Seattle Sucks at Negotiation

Seattle has lost their only pro championship and despite taking the Sonics to court, the city leadership bailed on their fellow Seattleites (yeah, I looked it up) at the eleventh hour.

Some highlights from this Seattle Times article:

"[T]he city agreed to accept $45 million. That's substantially more than the $26.5 million Bennett offered in February, and will cover the city's estimated $30 million debt remaining on KeyArena's 1995 renovation."

"Bennett will owe $30 million more in five years if the NBA does not approve a new team for Seattle. But Bennett will not have to pay that money if the Legislature fails to authorize at least $75 million for a renovated KeyArena by the end of 2009."

With $30 million to the debt, that leaves $15 million in the coffers, but in the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast."

Per this Seattle Times article (where Mayor Greg Nickels was described as forcing the Sonics to honor their lease):

"In all, the city estimates in recent years it has received between $8 million and $11 million annually from Sonics and Storm games."

The Storm were sold for $10m earlier this year, so forgive me for not assuming they are a large portion of that pie. If we assume that the Sonics were responsible for $7 million (a conservative estimate, like Pat Buchanan conservative) of that annual revenue, the city will lose $14 million over what could have been the last two years of the team's lease. This money is probably spent, so let's deduct it too.

A grand total of a whopping $1 million dollars for the sale of their 41-year basketball history.

All is not lost, however, Seattle has already acquired a new franchise that will begin playing in 2009. Allow me to introduce the Seattle Sounders of MLS! I thought soccer was played with eleven players? These guys must be really good.