Whats the over/under on number of arrests? Nothing like initiating your criminal record over a lost cause.

What street is the federal courthouse located on?

Lost cause my ass. This team is staying here whether you like it or not. Go ahead arrest me and GP. But, watch out for X-man.

lost cause? Go to NewsOK.com and check out the full blown draft coverage by a "news" paper that is telling stories about a basketball team the citizens of Oklahoma City will never see.

Brian Robinson is a basketball fan, and a Sonics fan, and his efforts have an effect in a positive way on the likelihood of the Sonics staying in Seattle for another 41 years.

This will be as much a public trial as it is a trial in court. Bennett will lose both.

15 days and counting, I will be there to show my support, absolutely. This is about more than basketball, right or wrong or even good and evil, this is about truth and justice in every sense of the meaning. I wonder how that right-wing fish wrap in OKC will spin this trial? It will be Christmas in June to see Clay and Co. squirm under oath.

Boy there are going to be a lot of very dissapointed folks. As a fellow Seattlelite I feel for you guys.

Good and evil. Isn't the NBA evil?

the nba doesn't decide court cases. My feeling is they are more likely to stay than leave. I dont see how any judge court look at the facts of the case objectively and see things in Bennetts favor.

Hey Grand Cayman last time I checked We still have the the right to assemble, and protest.....must be from OKC.... No arrests will be made. Im sure the cops will join in the chants!

Hey Grand Cayman last time I checked We still have the the right to assemble, and protest.....must be from OKC.... No arrests will be made. Im sure the cops will join in the chants!

I'll be there with my "Boo Hoo, Clay" banner. Can't wait.

Count me in! I planned on being there all day! Thanks SOS for putting this together!

"Hey Grand Cayman last time I checked We still have the the right to assemble, and protest.....must be from OKC.... "

Or belonging to the 75% of Seattle folks opposed to public subsidies for pro sports.

Joeseph, you do belong to the 75% of Seattleites that are mis-informed on the Key Arena upgrade proposal. $150 million form the city and state are going towards needed upgrades for a sub-par facility. The $150 million from the Ballmer group (using private money for a public facility) would go towards improvements for the Sonics. Please be informed before passing opinion.

I'm informed enough to know that the state has already spend a billion dollars on sports facilities in recent years including 90 million on KeyArena 13 years ago. The Key is perfect as a basketball venue. What exactly are the 150M in needed upgrades? Are you claiming Key is unsafe or are you claiming an additional $150M in public is need to make the NBA model work in Seattle?

Can 75% of the most educated city in the US be wrong?

I am with Joseph here. As long as we have pressing concerns like unaffordable healthcare, 300+ buildings susceptible to earthquakes, limited educational opportunities, poor infrastructure, transportation bedlam etc., the state has no buisness consideraing the funding of yet another sports facility.

Will we be able to hang Clay in effigy? Or just hang him period?

Just a couple corrections here:

1) The event will start at 11:30. The major guests will speak at noon.

2) We had more than 300 supporters in Olympia. Not bad when you conider the event was put on with less than 24 hours notice.

This will be a fun event but because it is during the workday we know it will be difficult for people to make it. We hope those that work downtown will take some time during lunch to drop by.

Details will be posted on saveoursonics.org next week.

Rex and Joeseph, have either of you asked for money to go towards your proposals? Have either of you contacted your city officials to get things moving to correct your concerns? I have in the form of Key Arena upgrades. Have either of you been there recently? Ever tried to leave after a larger event? Get something to eat? The small concourses and the horrible food are two reason the Key loses events to Everett and White River. Without upgrades the Key becomes obsolete and a drain on our econmy. Plus losing the anchor tennant would make it a bigger drain on our resources. When your car breaks down, do you just neglect it? Or do you fix it up and continue to get use out of it. For such an educated city, the short-sightedness of some of the citizens astounds me. How could anyone turn down $150 million dollars of private money to go towards a public facility? Name another public facility that generates revenue. The library? The SAM? Just because the Sonics make money doesn't mean that they should be discounted. And fo the recoed, the one venue in the city that gets the most use and could use a facelift is the Key. It has more events than the other two stadiums combined, why should it be the one to suffer?

