For the owner of the Sonics, Clayton Bennett, the endgame has begun, as he attempts to land a new arena, funded by mostly taxpayer dollars, somewhere in the Seattle area. Bennett’s pronouncement to the world last Friday — that his ownership group intends to relocate the team to Oklahoma City as soon as it can get out of its Seattle lease — was designed to get Seattle, King County, and Washington state officials to understand that Bennett and his partners are serious about getting a new place by 2010. The owners would like to have a new arena that is funded by a variety of taxes with a lease that allows the team to get the lion’s share of revenues. Bennett and his associates would put up some money toward the construction, but it is understood that he wants the same type of deals the Seattle Mariners and the Seahawks groups enjoy: He has even suggested that his arena be funded by the same taxes that went to build the city’s baseball park and football stadium. In the Seattle area, car rental taxes went up to 18%, from 8%, to help build the two athletic facilities. There were also increases in hotel taxes, and a local restaurant and tavern tax hike was included.

Months after Governor Lowry gave his baseball park funding approval, the owner of the Seahawks, Ken Behring, had all of his bags packed and was headed down Interstate 5. He even relocated some of the team’s equipment to an Anaheim school because he wasn’t sure the stadium was up to earthquake codes, given that tiles fell off the Kingdome roof in 1994. This closed the stadium for months, and forced the team to play a number of games at the University of Washington in 1995. Behring eventually returned to Seattle and sold the team to Paul Allen. In 1997, Seattle residents approved funding to build a football venue in a referendum.

Bennett knows the history of Seattle sports funding as does the commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, who started off this season’s new NBA campaign by saying Seattle doesn’t have the “heart” to fund an arena. To Bennett’s credit, he is not suggesting that a new arena is going to create a major economic impact in Seattle. Neither the new baseball stadium nor the new football field has generated much in the way of an economic boom. Not much has changed — except there are two stadiums in the area instead of one. As well, Seattle and Washington taxpayers are still paying off the debt on the Kingdome, even though it was blown up in 2000. The final payment on the old facility is due in 2016 — 16 years after it was knocked down.

But Bennett knows that threatening a move will galvanize politicians and business leaders, who will begin to talk about how a sports team can bring together a community, attracting businesses to the area because an NBA team adds to the quality of life and creates jobs.

There are some holes in that argument. Most jobs that are created at a municipally-owned sports stadium and arena are per diem positions. In some cases, such as beer and soda vendors, their salaries depend on just how much product they can sell. Team owners would rather have an environment as there is in Pittsburgh, where patrons drive into a large fenced-in parking lot and spend their money, within a stadium perimeter, at team restaurants, team concession areas, and team stores, instead of spending money in the neighborhood.

As of right now, the high stakes poker game between Bennett and Seattle has been put on hold until a U.S. district judge rules on a suit by the city against Bennett. In a pre-emptive move, Seattle sued the Sonics’ ownership in an attempt to force the franchise to play at the city-owned KeyArena through the end of the 15-year team-city lease, which was signed by former owner Barry Ackerley in 1995, through 2010. Bennett wants to play out the current season in Seattle, then pay the rent due on the final two years and be free to leave.

Ackerley’s deal was a bad agreement by sports standards. He gave up a significant portion of arena revenue streams to pay off the $75.7 million renovation costs in 1995 at the old Seattle Center Coliseum. Ackerley sold the team to one of the founders of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, in January 2001. Schultz struck out in his attempt to get a new arena. Bennett then bought the team on July 18, 2006 and has been talking ever since about taking the team to Oklahoma City if he didn’t get a new building. He was a catalyst in giving George Shinn’s New Orleans Hornets a “temporary” home in Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Crescent City.

It was that move that made Bennett interested in permanently bringing an NBA team to Oklahoma City. In February 2006, Bennett formed a group to buy a minority interest in Shinn’s franchise. Shinn refused the offer, but Bennett said at the time if he failed, he would attempt to go after another franchise and move it to Oklahoma City.

Seattle is a mid-sized NBA market with a good corporate base, including Microsoft and Boeing, and is an international port. That is important to the business of the NBA. Oklahoma City, on the other hand, is a small market with oil money and limited TV money. It is the fourth quarter of the fight between Bennett and Seattle, but much could happen. Bennett said the team is not for sale, although some local Seattle money people are thinking of buying the team. Seattle, King County, and Washington officials could do an end run like they did in 1995 for the Mariners, and fund a building — or Bennett can move. But first, Judge Ricardo Martinez has to give both sides a court date in the Seattle vs. Sonics case. The legal maneuvering may be far more interesting than Sonics basketball in 2007–08.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com