Bennett testifies to commitment

SEATTLE – SuperSonics owner Clayton Bennett testified Tuesday that he remained committed to finding a new arena in the Seattle area before last season – even as e-mails circulated among team co-owners portraying how eager they were to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City.

City of Seattle lawyer Paul Lawrence repeatedly questioned Bennett about an e-mail Sonics co-owner and fellow Oklahoma City business leader Tom Ward sent to Bennett on April 17, 2007. That was just after the Washington Legislature rejected Bennett’s plan for a publicly financed, $500 million arena in the Seattle suburbs.

“Is there any way to move here for next season, or are we doomed to have another lame duck season in Seattle?” Ward wrote.

“I am a man possessed!” Bennett responded. “Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys. The game is getting started!”

“That’s the spirit!! I am willing to help any way I can to watch ball here next year,” responded fellow Sonics co-owner Aubrey McClendon, a childhood friend of Bennett’s.

Under oath in U.S. District Court, Bennett said of his e-mail: “I am not responding to moving to Oklahoma. I’m reiterating my commitment to the process to stay in Seattle.”

Bennett is trying to move Seattle’s oldest professional sports franchise to his hometown two years before the KeyArena lease expires. The city is asking a federal judge to force the Sonics to honor their lease. The six-day trial is scheduled to end June 26, after which Judge Marsha Pechman will issue a written verdict.

When Bennett and his partners agreed to buy the Sonics for $350 million in July 2006, they also agreed to launch a good-faith effort to find a new arena around Seattle for 12 months ending Oct. 31, 2007.

The Sonics say they would lose up to $65 million over the next two seasons if forced to stay at KeyArena, the NBA’s smallest venue, but could make more than $18 million if allowed to play in Oklahoma. The team characterizes the situation as a standard landlord-tenant dispute, and says it should be allowed to break the lease while paying the city no more than $10 million in lost rent.

The city argues the new owners were aware of the risks when they purchased the Sonics and that they should not now be able to claim financial hardship to break the lease.

Bennett said he knew when he bought the team that it was losing money at KeyArena, but thought “perhaps we could turn that around.”