New Sonics Owner Bennett Assembles an Arena Team

SEATTLE - According to the Seattle Times Eastside bureau reporter Ashley Bach, the new Sonics owner, Clay Bennett, has assembled a team of bankers and construction consultants to formally explore all opportunities to locate a home for the Sonics to play in after the 2010 season. Bennett has also hired a public affairs specialist Jim Kneeland to act as a local liaison.

Is Jim Kneeland the same guy that contributed to Greg Nickels 2004 re-election campaign and his 2004 re-election campaign?

$600 James A. Kneeland :   Pacific Public Affairs, Consultant

Not that there's nothing wrong with it, just asking.

Is this the same Jim Kneelend that was the spokesman for Seattle developer David Sabey?

Same Kneeland that works for Pacific Public Affairs PR firm?

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels wants the team to stay at KeyArena, and he had lunch with Bennett during a visit earlier this month.

"We just think the Key still makes sense," Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis said Thursday.
The Seattle Times.

Let's understand something here, If Mayor Greg Nickels, and Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis think they can spin this and have the Sonics look like they are the bad guys for going to another site, then they are flat out stupid. The fact is that they have three stone cold offers for a 44 year old building and not much else. That will get old and become and easy target for the newspapers to beat them up with and it isn't much of a position to have since the new owner is thinking bigger. It just makes the city look smaller for not rising to the challenge of making this work for the Sonics in this city. It becomes one of many things the city leadership can't get done. Do everybody a favor and get the hell out of the way. Key Arena is your new white elephant, Nick Licata killed this before it got started. You might as well start throwing him under the political bus right now.

The Key Arena isn't made for NHL Hockey and would cost quite a bit to restructure in order for another tenant (like hockey) to be able to use that facility. On top of that, the city council insists on having the tenant pay for upgrading the building and hand the city a significant amount of revenue from the enhancements when that same tenant can go some place else and not have to pay as much rent. This is a prime situation for somebody with a lot of worthless land to plant an arena on a portion of it in order for the rest of the land to inflate in value. The Seattle Center site is dead, the land values have been played out, capitalized.

Look around the city, the area, for a spot that could use a landmark and let's get this thing done.

BTW:
Tonight on FoxSports Northwest The Sonics rolled out a commercial featuring Chris Wilcox, "Wilcox is back", "29 games", "68 dunks".
Great commercial, they roll some text and a sequence of ferocious dunks, that's a ticket seller.
Click HERE to see 1 minute and 30 second highlight reel of Chris Wilcox, RealPlayer file. There are some nice passes from Luke Ridnour, some drives to the rim, and a nice pass off a high-low play with Nick Collison tossing a nice pass to Wilcox cutting backdoor. Plenty of good passers on the team, great shooters and smart players for coach Bob Hill to use. This should be a great season.

Sonics Re-sign Wilcox

SEATTLE - The Seattle Sonics announced today that they have resigned power forward Chris Wilcox.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Chris back to our team,” said Sund. “We indicated this summer that getting Chris signed was a priority and he is on board. The Sonics had a winning record after acquiring Chris and we want to build on that success. He’s a good fit in Bob Hill’s system and the style that Bob likes to play.” Supersonics.com

The team did not disclose the terms of the deal. It has been widely reported that Wilcox had signed a 3-year deal with a salary ranging from 21 to the latest figure of $24 million.

After not listening to David Locke on the radio for the past couple of months I now find his banter trite. His blog entry that, I guess, is supposed to evoke a level of excitement has all the freshness of a used car salesman's pitch.

Mission Accomplished. Okay, I should find a different phrase. You get the point - after the fantastic finish to last season the Sonics wanted to reload the same team and let it gel.
With today’s signing of Chris Wilcox, that goal has been attained. David Locke.

Blah! When did you write that, July? I bet you had two written and just emailed it in.

If you want the full on fresh then check out Big Chris at Sonicscentral.com

Hill also burst out in a grin when Wilcox was asked which skills he had to improve and the first word out of Wilcox’ mouth was “Defense. Wilcox advises that he feels he needs to work on all aspects of his defensive game, specifically shotblocking to be a better player. This summer he advises that he has been working out in Houston with former NBA coach and player John Lucas and that he will return to Seattle to work with the coaches sometime soon. He has a set list of skills and drills to work on assigned by Coach Hill who advised that “The first three things on everybody’s list were all the same and they were all defense.” Hill believes that Wilcox will benefit greatly with a full training camp in which he has a set role and goals on the floor.

Big Chris at Sonicscentral.com

Solid action Big Chris.

Good for the Sonics and the fans, let's forget about next year for just one day.

