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.
