Nickels Facilitates Sonics Move

Seattle’s Mayor, Greg Nickels, signed a deal with the Oklahoma businessman Clay Bennett, to allow the Seattle SuperSonics to not fulfill the remaining two years on their Key Arena lease and move to Oklahoma City. The arrangement leaves the Sonics name, colors, awards, and history in Seattle. Bennett’s team will acquire a new name and new colors prior to their first season in their new home. This is similar to the arrangement made when the owner of the Cleveland Brown’s NFL team uprooted that historic franchise and moved to Baltimore. The Browns returned from the dead several years later as Cleveland was awarded an expansion team, and the old Browns became the Baltimore Ravens.

Along those lines, one possible new name for Bennett’s uprooted team could be the Oklahoma City Vultures.

While mayoral posts in Washington are by law officially non-partisan, Greg Nickels is well-known as a Democrat, and is from that party’s liberal wing.

Sonics headed to OKC for $45 million settlement–Seattle PI, July 2, 2008

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