Joseph, Rex. You are prime examples of people with just enough misinformation to be dangerous. You are welcome to your own opinion, that is what makes our society great, but not your own facts.

Sadly being a well educated city doesn't make us a well informed one.

1) "75% of Seattle folks opposed to public subsidies for pro sports". This is untrue. 75% of those that voted for I-91 (a small number of people) said that they felt that the city should get a fair return for their investment in these facilities.

The funding package for the Key Arena expansion complies with I-91 and is endorsed by the creators of the initiative and the entire Seattle City Government (including Nick LIcata). This is a case of the billionaires bailing out the taxpayers not the other way around.

2) The state did not spend $90 million on Key Arena. The city of Seattle spent $74 million on it. That was the bonding capacity that the city had available so that became the budget. As such they were able to build a fantastic place to watch basketball that was inadequate in every other area. Those shortcomings are what will be addressed by the expansion.

The expansion will have two parts. The part that benefits the public, which will be paid for by public money (most of which would have to be spent anyhow if the Sonics left) and the part that benefits the NBA would be paid for by private investment.

3) “the state has already spend a billion dollars on sports facilities” is inaccurate. The public facilities districts in King County paid for these using nearly half private investment and with targeted taxes (mostly paid by tourists) that return greater revenues to the region than they cost us. They have been huge financial successes for both the teams and the region and have stimulated development in a dead area of town. Despite this some people continue to cry about the projects even though they are a rare example of good public investments.

4) “we have pressing concerns like unaffordable healthcare, 300+ buildings susceptible to earthquakes, limited educational opportunities, poor infrastructure, transportation bedlam etc.” This is all correct, and a sign that we have a complete failure in leadership in this region. However this is classic misdirection. This is like a kid saying he didn’t study for the WASL because there are starving people in Africa. His failure to pass the test has nothing to do with anything but his failure to learn and prepare. None of the things you point out will be solved if we let the Sonics go. In fact every one of those things will be worse off because we will have general fund money going to replace the lost revenues from the Sonics leaving taking money away from other things.

If you want to claim to be part of a well educated region then you need to do more than research by sound bite. It is sad to see so many so ignorant on this topic.

Tim,

If I may address the 2 relevant points in your post.

1) The reason why Key is a drain on our economy is because it was publicly (rather than privately) funded. The cash flows have never been there to justify the historical and proposed public expenditures. By putting another $150M into this sinkhole we repeat the same mistake and exacerbate the predicament 5-fold. In another 10 -15years there will be an even bigger investment required to cover the further drain to the economy we would create.

2) If this was such a great investment I'm sure Ballmer and company fund it entirely. Doesn't that make sense? As far as putting in $150M their offer is not unfettered and only contingent on $150M in public financing. The difference is the ownership group is solely allowed to recoup the returns of both their and the public portion of the investment. In other words they are not giving $150M because they are offsetting their commitment by returns from the state's investment.

There are numerous other pending needs in this community that would provide social benefits that far outweigh a new arena that replaces one that is perfectly functional. Bottom line is that the NBA cannot function in Seattle without free money. And most of us our done with being taken to the cleaners.

For the record.

Does anyone know how much the public portion of Key, Safeco, and Qwest were/?

No spin please.

Quinn,

1) Key Arena is not a drain on our economy, yet. If the Sonics leave it would be as general fund money would have to go to pay off the arena debt and the region would lose millions in tax revenues. Jobs would be lost and businesses in the Queen Anne area that depend on the Arena for their living would go bankrupt. Seattle Center would also become a huge drain on the economy. $75 million of the investment is money that the city will have to spend either way, the other is surplus Safeco Field funds that are mostly paid by tourists.

2) These sports facilities are unique animals in that they generate huge revenues for the public and private sides. In this case we have a private investor bailing out the public. Even Chris Van Dyk and Nick Licata, the two biggest anti-stadium folks, have approved of this deal. Clearly they understand this issue better than you do and they have signed off on the deal so that should tell you that you don’t know what you are talking about.

