Legal News

Starbucks Owner Sues to Keep Sonics in Seattle

By Ashby Jones

Pity the Seattle SuperSonics. The team is heading into its final game of the season bringing up the rear of the NBA’s Western Conference with a 19-62 record. And beyond this week, little is certain about the future of the team. The team’s new owners have expressed a desire to move Kevin Durant and Co. to Oklahoma City. And now, word from the Emerald City is that former owner, Howard Schultz (of Starbucks fame), is looking to sue the new owners to keep the team put. Click here for background from our friends at the Daily Fix.

According to this AP account, Schultz’s lawyer, Richard Yarmuth, said earlier today he plans to sue the organization that owns the team, run by businessman Clay Bennett, in the next two weeks to keep him from moving the team to OKC.

The issue, says Yarmuth, is a contractual one. Yarmuth says Bennett failed to make a good-faith effort to fulfill a promise made at the time of the 2006 sale to keep the basketball team in Seattle. “The damages that are being sought is to rescind, unwind the transaction,” Yarmuth said. “It’s not money damage, it’s to have the team returned.”

After buying the team, Bennett launched a public effort to try to put together a deal for a new arena in the Seattle area. Those plans failed to get support from the city and the state.

Recently disclosed e-mail between Bennett and other owners showed they have been talking about moving the team to Oklahoma City since April 2007. NBA owners meet Friday to vote on the proposal to move the team.

Law Blog YouTube Video of the Day: The Sonics play their games down in Lower Queen Anne at the Key Arena. We’re not sure what the powers-that-be would do with it were the Sonics to leave, but we really can’t get enough of what happened to the Kingdome in March of 2000, after both the Mariners and Seahawks had decided they’d had enough of the place. Click here and enjoy.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 15, 2008 (boomark / email).