Sonics’ turn to attack Seattle

SEATTLE – Turns out, Seattle leaders have some issues with e-mail, too.

After months of enduring bombshell releases of incriminating messages that seemed to doom their case, the SuperSonics have produced damning e-mail from Seattle power brokers in the trial that will determine whether the team will move to Oklahoma City or be forced to play the final two years of its lease at Seattle’s KeyArena.

Federal judge Marsha Pechman will hear closing arguments Thursday to end this six-day trial.

The Sonics lawyers introduced evidence last week showing the former U.S. senator whom the city hired to lead its effort to keep the team was involved in a “poisoned well” plan to force Sonics owner Clay Bennett – the supposed villain in this civic drama – into losing so much money he would sell the team to local buyers.

But how much will that matter?

Pechman will be focused on the case’s fundamental issue: exactly what does the Sonics’ lease require? And what is the appropriate remedy for the final two seasons of it, which Bennett’s Professional Basketball Club LLC wants to buy out so it can move the Sonics to the owners’ hometown for next season?

Seattle’s deputy mayor Tim Ceis, who may testify Thursday if Pechman grants the city a rebuttal witness, gushed after last week’s testimony.

“We’re very, very pleased with how the case has gone,” Ceis said, “and we’re looking forward to having a good conclusion.”

Seattle’s attorneys have presented the e-mail messages that got much fanfare before the trial, showing Sonics owners appearing eager to move the team to Oklahoma soon after they purchased it in 2006.

The city has emphasized Bennett knew the Sonics were losing $20 million per season before they bought the team, so owners’ estimates that they will lose more than $60 million if forced to stay two more seasons in Seattle shouldn’t matter.

Friday, the Sonics produced e-mail messages and a slide presentation discussed by a Seattle group, including former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, whom the city has retained to lead its efforts to keep the Sonics. The documents outline a plan of inflicting enough economic pain on Bennett that he may want to sell the team to local investors.

The Sonics maintain this is a garden-variety disagreement between tenant and landlord, so special performance should not apply and they should be able to fulfill the final two seasons of the lease with rent payments.