New owners kept Storm in Seattle

Where darkness was expected, there was light.

Kristen O'Neill, a former Washington and Meadowdale High star who has been invited to the Storm's training camp, was working out at the practice facility Thursday. This was the same place where just an hour earlier the Sonics had concluded exit interviews for what could be their final season in Seattle.

How the WNBA franchise escaped a fate similar to the Sonics lies with people like Anne Levinson, Ginny Gilder, Lisa Brummel and Dawn Trudeau, the team's owners.

And today, after six months of miserable news for Seattle basketball fans, a new outlook will materialize. The solidified Storm will open training camp for what it hopes is its best season since winning the championship in 2004.

But it wasn't easy for the organization to reach this point. The new owners had to wrestle with the former Oklahoma City ownership group to purchase the team. They had to secure new sponsorships, like the recently unveiled Olivia, a national travel and entertainment company. They had to hire employees, write checks, tie up loose ends.

Yet, they're here. And for Storm fans who have been following the team since its inception in 2000, that's enough.

For now.

Keeping the Storm

Scribbled fourth on a Dry-Erase board was Storm fans' ultimate wish.

• Join forces with the grass-roots organization Save Our Sonics;

• Keep the Storm in Seattle, even if the Sonics move;

• Work with new owner Clay Bennett to find funding for a new facility;

Then ...

• Find a private owner for the Storm.

Of course none of the 20 or so fans gathered at the Theatre Off Jackson in the city's International District that day in the summer of 2006 knew anyone with that kind of money.

And not wanting to anger Bennett, they kept that dream quiet.

There was speculation among Storm fans that Bennett and his ownership group never wanted the Storm and could simply relocate the team to Oklahoma City only to dissolve the franchise as a tax write-off. So a few sent e-mail nudges to the richest women they could think of, and a few of those landed in Brummel's inbox.

"Probably because of my visibility in the city," Brummel said, bashfully explaining why she would be singled out by fans. "They know my interest, and I probably got five or six e-mails asking, 'What about you? Why don't you buy the Storm?' We all received an e-mail like that."

Brummel and Trudeau once brainstormed with Libby Armintrout, Bill Gates' younger sister, and former Seattle City Councilwoman Tina Podlodowski about possibly purchasing the Seattle Reign from the defunct American Basketball League.

But the ABL, which owned all the teams in the league, refused to sell. The league folded in December 1998 because they paid players large salaries without generating revenue and couldn't secure a television contract.

"Dawn and I actually put together a franchise agreement for the ABL because they hadn't been looking at it in terms of selling franchises," Podlodowski said. "We tried really hard to see if we could get the ABL to look at franchises, which would have probably kept that league afloat given the juggernaut of the WNBA that was coming down.

"When the [WNBA's] Sparks were bought two years ago, people began to think, 'Well, if L.A. can buy a team, why can't we buy a team?' This is a tremendous opportunity to run a franchise, hopefully make some money and really be community oriented. Lisa and Dawn are hard-nosed, bottom-line businesswomen who I think are going to be great owners."

Levinson would only say that it was "very difficult" to coax Bennett into selling.

She began the process of rounding up the group of four women and approaching Bennett once the state Legislature voted in February 2007 to not approve $300 million in funding toward a new arena for the Sonics and Storm. Bennett filed for relocation in November 2007, telling several interested parties that the Sonics and Storm "would not be separated" and were "synonymous."

Through spokesman Dan Mahoney, Bennett declined repeated requests to say what about Force 10 Hoops LLC persuaded him to change his mind. He sold the franchise for the standard WNBA going rate of $10 million in January and issued a statement saying, "We knew the right thing to do for Seattle was to work with Anne's group to see if we could make this happen.

"We will assist them in any way we can to ensure a smooth transition and wish them the very best."

The Storm became the seventh independently owned team, joining Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington and Connecticut. Force 10 Hoops LLC is the third predominantly female ownership. The Mystics and Sparks are the others.

