Seattle Supersonics; An Attempt to Trump Local Government

Seattle officials filed a lawsuit against the SuperSonics to prevent them from leaving town this Monday. The franchise has claimed arbitrary losses since the 1990's, and the losses of the 2007 fiscal year will exceed seventeen million. However, the Sonics had previously agreed to a fifteen year lease to play the rest of their games at the KeyArena, the smallest venue in the league, which will be up in Sept. 2007.

The Sonics are trying to exploit their losses in revenue to the media, and use it to their advantage in an attempt to have a pricey new $500 million stadium built in Seattle. The franchise is claiming they have to pay unfair amounts of the revenue they are generating to the city. The team is trying to buy up the remainder of the lease in order to get out of their agreement and move out of the city. This would hurt the overall fan base for the Sonics, which is relatively small compared to other franchises because of the poor quality over numerous years in the league.

The franchise is trying to present an ultimatum to the city of Seattle. If they do not get a new stadium, they are threatening a move out of the city, causing a loss of revenue for the city as a whole. This would interfere with the markets of other regions in the country if a move was made. However, the local government is stepping up, and putting pressure on the franchise to remain loyal to their lease for the small amount of time they have left to fulfill it.