City proves it's ready to fight for Sonics

The gauntlet has been thrown. Political war has been declared. The Seattle City Council isn't going to cave to the Oklahoma City bullies. It isn't going to swoon at the first threat of a suit.

It's on.

Moving vans won't spirit away the Sonics and Storm in the middle of the night. The franchise won't go gently. The council — and get this, unanimously — has drawn the line in the sand.

Seattle vs. Oklahoma City is going to be one of the best matchups in the league this season.

In an 8-0 vote Monday, the council passed an ordinance that said the city would fight to hold Clay Bennett and his fellow Oklahoma City-based owners of the Sonics to the final three years of their KeyArena lease.

Make no mistake, this vote means something. It says the city isn't afraid of a fight. It says Seattle will spend the money needed to keep the team here through the end of the lease in 2010.

It is the first, important step to keeping the Sonics in Seattle.

Meanwhile, former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, who was instrumental in bringing the Mariners to Seattle, keeping the team here and building beautiful Safeco Field, is answering Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' call for help.

This is good news for a city that wants to keep its basketball team. A city that has supported this franchise from its inception in 1967 and has celebrated the Sonics' NBA title in 1979 and the Storm's WNBA championship in 2004.

It's good news for a city, even commissioner David Stern will admit, that deserves the Sonics.

For one thing, it will squeeze Bennett and his partners. Already Bennett has made at least one cash call to the ownership group and he certainly will have to make many more.

That doesn't mean they can't, or won't, come up with the money, but even wealthy oil barons get tired of pouring money into a dry hole.

This council vote also means the fight with Bennett is going to be very public, which will make the NBA very uncomfortable. At some point, we'll almost be able to hear Stern yelling at Bennett, "This isn't the smooth sail you said this would be."

The last thing Bennett wants is more light shining in his eyes.

In the spotlight he is about as graceful as Britney Spears dancing on MTV. He is so thin-skinned, he's practically translucent.

And Stern, who I still believe is as good as any commissioner in any league, doesn't need another migraine like the one rumbling out of the Northwest.

Monday, the city council told Bennett, told the league, all it needs is time to figure out how to finance a building.

And it needs time to find the local ownership group that is lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to emerge.

But this is a process and it will be a battle. People always ask what they can do. There is a feeling this is a David and Goliath battle and Sonics fans are so many Davids.

But good old-fashioned populism works in these situations. Bring your "Save Our Sonics" placards to opening night. Write your city council member, your state legislators and Gov. Christine Gregoire. Tell them you want the team to stay here.

Remind them of the importance of a new, all-purpose arena to the city's quality of life.

Remind your reluctant fellow citizens that this building can be paid for, not with a new tax, but an increase in the tax on hotels, motels, rental cars and restaurants. In other words, out-of-towners will pay for much of it.

Also, it might help to explain to people that, contrary to their perception, this isn't a league of thugs.

Tell your skeptical friends that once they get to know first-round picks Kevin Durant and Jeff Green, they'll be pleasantly surprised by the level of maturity. Tell them Luke Ridnour, Earl Watson, Nick Collison and others are involved in the community and have lives outside of basketball.

This week we saw a city spoiling for a fight.

These are the next steps:

• A workable arena plan has to be cobbled together. Without an arena, the Sonics in Seattle are dead.

• Local politicians and business leaders have to continue to voice their support for the team and the arena.

• Eventually, Stern has to be brought into the battle to advocate for Seattle and to convince Bennett, who helped him solve the post-Katrina, New Orleans Hornets' problem, to sell the Sonics in exchange for one of a number of troubled franchises in smaller cities.

• Finally, locals with fat checkbooks (they're out there) need to be convinced that buying the Sonics not only is philanthropic, but in the long term, a good business deal.

The fight is on and on and on.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com