Sonics say city wanted to financially bleed team

SEATTLE – The SuperSonics said in court Friday that the city of Seattle tried to make it too expensive for them to leave town.

The “forced bleeding” accusations stemmed from a previously sealed document that was admitted Friday as an exhibit in the city’s lawsuit against the team. It discussed “locking them into losses” and exposing “the league to embarrassment in a market they like.”

In another newly revealed document, the man spearheading the city’s efforts to keep the Sonics – former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton – acknowledged that failing to win government support for a KeyArena renovation this year would “considerably undercut” the city’s legal case.

Sonics owner Clay Bennett, who bought the team in 2006 for $350 million, is trying to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City, his hometown, saying the team could lose $60 million if forced to stay for the final two years of its lease at KeyArena, the NBA’s smallest venue.

The city is asking U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman to enforce its terms, hoping two more years would be enough time to find a way to keep the Sonics – or at least another NBA team – in town.

A document titled “The Sonics Challenge, Why a Poisoned Well Affords a Unique Opportunity,” was carried by Gorton to a meeting at the home of former Sonics president Wally Walker last September. Also present were Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer and former Safeco Corp. CEO Mike McGavick.

The 11/2-hour meeting and e-mails about it were the focus of questioning when Walker took the witness stand.

“You wanted to make it too expensive to leave?” Sonics lawyer Paul Taylor asked Walker.

“Oh, I think that’s true, yes,” he answered. “I would have been fine with whatever it took to keep them from moving the team.”

But encouraging Bennett to sell was option B, because the first choice was for him to keep the team in Seattle, Walker said.

Citing the “poisoned well” strategy, Sonics attorneys argued that the city brought its lawsuit in an attempt to bleed Bennett’s ownership group, the Professional Basketball Club, hoping that the expense of litigation would induce him to sell to a local owner. Because the lawsuit was brought in bad faith, the city has “unclean hands,” and should not be allowed to reap the benefits of its actions in court, they say.

In response, the city insisted that by definition, suing to enforce its rights under the lease cannot be considered bad faith. Furthermore, its lawyers argued, the city cannot force the team to sell.