Comments on Judge Pechman Says Lawsuit Settled

Admirable. Good judge.

That's entirely unsatisfying.

Wow, a court brief that I can actually understand.

Bon Voyage! I'm actually happy about this.

Sounds like the city is taking a payoff. Bogus and shameful.

There's no way we were going to keep the team here - Schultz saw to that. So good job on the part of the Mayor and City attorney for getting the City some money from a team that was costing us millions a year to keep here.

If what the Seattle Times is reporting is true, $75m is a nice amount over their original offer of $26.5m.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008030229_sonitrial02.html

i want the name to stay. The OKC Sonics? now they're named after an OKC fast-food franchise?

i hope you choke on the NBA, dustbowl.

At least the fast food chain really exists unlike the SST.

How about the Seattle Queens with rainbow uniforms? Pink off white at home.

And, oh, please take the "SuperSonics" name with you.

We can name the next franchise the "Window Vistas" or something appropriately shilly.

@8 - I agree, the name should stay! It has meaning here! The Seattle SuperSonics were named after the Boeing 2707, the first "Supersonic Transport", by a local man and his son, who won a contest to name the team...

$75 Mil to split town. Seems like a sucky payoff to me.

Why do you doubt me Josh?

$75M?

Isn't that the same amount the Ballmer group and the city of Seattle were looking from the state legislature this spring?

@11 -- which was never built. I used to have a model of it when I was a kid.

That's way more than I thought. Nice haul for what was a transparent attempt to hijack dollars out of the club. A dollar would be a more appropriate penalty. Huge black eye for the city regardless.

@15 - I've read that they canned it because people were afraid of the "environmental impact" of the sonic boom...

Call me sentimental, but I guess I just like that eventhough the planes themselves never materialized, it's a neat story that means something here. I'll be no one in Oklahoma had model SST's as a kid...

I say we spend the $75 mil to buy back the Seattle Center Coliseum from Key Bank, renovate the sound system, and pay Sleater-Kinney to reform, move to Seattle, and play the Coliseum (that's what I said!) at least once a year.

Suck the Phonics! Live music is best!

$75M is a good haul for the city, a lot more than I thought they would get.

How about distributing it to city residents in proportion to taxes paid, so that those of us who have subsidized the sports fans' entertainment get a least a little of our money back?

But that won't happen. Watch the city spend it on toilets for the homeless and then ask us to approve a special levy to fix the potholes and pay the cops.

If it's true that Bennett might not have to pay the last $30 million of that $75 million if we get a new team, then that's a wholly unsatisfying settlement.

I don't want another team in Seattle. I don't want another group of millionaires, no matter how well intentioned, to bend over for the NBA's extortionist tactics. Life will go on, the world will keep on turning.

Fuck Stern, fuck the NBA. I'd say Fuck OKC, but their fucking is just about to begin. Toodles, okies!

It's good that they made that into a PDF.

Because without the exact proper formatting, font size, spacing, and colors, it might not, you know, have the same effect.

Most of the employees at Key Arena are in the lower and middle class income bracket, they will be losing out on over 40 nights of work as a 2nd job.

Anyone else laughing at their name?

"Professional Basketball Club, LLC"

Is anyone laughing at the "Seattle, a first class city" listing?

And yes, this is really only a settlement for $44 million dollars, not $75m. IF they renovate the Key Arena AGAIN...AND if the NBA doesn't move a team within 5 years...then we get the other $30 million (and a newly renovated and NBA-less arena.)

I'm not surprised. Sad, but I was sad when Orpheum closed on Broadway, too.