Just in case you didn’t know Margarita Prentice’s hometown is Renton, so of course she would want an NBA arena there. It would boost the economy of Renton, at the expense of the rest of Washington state. Not to mention she would become a hero of Renton.

And for a person who laughs at Gregoire and how “stupid” she is, you finally seem to like what she has to say when it’s in your favor because she all the sudden is smart.

The taxes include a portion of the retail sales tax as well as taxes on restaurant meals, car rentals and hotels in King County.

Those taxes would raise an estimated $1.1 billion between 2012 and 2032, according to estimates by legislative staff. Most of that money would be used to pay off the arena construction bonds and interest, but millions of dollars also would be available for arts groups and possible future maintenance on Safeco Field.

Although the arena would be publicly owned, the Sonics and Storm would be the principal tenants and would keep virtually all of the money from arena events — an arrangement similar to the one enjoyed by the Mariners and Seahawks at their stadiums.*

Basically the same deal done for the Mariners and Hawks

Oh and I guess I missed another supporter

*But the Sonics have powerful supporters, too. Gov. Christine Gregoire has touted the arena’s possible benefits, and Sen. Margarita Prentice, chairwoman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee, has been a vocal supporter.*

Do you seriously believe that his proposal wouldn’t raise taxes? It was a $500 million palace that was all paid for by the taxpayers. The reason nobody liked the proposal was because it would raise taxes and the people wouldn’t get anything in return. I would recommend reading more than an Oklahoma newspaper if you want an unbiased view of the situation.

And who cares that his proposal was endorsed by 1 person? Mark Cuban is the 1 person that has publicly expressed his vote to reject the relocation. Does that mean that the other BOG voters feel the same way?

Yeah…Look at how successful Schultz and Ballmer were with your government agencies

“He bought the team under the condition that he would make a “good faith effort” to keep the team in Seattle for at least 12 months ”

Actions speak louder than emails…He spent a good amount of money and made a proposal that wouldn’t raise taxes and was endorsed by the chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee

“Seattle is not afraid of Stern.”

And vice versa I’m sure

SO WHAT!!!!!!

I understand why you and other OKC residents would like a professional team, but it has become very clear to me that you guys do not understand the economics of professional sports. It is not as simple as you would like it to be.

How you can just try to sweep under the rug that Bennett DEMANDED a $500M arena from Seattle without putting one cent into it. That just doesn’t fly in cities with professional sports. Seattle has TWO world class sports venues that were a government/private partnership that are working well for all parties. Both of them are extremely successful venues and will be paid off earlier than anticipated.

Had Bennett’s group actually worked with the government agencies, he and his group would have had a WORLD CLASS arena in Seattle. Seattle has a history of doing it up right when it is done correctly. Not DEMANDS . . . WORK together. It works here if the team is not owned by stupid dolts.

Bennett reminds Seattleites of Ken Behring. He even moved the Seahawks to SoCal for a few weeks until he was forced to return the team to Seattle and eventually sell it to Paul Allen.

And here is something else you might want to know. Seattle is not afraid of Stern. Seattle successfully sued Major League Baseball and won. For almost the same thing that Bennett is trying to do right now. The man who led the litigation? That would be Slade Gorton. If you don’t know that name, you eventually will.

By the way, Seattle’s law firm representing them is one of the top law firms in the United States. The “Gates” in it is Bill Gates’ dad.

The whole reason these e-mails are big news is because it shows that Bennett is a liar and did not hold up the end of his bargain when he bought the team from Schultz. He bought the team under the condition that he would make a “good faith effort” to keep the team in Seattle for at least 12 months and if they couldn’t come up with an arena, then he could move (at least that’s what the contract that Bennett signed said). He didn’t.

He never negotiated with the city or state on an arena and his ONLY proposal was a $500 million arena outside of Seattle (in the town of Renton) that was paid for 100% by the taxpayers, and because it isn’t in Seattle, he would get almost ALL of the revenue. You can point to that 1 e-mail that says they might consider staying if the state agrees to that proposal, but who wouldn’t do that deal if someone else paid for everything and you got all the revenue for it?

9 months after buying the team and 3 months before the deadline was when that proposal was shot down and when the e-mails of moving the team popped up. He still had plenty of time to get an arena deal done if he really intended on following the contact he signed and making that “good faith effort” he said he would make.

What these e-mails show is that Bennett violated the contract that he signed, which can (and should) result in him getting sued by Schultz’s group and possibly forcing him to sell. It also proves that he lied to Stern when he told Stern he was trying his hardest to keep the team in Seattle while e-mailing his buddies in the PBC about how he could break the lease and how excited he was that there was finally going to be an NBA team in Oklahoma City.

And if you think that these e-mails are the only ones out there that have been uncovered, then you’re wrong. According to someone working closely with Save Our Sonics, there are e-mails where he discusses his plans to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City only 10 days after buying the team. I won’t be surprised though when you call BS on this last claim and ignore the rest of the post because it really doesn’t matter since your beliefs on the validity of this last claim won’t change the fact that it’s true.

This is a dangerous game Seattle is playing. Possible high rewards, but big risks as well. It all depends on who makes Stern madder. Is he incredibly angry with Clay Bennett for telling him the owners had never discussed the move amongst themselves. Stupid, I agree, but also completely unbelievable. If I were Stern, when I got that e-mail I’d have known I was being told a whopper. On the other hand, Seattle is asking for NBA e-mails and financial information and blowing a few private e-mails out of proportion in an attempt to keep the team in the city after years of intransigence and insolence on the arena issue.

If this goes Seattle’s way, good for you, lucky for you. If it doesn’t, bye bye second team and perhaps bye bye name Sonics, at least until Stern is gone. Of course, if the name is gone, it’s gone forever.

I see a lot of energy in Seattle. If someone had spent all this energy getting an arena built, no one would have anything to talk about. If someone had remodeled the Key for Howard Schultz no one would have anything to talk about.

And, after finding this blog, I don’t feel sorry for anyone on the Seattle Times website complaining about Okie trolls. There appear to be quite a few from Seattle as well.