Clock ticks on offer from local investors to buy Seattle SuperSonics

INDIANAPOLIS – The local investors who have offered to buy the Seattle SuperSonics are giving the state Legislature about a month to agree to share the cost of refurbishing KeyArena.

Legislative leaders said they’re open to the latest arena proposal, but they don’t want to vote on it any time soon.

That could doom the offer to keep the Sonics from moving to Oklahoma.

In a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire and top state lawmakers on Sunday, the investment group headed by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said that if it does not receive a $75 million commitment from the state “well before” an April 10 deadline, “We will need to go back to our other responsibilities and our offer will expire.”

The group of four local businessmen – Ballmer, local developer Matt Griffin, Costco CEO Jim Sinegal and wireless magnate John Stanton – joined the City of Seattle and announced last Thursday its willingness to buy the NBA’s Sonics from its Oklahoma City-based ownership group. The businessmen would pay for half of a $300 million KeyArena renovation.

The offer is contingent on the sale of the Sonics – owner Clay Bennett has said the team is not for sale – or another NBA team to the group. The offer also requires agreement by the City of Seattle and the state to split the remaining $150 million.

Political leaders were receptive to the new offer – but there was a catch.

Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said in a letter Monday to Seattle and King County leaders that they need more time to consider the proposal. The 2008 legislative session is set to end Thursday.

The trio recommended that Seattle tap its “existing taxing capacity” to cover the public’s $150 million share, enabling the prospective owners to make a fully funded pitch to the NBA in April.

OTHER CONCERNS

In the meantime, the governor and the Legislature would add language to this year’s budget that pledges to consider the KeyArena renovation and a host of other local needs that would be funded by existing King County stadium taxes.

“With the many important concerns we are dealing with – education, transportation, public safety and three supplemental budgets – it is very difficult to adequately review and debate the proposal’s merits in the remaining days of the session,” the politicians wrote. “However, we agree this proposal is sufficiently different from past ideas that it should be seriously considered in-depth, provided it is reviewed alongside the other worthy projects currently proposed in King County.”

The revenue comes from restaurant and car-rental taxes for King County being used to pay off Safeco Field and due to expire in 2016.

Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Anacortes, said the arena project needs a two-thirds vote to win approval, and he said there’s not enough support in the House to reach that threshold by Thursday.

Morris also said lawmakers don’t want to favor the KeyArena remodel over such King County projects as renovating Husky Stadium and projects for low-income residents, the arts community, education, youth sports and Puget Sound cleanup.

To avoid that, Morris said, the Legislature would rather deal with all of those projects during its next session, which starts in January 2009.

“We just would like a well-thought-out plan that takes care of a number of those requests for King County,” Morris said. “And there would be much broader support for that, versus the risk of bringing a proposal up just for KeyArena and the risk of having that fail on the floor if we try to have a vote.”

A third consideration was left unspoken: Most of the 147 legislators are up for re-election this fall.

Marty McOmber, spokesman for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, said the Legislature needs to step up now.

“We feel that the window of opportunity for this proposal is right now,” McOmber said. “This offer from the potential ownership group isn’t going to get any better. We have committed as a city $75 million. I think it’s important for the state to signal its support as well.

“We’re up against this meeting with the NBA’s governing board. And without a strong package on the table to keep the Sonics here and invested in KeyArena, it’s going to be difficult.”

RELOCATION VOTE COMING UP

NBA owners are set to vote on the Sonics’ application to relocate to Oklahoma City during their semi-annual meeting April 17-18 in New York.

McOmber said the city will work with Gregoire and lawmakers in Olympia this week to secure support for the $75 million before the session ends.

“There are obviously a number of efforts under way in Olympia to highlight the fact that this window of opportunity is now,” McOmber said.

McOmber also reiterated that senior leadership in Olympia has been continuously updated on the KeyArena proposal since before the session began in December, and that the investor group increased its offer from $75 to $150 million during that time.

Rep. Morris said the state’s involvement is not a deal breaker for a refurbished KeyArena proposal that could keep the Sonics in town.

“In the end, the NBA has to decide if those community leaders are credible enough to make a long-term commitment to keep NBA basketball in Seattle,” Morris said. “Whether or not the state government is involved is a small question in the overall equation.”

Also, Republican Dino Rossi, who is Gregoire’s main challenger in this fall’s election, came out in support of the proposal Monday.

“I have been skeptical about stadium plans in the past, but this is the best proposal I’ve ever seen in this area,” Rossi, a former state senator, said in a statement. “No new state or county tax would be levied, and public money would only be spent on the public areas of the arena.”

Eric D. Williams: 253-597-8437

blogs.thenewstribune.com/sonics