"I'm happy to see more women in leadership roles," said first-year Indiana coach Lin Dunn, who was the Storm's first coach. "I always thought it would be a real tragedy to have that team leave Seattle. I have a personal tie there — we built it from scratch, and the fans are fanatical. For it to leave the community ... I'm thrilled the team will be there. Kudos [to the ownership group] for not letting that team get away."

Becoming a force

The friendship began long ago. The women laugh at their inability to remember exactly when.

True, Brummel and Trudeau crossed paths while working for Microsoft. Brummel was hired by Steve Ballmer to be senior vice president of human resources while Trudeau was general manager of the consumer products group and currently works for nonprofit groups.

Gilder, who owns an investment business, and Trudeau were on the board of trustees for the Seattle Girls' School from 2004-05. And they'd all chat with Levinson, a former Seattle deputy mayor, at Reign and Storm games, sometimes even texting each other about certain plays or to see if they'd arrived at the arena. As a cluster of high-powered women in the city, it wasn't a surprise they came together for their latest venture.

"We have the same style," Levinson said.

One common link is their continued push for equality for women.

All were there at the beginning of Title IX legislation, standing up long before Bennett attempted to slip away with their athletic entertainment. Gilder stood up to her father and became an Olympic rower despite his belief her participation in sports was a waste of time. Brummel competed in softball and basketball at Yale, earning a spot in the school's Hall of Fame. Levinson was an activist to get more scholarship funding for women's sports at Kansas.

"I became a feminist in my fourth-grade gym class," Trudeau said with a fist pounding on the table as the other women laughed, already knowing the story. "Everyone would have to change into their gym uniform and after some stretches, the girls would have to watch the boys play basketball and such. I sat there thinking, 'This is not fair!' It made me mad."

Trudeau, a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, did nothing then. But it set a spark.

The next time something wasn't right, she'd do something about it. That happened to be the Storm's possible relocation.

None of the women flinched when approached by Levinson.

"To me it's like being an underdog in a game," said Brummel at the announcement in January. "You don't not play the game because you think you're going to be the underdog. You take it on because of the challenge, and you figure out a way to go to meet that. That's what we're doing here."

Coming up with an ownership name was interesting. The women won't reveal the trashed list, but credit Gilder's partner, a sailor, for helping their creativity along.

"Force 10" is the exact point when bad weather officially becomes a storm.

And the group has been in the midst of one since finalizing the purchase in February. The first announcement of Force 10 Hoops LLC was naming Brian Agler its coach/director of player personnel to replace Anne Donovan, who quit in November 2007. Agler was originally selected by Bennett under the guidance of Karen Bryant, chief executive officer of the Storm.

Then, having only four players under contract, the group made a bevy of signings that brought a rebirth of excitement to the community after three consecutive years of first-round playoff ousters.

Now the Storm has headliners like Sheryl Swoopes, Yolanda Griffith and Swin Cash to complement mainstays Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson and Janell Burse.

"With the new [collective-bargaining agreement], there's more cap space," Bryant said of the league's $750,000 salary cap. "But with the new owners, the message has been to Brian that he's empowered to do what he needs to do to build a roster of not only high-caliber players, but quality people. It demonstrates their confidence in him."

Jackson, the reigning MVP, is the only player among the returning starters and the trio of newcomers who was healthy last season. Still, it appears the Storm could be like the NBA's Boston Celtics or 2004 Los Angeles Lakers when both stockpiled veteran talent in hopes of a title. The Lakers lost in the NBA Finals.

Either way, the women have unveiled a brighter glimpse of basketball in Seattle. They said they'll keep their original lower-bowl seats at KeyArena, where the Storm will play indefinitely, to watch their inaugural season as owners.

And it's not altruism.

While wanting to do a service to the community, none of the new owners believes they would be truly empowering women without their franchise being a success financially.

The group contracted the Sonics' game-operations and Web-site staffs to make for a smoother transition this summer, but once the Storm's season ends, they'll be looking for office space and other pieces to make them completely independent from the NBA.

"I can't wait to meet the new ownership group," Bird said via e-mail from Russia, where she's playing this offseason. "It'll be terrific to thank them for their commitment and start a relationship. It's because of them that my teammates and I are able to continue our WNBA careers in Seattle, and I'm just very thankful for that."

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com