The SuperSonics are closer than ever to returning to Seattle.
Following a vote on March 25 by the NBA Board of Governors to move forward with expansion efforts, the league can now hold formal talks with prospective ownership groups in Seattle and Las Vegas. This comes 18 years after the Sonics were sold and moved to Oklahoma City.
KNKX Morning Edition host Kirsten Kendrick talked with KNKX music host and Sonics superfan Abe Beeson and longtime Seattle sports columnist and commentator Art Thiel about what a possible return of the team would mean to the city and fans.
Transcript
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Kirsten Kendrick: The SuperSonics are closer than ever to returning to Seattle. After a vote by the NBA Board of Governors to move forward with expansion efforts, the league can now hold formal talks with prospective ownership groups in Seattle as well as in Las Vegas. This comes 18 years after the Sonics were sold and moved to Oklahoma City. What would a Sonics return mean to the city and to fans?
To talk about this, I am joined by longtime Seattle sports columnist and commentator, Art Thiel and KNKX music host and Sonics superfan Abe Beeson. Great to have both of you here.
Art Thiel: Good to be here.
Abe Beeson: Go Supes!
Kendrick: All right, let's start with a little history. The Sonics were Seattle's first professional sports franchise.
Thiel: 1967, and 3,000 people showed up at the old Coliseum for that, and they were also Seattle's first winner of a pro sports championship in 1979, and I was lucky enough to be there.
Kendrick: Well, we do have the moment when the Sonics became NBA champions. Let's play that.
Announcer: Seven seconds, six, five, four, pass to Gus Williams, three, two one, and the SuperSonics win their first ever NBA championship. The ball sails high in the air. Les Habegger does the Habegger Hop. The Sonics are ecstatic. The horns are honking around the Pacific Northwest.
Kendrick: Abe, that is a core memory for you, right?
Beeson: Gus Williams throws the ball high in the air. Are you kidding me? That's remarkable.
Thiel: Bob Blackburn.
Beeson: Yes. The voice — one of my real big influences in radio to follow this profession was Bob Blackburn, the voice. And yeah, I was big fan from very young. My dad used to take me to games in the mid-70s. I remember Slick Watts and Tommy Burleson, and they unfortunately moved us out to Duvall. So I was nine years old out in the country honking my horn when the Sonics won in 79 in Landover, Maryland. Back then, it was a real special thing for this small town to have everyone bring us together. And I think there was also a point in the 70s when a lot of people were leaving the Seattle area, and it felt like this city was going the other direction. So for the Sonics to bring the city together like that and give us something to be proud of, was a real special time.
Kendrick: Well, speaking of people leaving the city, let's fast forward to 2008 when the Sonics left Seattle for Oklahoma City. It was over the arena. The city had spent $100 million renovating Key Arena back in 1995; then-NBA Commissioner David Stern called it state-of-the-art. But six years later, new Sonics owner, then-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz immediately went after more money for another remodel. He and Commissioner Stern lobbied the legislature for more money. State lawmakers declined, and then Schultz sold the team to Oklahoma businessman Clay Bennett and his investors. Right, Art?
Thiel: Both of whom said, "Oh, we're keeping the team here. Nobody worry. We're just, you know, going to make it work here." That was fraud, that was a lie, and I think most of us knew that. And sure enough, they moved the team in 2008 after the city sued the Oklahoma City owners and said, "This building is still first-class. You're breaking the lease you're going to stay." But the city chickened out. The city said that we still owe $45 million on the 1995 remodel, and they told Clay Bennett, the owner, "All right, if you give us $45 million you can have the team." And that's when the Sonics left for Oklahoma City.
Kendrick: All right. Well, Abe, how did you feel as such a big fan once that reality set in, that the team was moving?
Beeson: Oh, Kirsten, a lot of emotions, a lot of emotions. And yeah, like Art said, I knew it from the beginning. As soon as that sale was made to Clay Bennett, it was a done deal, and the team was going, and there was nothing that could be done. And it was so frustrating to feel that betrayal from the NBA. They used to have a marketing message that was all about fan-tastic. The NBA is fan-tastic. It's all about the fans. And that was a real wake-up call to me that it's not all about the fans, that professional sports is all about the billionaires and the owners and sometimes the politicians too. There's lots of blame to go around, but it was the fans who got the shaft and the NBA who didn't seem to care, and those feelings still come up when we hear about the team maybe coming back.
Kendrick: Yeah, and speaking of that, so we've got this first step taken toward an expansion team coming to Seattle that would take the name SuperSonics back, because the city retained the name and the logo and all of that. What are we thinking about being next in terms of the process, Art?
Thiel: Well, I think it's a good sign. I think there's a real strong possibility it's going to happen. I'm not completely sold only because of my professional skepticism around pro sports and owners and the greed factor. And that is the one my one area of apprehension about this. There's something unique about Climate Pledge Arena, which is the third iteration of the building on Seattle Center campus. It's the only big-time arena in a public park, and that means that no private construction can occur around it. And that is the latest trend in sports entertainment, where stadiums and arenas are surrounded by properties and businesses owned by the sports enterprise that owns the team. So that limitation, I don't know where that fits in the priorities. And the NBA owner likely is going to be the Kraken ownership, which then would give them control over the sports calendar.
Kendrick: Well, speaking of that was going to say so we would have four teams at Climate Pledge Arena. We've got the Torrent, the Storm, the Kraken, and then SuperSonics if they come back.
Thiel: Right. And that's an extremely vulnerable situation, because one of the things that I think sports fans don't realize is that concert revenues are much more lucrative than pro sports leases. And so if you dedicate a playoff date, for example, to any of those teams, and your team doesn't make the playoffs, the building is dark when it could have had a concert in it. So that is really going to be an issue, but the Kraken ownership is going to try to leverage that by saying, "We're in charge of the calendar. If you bring a third party in, we're going to have some trouble trying to manage their needs."
Kendrick: So we'll see how that all plays out. Looks like, if things do move forward, both teams would be playing in the 2028-29 season. Abe, as a superfan, how are you feeling about all of this?
Beeson: Yeah, boy, the NBA has walked a long way out onto this pier, so if they turn back now, they're going to really make a lot of people even more upset than they already are. And I really hate this part of the process. I'm looking forward to the point when we can say, "Here's a team. Here are the players." And not only the looking ahead to the future of the team, but also being able to celebrate the past, and be able to hang the jerseys of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp and Downtown Freddie Brown and Spencer Haywood, get them up in the rafters once again and remember the the legacy that any future basketball team would be built on. And beyond that, I'm really excited to take my eight-year-old granddaughter to a basketball game.
Kendrick: Oh, that's so great. Well, Abe Beeson, KNKX music host, Sonics superfan, and Art Thiel, longtime Seattle sports columnist and commentator, and for us here at KNKX a weekly commentator with me and art for 15 years talking sports. It's great to have you both in here and talking about this.
Thiel: Let's do this again.
Beeson: Woo-hoo!