Wilcox to Sign 3 Year Deal with Sonics

SEATTLE - KING TV Sports anchor Paul Silvi is reporting on Nowrthwest Sports Tonight that Chris Wilcox will sign a 3-year deal worth 7 million dollars a year. The contract will be signed tonight or tomorrow.

Kemper Freeman Jr is Old School (Business School)

SEATTLE - Kemper Freeman Jr, pardon the phrase, is old school (that is business school). He says what he thinks and doesn't overreach. He's doesn't appear to be thoughtless, just conservative in his choice of phrases to get to the point. He is stepping up to take chance to be part of a significant revenue generator for Bellevue. Planting a multimillion dollar multi-use facility on and next to underutilized land will only improve the value of that property. It could be a big money maker for somebody that owns and controls land near such a facility.

"What have we got to lose trying to keep them here?" Freeman said Wednesday. "It's like we've adopted a losers approach. They are not gone but they will be gone if we continue to sleep through it."

He repeated his belief that a new arena could be built primarily with private, not public money.

"There's no interest in a big wad of dough from government on this," Freeman continued. "Once you start down the trail of 'Uncle Sugar is going to bail you out' your brain turns off."
Kemper Freeman Jr said in the King County Journal.

He's right, there are people dancing around with their words, mostly trying to mitigate political fallout, well, everybody but Christine Gregoire. It's time for those in power to make use of their power to the benefit of the community, and maybe even themselves. Freeman is willing to take a look at how this could help his city. I don't see anybody on this side of the 520 bridge making that kind of effort.

At this point I score the winners being: Christine Gregoire for her political leadership; Kemper Freeman Jr for his business leadership, Howard Schultz for knowing when to fold 'em (I'm not kidding).

Another winner is Art Thiel for telling everybody to move on from the venting the after the sale was announced and for asking some meaningful questions. I'll take a turn at answering them, as I see them right now:

Do enough important as well as ordinary people care?

The fans care, SonicsCentral is all whipped up. As far as the important people go, people become important through action (see Christine Gregoire and Kemper Freeman Jr).

Can the developments be marshaled in 12 months or less?

Kemper Freeman Jr said on KJRam that 12 months is plenty of time to know if this is going to happen here.

Where do we sign up for a Tully's franchise?

Let's not be rash, though I've made the switch myself, mostly because of the taste.

The losers so far are: Nick Licata for not representing all of us; Steve Kelley for being so disconnected from reality that he channelled the dearly departed Sam Schulman so that Steve could mash his sour grapes over the 11 year old firing of Bob Whitset; Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols for being a spineless weasel.

On the Chris Wilcox front I wrote on August 4, 2006 :

They should meet halfway, 3 years @ 7.25 mil =21.75. The Sonics will save money off Collison, and Wilcox will not leave 4 million dollars on the table this season going forward.

This looks like it's close to happening, maybe this coming week.

Clay Bennett Frames the Discussion, Advantage: Bennett

SEATTLE - Clay Bennett arrived in town with a plan, that is clear. He has talked to local business and political leaders pitching an idea of building the best arena, as great as Safeco Field.

You want Seattle to have the best, don't you?
And this great thing would need something happening all year long and not just on days that basketball is played, maybe an NHL team, or Arena Football.

You like the idea of having something exciting happening all year long, right?
There are events that can't be held at Quest Field anymore because they are building on top of parking lots, according to Kemper Freeman JR.

You like the RV, boat, garden, affinity group of your choosing, being held in the Seattle area, at the best facility anywhere: you would like that wouldn't you?

You love many things about Safeco Field: you would like to have the finer things available to you at the new arena, don't you?

If you turn down the chance to have meaningful discussions about this wonderful thing then that is up to you.

No whining, no marginalizing, no hair splitting. There is a great opportunity to build something new, exciting and interesting and if you don't want something new, exciting and interesting then you are not new, exciting and interesting.

Clay Bennett has framed the discussion, changing the language from words like extortion used by local politicos to words of his choosing, words like "value proposition", and "finest building in the country" (TNT).


“Our job, as I see it, is a value proposition and a business plan relative to a new facility,” Bennett said. “It is not just a basketball arena. It is a multipurpose entertainment complex. (It will be) a basketball, potentially hockey, restaurant and retail development complex. And it is going to be our job to model that and understand the economic model. That is our objective, our methodology and our approach.” Clay Bennett in the Tacoma News tribune, August 10, 2006.

The Sonics have gone from one owner that sells a product that sells itself, partially on the fact that it is addictive, and on to an owner that is a businessman that wants his $350 million dollar investment to keep its value by staying in a top 15 market and not have that value sink like a stone by going to a top 50 market.

If this doesn't happen in Seattle then Kemper Freeman Jr. will make it happen in Bellevue. And if that doesn't happen then Bennett will shop around for a home before settling, and I do mean settling, for a 5 year old arena in the 50th media market in the United States of America.