3) This whole straw man “other needs” drivel is really getting tiring. Those “other needs” are not being funded because of our lack of political leadership in this region but because we don’t have the funding. There is no shortage of revenue there is a shortage of responsibility. To date NOT ONE anti sports type has ever been able to show in hard numbers how not funding this arena expansion would improve the financial situation for the region and provide funding for any of these “other needs”. It is an easy sound bite so you guys regurgitate it without even thinking but it is completely based on ignorance.

Why don't we use Clay Bennett's 30 million payoff plus Steve Ballmer's goodwill 150 million to save the Seattle Center? Maybe no public expenditure then?

Thank god I have Nick and Dyk to explain this to me

"Key Arena is not a drain on our economy, yet."

Ofcourse Key is a drain on our economy if we need $150 million in public funding to generate a plan to keep it from not being a drain.

Doh

"Key Arena is not a drain on our economy, yet."

Ofcourse Key is a drain on our economy if we need $150 million in public funding to generate a plan to keep it from not being a drain.

Doh

---------------

So what's your big bright idea?

I think Key Arena is great, only complaint is the hallways and walkways are skinny and get easily crowded.

Key Arena worked fine in the 90's.

I think Key Arena should be remodeled with mostly private money. If someone is willing to contribute over 50% to a public building, then you better take that deal. I think Key Arena will be re-modeled or a New stadium will be built in its current place or where memorial stadium is.

And even if we had to pay with public taxes for 75 Mill. That really isn't all that much, especially when you consider the fact that the only taxes that would fund this are from Rental Car / Hotel / and some restaurants. Who pays for this? Tourists. When is the last time you rented a car in Seattle?

Everyone come to the rally. Tell your co-workers about it and your friends.

Some questions I would like the answer to are before a cent of public funding is applied towards sonics:

1) Exactly what would the 150 million in public expenditure that you guys are talking about be applied towards? Who would benefit? Who would retain parking and related event revenues?

2) Exactly where did the 75 million in needed Seattle Center upgrade figure come from and what are these needed upgrades comprisde of?

3) Exactly what kind of effort did Mayor Nickels and Ceis expend on attracting private funding sources to Seattle Center upgrades? Were their efforts commensurate with their efforts to attract private funding sources towards retaining the sonics. If not, is the $75 million in public financing from the city really in compliance with the spirit of I-91.

4) Why does Nick Licata repeatedly reiterate his stand that snoics provide no economic benefit whatsoever to Seattle?

5) Should we use this particular issue to alter the voter process in place as Coz advocates?

I'll be at the courthouse because it will be a BLOCK PARTY, not a demonstration. This will never make it to June 16 without a resolution driven by Stern. NO WAY is he going to allow his owners and league to be drug into court. The deal will involve some concessions on both sides, but will favor Seattle. PCB just made too many dumb errors - thank God.

Tenisha, I can answer a few of your questions. Some I believe I have the answers to, but I don't want to give you bad info.

The mayor and deputy mayor were approached with an offer by Steve Ballmer and his group stating they would pay for upgrades to the Key that would benefit the Sonics. The public won't have to pay for that portion, so that in effect covers the I-91 issue. The other $150 million are for upgrades to the facility that will benefit all users of the Key. Lets not forget the Sonics are not the only tenant, the Storm play there, concerts, high school tournaments, etc. The private funding of a public facility is a very generous offer.
As for Nick Licota, he does not "repeatedly reiterate his stand that snoics provide no economic benefit whatsoever to Seattle?". In fact, he has renounced that statement, and continues to appoligize for making it.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/364832_arena28x.html
Hope that clears up some of your questions. Save Our Sonics!

"Licata does stand firmly by his assessment that the departure of the Sonics would have "near zero" economic impact on the region, and that Seattle would remain a world-class cultural city regardless."

hmmm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/364832_arena28x.html

"And, if you still care about keeping basketball in town, you'll go to the rally next Monday and cheer Payton and McDaniel, the same way you cheered them when they used to thrill us on the floor, when there never was a doubt that the Sonics belonged to Seattle" -Steve Kelley. So, you're going to be there, right Steve?

       And just to be technical, Brian Robinson is the
        co-founder of SOS along with Steven Pyeatt.

And just to be technical, Steve Pyeatt is posting under the names "Save Our Sonics" and Coz.
  
You never were good at sockpuppetry Coz.