Cities jockey for position within NBA

Like children slowly pacing in a game of musical chairs, Seattle, New Orleans and Oklahoma City are anxiously circling around the Sonics and Hornets franchises.

Once the music to stops, a mad scramble is certain to begin.

"There's three cities, two teams, and when this is all said and done, somebody is going to be left without," said Steven Pyeatt, co-founder of grass-roots group Save Our Sonics. "That's just the reality."

Despite significant economic shortcomings, each city is taking steps to secure one of the NBA teams for many years.

No stranger to moving, the Hornets originally began play in Charlotte in 1988, moved to New Orleans in 2001, then temporarily relocated to Oklahoma the last two seasons before returning to New Orleans this season.

The Sonics were born in Seattle 41 years ago and have stayed in one place.

Today's 57th All-Star Game caps a four-day basketball carnival in New Orleans 2 ½ years after hurricanes ravaged the Gulf Coast. And while the All-Star Game won't feel the pinch because the event routinely brings in crowds, no matter the location, the city's sagging post-Katrina population has hurt Hornets attendance. And unless crowds drastically improve, owner George Shinn can terminate his lease and relocate the team after the 2008-09 season.

In Oklahoma City, voters will decide March 4 whether to support a $120 million package that would renovate the Ford Center and build a practice facility. Sonics owner Clay Bennett, who hopes to move the team to his home state next season, said the proposal would be "exactly what we need for the foreseeable future."

And in Seattle, while the city prepares for a June 16 trial to block Bennett's move and force him to honor the final two years of a KeyArena lease, civic leaders are working behind the scenes to save the Sonics.

They have privately discussed a $350 million package — which includes $150 million from the public, $100 million in naming rights and $100 million from team owners — to renovate KeyArena even though Bennett has repeatedly said the building is not viable.

Seattle's city attorney, Tom Carr, said Saturday that the city rejected a $26.5 million offer from Bennett's group to try to buy out the last two years of the lease.

However, there is a move to persuade the NBA and Bennett to reconsider or sell to local ownership.

Local and state officials have identified two or three potential buyers who have the capital and interest to purchase the Sonics, The Seattle Times has learned.

One of the would-be owners is Seattle investor Dennis Daugs, a former part owner of the Sonics and Storm, who had previously informed Bennett that he has put together a group that would buy the team from the Oklahoma City ownership group.

After the Professional Basketball Club purchased the Sonics and Storm in 2006, Bennett steadfastly maintained the teams were not for sale. However, in January, the Storm was sold for $10 million to Force 10 Hoops, a group of four women investors from the Seattle area.

"On the one hand, the franchise said it was never going to split the two teams, and of course they just did, so that says they can change their minds about such things," King County Councilman Pete von Reichbauer said at the time of the sale.

As voters in Oklahoma City wrestle with the idea of committing tax dollars to the Ford Center, opinion is divided as to whether professional sports franchises have a significant impact on a city's economy.

Two college economics professors, Victor Matheson and Robert Baade, spent more than a year researching the effects the Hornets and NFL Saints have on New Orleans and determined that the city would be better served to allow both teams to leave and focus its financial resources elsewhere.

"We've taken a look at all sorts of things related to professional sports and local economic development, including factors like personal income, employment and taxable sales," said Matheson, with the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. "Invariably, we find that the sports teams leaving and sports teams coming in and the construction of new stadiums has no significant economic impact on host cities."

In the past year, Bennett has espoused different sides of this argument.

When he lobbied for a new $500 million events center in Renton, Bennett spoke glowingly of the benefits of the Sonics to the region. Now Bennett says the city wouldn't miss the team if it leaves.

"There is certainly some status with having a professional franchise," Matheson said. "It means more for a city like Oklahoma City that is distinctly a non-major-league city than it should for a city like Seattle. Seattle is not going to disappear off the map if it loses the SuperSonics."

He added, "Oklahoma City is trying to put itself on that major-city map. Professional teams can help in that way, but don't expect it to make them rich. The team may make the folks in Oklahoma City happier or prouder, but by no means should they expect an NBA team to make them richer."

According to the New Orleans visitors bureau, the Hornets deliver about $160 million to the local economy, including direct spending by the Hornets, state and local taxes paid and purchases by fans from outside the New Orleans area.

That doesn't include this All-Star weekend, which is expected to generate $80 million to $90 million, based on the event in Las Vegas last year.

"If you ... think that there's no economic impact associated with having that [All-Star Game] in New Orleans, then you're absolutely wrong," said Jay Cicero, president of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. "There's no doubt about it. You see the celebration. You have to be here to understand it. ... The Saints and the Hornets have an incredible economic impact. Not only through their payroll, but what they do in the community."

Cicero points to overflow crowds in the French Quarter during special events and hundreds of millions spent on downtown reconstruction as evidence that New Orleans is returning to its pre-Katrina days.

In the past two months, the Superdome hosted the Bayou Classic (the annual gridiron clash between Grambling State and Southern), the New Orleans Bowl and the college-football national championship game. The city also plans to make bids for the men's and women's NCAA Final Four, Cicero said.

"There's the city as a hospitality community, which is about 85 percent back [since Katrina], and then there's the city as a whole," Cicero said. "I can't really put a percentage on that. When you look at the devastated areas that remain, it's a tale of two cities. It's a tale of the economic engine in tourism being able to generate jobs and taxes and financial stability for people to be able to afford and rebuild their homes in the city."

The Hornets' future is unclear. Despite having All-Stars Chris Paul and David West on the roster and a conference-best 36-15 record, New Orleans has the second-lowest average attendance in the NBA at 12,645. The team also has an unsatisfactory cable deal in which one-third of its total TV audience is unable to receive games. Attendance figures are propped up by NBA national corporate sponsors' purchases of one-year packages for suites and advertising.

New Orleans' top sports priority is securing a future for the Saints, whose Superdome lease expires in 2010. Many think the town isn't big enough to support two professional sports teams. The latest population figure for Orleans Parish is 300,000, down from 455,000 before August 2005.

If Shinn opts out of the lease and takes the Hornets elsewhere, he'd have to pay about $100 million in fees to minority partner Gary Chouest and the state of Louisiana.

NBA commissioner David Stern told reporters in New Orleans last week that sports teams are an entertaining diversion, but they're not the key to the city's recovery.

"When you're talking about education, housing, infrastructure and all the things the city is focusing on, sports is a good thing, but it pales in comparison," he said. "A good manufacturing plant with 3,000 jobs is a heck of a lot more important than a sports team."

This weekend, the Big Easy is doing what it does best: party. It's celebrating the NBA's showcase of its greatest stars. But very soon, the music will stop and New Orleans will wonder whether the All-Star Game will return and whether the Hornets will move again.

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com