Key Arena isn't a dump. You're comparing it to the luxury Rose Garden (thank you, Paul Allen). Key was designed per NBA instructions to minimize cost to the taxpayers. When Key was new, Stern said Key was great, and there are quotes of that. It was built from scratch (it is NOT merely a renovation) in about 1997. Only about SIX YEARS LATER, Sonic owners started whining theat they had to have the taxpayers make enormous renovations. The politicians correctly said, go to Hell.
It IS true that Seattle Mayor Nickels dropped the court fight too soon. He was only in it to win a settlement (which was never collected, because it was contingent upon renovations to Key). The purpose of the court case should have been to punish Bennett by forcing the team to stay 2 more years until the contract ended.
And now for the real reason the Sonics couldn't make money. Key Arena is a smokescreen. Irrelevant.
The contract with the City prevented ownership from making money. It was the only contract in the NBA which came out taxpayer-neutral. In other words, the team paid its own way 100% without subsidies. Stern has built the league on irresponsibility. That's what they meant when they said that his economic model is broken. These millionaires must have public subsidies, taking away money from winter shelters for hoboes in the snow, hungry welfare children, etc. The contract was to end in 2 years, in 2010, at which time it could be renegotiated. The vast majority of Seattlites demanded that the contract not be redone midstream before it ended. In the court case, the asinine judge was siding with Bennett (she was trying to look tough and neutral), and the City put up clown witnesses.
Stern is intimate friends with Bennett (see picture in this thread) and because of Hurricane Katrina, OKC had just finished demonstrating that it can support a team. This rare confluence of events caused Seattle to lose the Sonics. I haven't mentioned that attendance was down because of the economy and because the team had sucked for a decade after Wally Walker replaced Bob Whitsitt, who set a gold standard that could not be duplicated. I haven't mentioned that Sonic ownership was unusual in that no one guy dominated (Shultz didn't really dominate). There were about 80 owners and they couldn't afford to put up money when needed.
I argued this for 2-3 years on the ESPN Sonic board (which died because I left and came here). There are more general themes of this conflict that I could fill you in on, but I'm tired of typing.
Man, I have proven this over and over on the now-dead board, and now I have to argue this all over. I had to argue this out with Okies, not Seattlites.
The roofline is just that, a curved line on blueprints. Yes, the curve was duplicated on the brand new, not renovated, Key Arena. The roof's physical materials were all new, and not from the Coliseum, which was built for the 1962 World's Fair. Only the DESIGN of the roofline continued, not the physical roof.
Everything, and I mean, everything, was new, not brought out of the Coliseum. There might have been a hot dog stand or something tiny that was reused (even the builders couldn't say for sure that some detail had not been rescued from the garbage), but all the walls, seats, floors, roof, foundation, etc. was ALL NEW. There is ONE exception--the four cornerstones. These were giant, curved metal girders, one at each corner of the building, that held up the roof like the spokes of an umbrella. They were stylish and were retained. They extended far beneath the ground. EVERYTHING else was new.
Many websites get this wrong and call Key a renovation of the Coliseum. Wikipedia has it wrong. I have some sites that get it right, and I used to cite them in posts on the ESPN Sonic board. But I don't really care about sites backing me up, because I have a witness I trust more--
When I drove past the construction site, it was a massive pile of rubble. Recognizable were the 4 skeleton girders that I described. They towered about 200 feet up (I used to have the exact height and weight, I can find the sites and everything again if need be). Beneath them was total chaos--50 foot long splinters, hills of debris within mountains of debris.. The wrecking ball had taken down the Coliseum.
Key Arena is NOT the Coliseum, renovated and refurbished. This was a BIG argument made by Okies to justify their theft. The Sonics were NOT playing in a 45-year old stadium, they were playing in a 10-year old one when they stole the team.
I used to give a link or two here to back me up, and I can find it all if need be, because there are sites that tell the truth, and there are sites that are too lazy to care. I've lost my sharpness on details but I could get it back. Damn Okies.
The only reason that the 4 corner girders were retained is that they are anchored in underground concrete blocks that each weigh a couple of hundred tons. To take those out would have been expensive and unnecessary. A second reason for keeping them was that they enabled the curving roofline to continue (which as I said, was built from all new materials--the roofline design, not the roof, was retained).
The Sonics had a very new arena, not a 45-year-old one. Stern praised it when new (his office had recommended the specs), but then under Bennett, Stern said that the arena MUST be replaced, not refurbished, and then once Bennett moved the team Stern flip-flopped to a stance that refurbishment would be adequate to bring in an NBA team. Stern was obviously lying to help his best friend Bennett make up an excuse to do his original intent (e-mails proved intent) to move to OKC, no matter what happened. I haven't mentioned his insane demand for a $500M arena, totally paid for by taxpayers (Sonic ownership refused to put in a dime), out in the sticks in Renton or the Eastside where downtown movers and shakers would not have attended, making it a sure moneyloser.
But to remind you of the big picture, all this controversy about Key is irrelevant. The real reason the Schultz group didn't make money was that they were a bunch of impoverished guys who were only worth a few million each, and because the most responsible contract in the NBA didn't subsidize them. They couldn't wait for the contract to end before renegotiating to get big subsidies beginning in 2010. And even had Seattle given in and made a new contract in 2008, the Bennett group intended to move no matter what, as proven by e-mails.