Here's an idea, buy a house in Seattle and then move that house to OK City and tell me what it's value is then.

Let me help you:
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Median resident age: 34.0 years
Median household income: $34,947 (year 2000)
Median house value: $80,300 (year 2000)

Single-family new house construction building permits:
1996: 1953 buildings, average cost: $97,600
1997: 2040 buildings, average cost: $99,800
1998: 2402 buildings, average cost: $104,600
1999: 2867 buildings, average cost: $112,900
2000: 2044 buildings, average cost: $115,300
2001: 2373 buildings, average cost: $122,300
2002: 2997 buildings, average cost: $125,800
2003: 3402 buildings, average cost: $129,400
2004: 3815 buildings, average cost: $135,100

Do you know how many houses of any size or age list in Seattle for $135,000?
The answer is zero.
Check the listings for house values here!

Now understand, the point isn't that houses are freakishly expensive in Seattle, they are, it's that the people here have the means to buy them. Those people will pay a couple more bucks for a Sonics ticket, and buy an over priced beer at the game, and pay for parking (because there's not much choice in parking here). It's about the revenue this population generates, and the media market that feeds it, the 15th largest media market.

I'm sure Oklahoma City is a great place to live, great fans, great part of America. The fact is that those people are not building a new "Safeco Field" basketball arena in 5 years when the Ford Center is not churning enough money to justify a $350 dollar investment. The economy is not the same there as it is here. An asset that is based on the value of the economy is worth less there than it is here.

It's Seattle's team to lose.
OK is where they go if things go wrong.

If Wilcox Signs for One Year, Collison will Cash in

Today in the Seattle Times Percy Allen reports that Wilcox is likely going to sign the one year, Qualifying Offer, of 3.6 million dollars.

Reports nearly a week ago that the Sonics were on the verge of signing Wilcox to three-year, $24 million deal were false, according to Sund and Fried." Percy Allen, Seattle Times...
The two sides appeared to find common ground on a three-year deal. However, the Sonics continued to maintain that Wilcox is worth $6.6 million per season, and their offer is about $6 million less than his demands. - P. Allen

It's hard to say that the rumor was wrong at the time it was said, and things may have just changed in a week. Well, it wasn't even a week ago when Percy Allen reported this:

With trade proposals from at least three teams still on the table, the Sonics may be nearing an end to negotiations with Chris Wilcox on a three-year, $24 million proposal from his Washington, D.C.-based agent Jeff Fried.

According to a team source, an agreement is imminent, with at least one of the team's new owners, G. Edward Evans, planning to return to Seattle this week, possibly for the announcement. - P. Allen

I would give SonicsCentral a bad time about spreading that same rumor last week, both repeating rumors. I'm not sure if both Percy Allen and Brian Robinson speading the same rumor means that Brian has become more of a reporter, or that that Percy has become more of a blogger. If that's both or neather then I'm disappointed in one of them, or both.

At any rate, we will see what really happens ... when it really happens. There's still a good change Wilcox signs a three year deal. That would be best for he and the team. It's rare when a player takes the one year contract that he makes up the money left on the table (see Vladi Radmanovic, Stro Swift, etc..). Three years is short enough to bank 24 million and still get to the market again for a long term contract, he's 23. But the story last week was 24 million (8 million a year) and now it is 19.5 (6.5 million a year). I'm not sure where Percy Allen get's 6 million as a difference unless the Wilcox demand wasn't 24 million, but 25 (what's a million among millionaires?).

If it comes right down to it, the one year deal, Wilcox play for one year and then he could walk away. Not good for ether side. The Sonics also have Ridnour and Collison in line for possible contract extensions.

The Wilcox one year deal would mean much to dealings with Ridnour, Collison on the other hand could pick up some of the cash Wilcox is leaving on the table. Collison would have a little more leverage, not much, but some. And that leverage that could translate into dollars.

So, do the Sonics pay Collison a little more or just go a little higher next week with Wilcox and spend that little bit of money there? I think that either way the Sonics are going to pay out that 6 million. It's either going to hold wilcox here for three years or it's going to over pay Collison for the next few years. If they go short with Collison too then they have an unstable power forward spot with two guys fluffing up their numbers at the potential cost to the rest of the team.

If Wilcox signs the one year deal look for Collison to make a little more money and for Petro to get playing time at power forward (his furure position). The Sonics will give Wilcox the same line they gave Radmanovic, if you are signing for one year then the team will look to develop players they think will be here past the current year. That's the team's leverage.

They should meet half-way, 3 years @ 7.25 mil =21.75. The Sonics will save money off Collison, and Wilcox will not leave 4 million dollars on the table this season going forward.

Go forward!