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June 30, 2008 10:24 AM

Ballmer still interested

Posted by Percy Allen

It's a little old, but in case you missed it, here's an excerpt of Times reporter Benjamin J. Romano exclusive iinterview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that ran Sunday.

Q: Do you have any interest, given what's unfolding in Seattle right now, in bringing an NBA team here or keeping an NBA team here?

Steve Ballmer: A group of us tried to see if we couldn't at least help get an arena built here, because I think it would be nice to have a basketball team in Seattle. I like the sport. I think, you know, I want us to be a first-rate community, and I think it helps attract people and say this is a first-rate place to have all the big pro sports teams.

So I'd love to see Seattle have a team, and I think it's now well documented publicly, a group of us offered to put up some money to help fix up KeyArena and, if need, be buy a team.

Q: Do you remain interested in that?

Ballmer: Well, it's sort of one of these things where you get a chicken-and-the-egg situation. The current team is moving. Somebody needs to get a new team, and you've got to get a new arena. It's not clear whether you get the arena before the team or the team before the arena. We had a team and we couldn't get an arena.

It's not clear how you football the process, but I'm supportive of everybody's efforts along those lines.

Here's a link to the entire Q&A.

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