Yep, that’s what I do here, I ask the difficult obvious questions. Tomorrow, is Seattle’s deadline to come up with the stadium that Sonics owner Clay Bennett so desperately [does not] wants. I don’t know, sorry for being pessimistic but I have to believe that Bennett knows that no stadium deal is possible, and that’s why he filed for arbitration to see if he could buy his way out of the team’s deal to play in Key Arena through 2010. But Bennett just hit a major roadblock when he realized that not everyone is going to do what the privileged honkey wants them to:

In a setback for Sonics owners’ attempts to make a fast break from KeyArena, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez ruled Monday the team’s lease fight with Seattle must remain in federal court instead of going to binding arbitration.
…
In his written ruling, Martinez agreed with the city that the dispute was not subject to arbitration because it centers on Article II of the lease, which says the team must play all home games at KeyArena through September 2010.

So the good news for Seattle’s is that the Sonics are here in Washington state for at least the next two years, and Bennett can’t move the team, which obviously was his intention all along but for some reason still sticks to the facade that he is “trying”. That is quite true if by “trying” you mean saying “f**k you” to the city of Seattle and then setting deadlines which, when in a legally binding contract, were ill-advised at best. In fact, this was even in today’s ruling:

The City alleges that Bennett made an attempt to submit an arena plan to the 2007 Washington State Legislature, but that it was guaranteed to fail because it was filed too late in the session and relied on public subsidies of $400 million compared to a private investment of $100 million. The City also states that PBC rejected efforts by the City to put together a viable financial package to renovate KeyArena with equal commitments of investment from the new owners and the City. The City’s complaint goes on to state that the new owners rejected requests from local selling owners and other local partners to join the Sonics ownership. Further, the City alleges that the new owner’s intent to move the team was acknowledged by Aubrey McClendon, a minority owner of PBC, who stated that “[w]e didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle, we hoped to come [to Oklahoma City].”

Right now David Stern is staying the hell out of this mess, and although I can’t blame him, but isn’t a situation like this somewhat connected to one of the fundamental principles behind the gambling refs situation: lying?

See, to me, if a ref wants to gamble, what is on the line is the trust that fans have. Trust doesn’t have to be individual games though; it also applies to franchises and players. If a player came into town, said that they were committed to the Sonics, and then sued to get out of their contract a year later don’t you think fans would feel cheated; all the jerseys, shirts, posters, and tickets purchased.

Now what about an entire franchise? To me, Bennett being able to come into Seattle, buy the team and move it wherever he so desires is a huge black mark on the NBA that, if allowed, basically tells fans that the league doesn’t give a crap about them unless they are willing to shell out the money to pay the tickets, buy the gear, and then pay for the stadium that they already pay to enter on game nights as well?

I know that sports is big business, but all fans really want is a chance to watch; a chance to be a part of something big. Robbing those fans of that is pretty bad. That being said I certainly hope that Seattle won’t cave and give in to the unreasonable demands of Mr. Bennett and crew. We will know tomorrow.

• City wins court ruling in Sonics case (Seattle Times)
• Court ruling (pdf)