.

"Is that the kind of move you make if you have already made your mind up to leave? Not at all."

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com