Washington State Politics » Sports Politics http://www.washingtonstatepolitics.com Politics and Government in the Evergreen State: Analysis, Political Biography, Political History, and Current Events related to Seattle and Washington Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:02:32 +0000 en hourly 1 Nickels Facilitates Sonics Move http://www.washingtonstatepolitics.com/2008/07/02/nickels-facilitates-sonics-move/ http://www.washingtonstatepolitics.com/2008/07/02/nickels-facilitates-sonics-move/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:34:11 +0000 Wa State Pol http://rogersgalaxy.net/washingtonstatepolitics.com/?p=18 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

]]> http://www.washingtonstatepolitics.com/2008/07/02/nickels-facilitates-sonics-move/feed/ 0 Slade Gorton to Seattle’s Rescue vs. Sonics http://www.washingtonstatepolitics.com/2007/09/16/slade-gorton-to-seattles-rescue-vs-sonics/ http://www.washingtonstatepolitics.com/2007/09/16/slade-gorton-to-seattles-rescue-vs-sonics/#comments Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:54:46 +0000 Wa State Pol http://rogersgalaxy.net/washingtonstatepolitics.com/?p=47 The City of Seattle added former Senator, and current Attorney, Slade Gorton to its arsenal of weapons with which to beat Sonics ownership into submission if necessary.  Gorton adds gravitas to the city’s efforts to keep the Sonics from leaving for Oklahoma prior to the end of their KeyArena contract.

For those of you unfamiliar with Slade’s past history, when he served as Washington’s Attorney General in the 1970s, he sued Major League Baseball over the way in which it allowed Seattle’s MLB franchise (then the Pilots; now the Brewers), to leave for Milwaukee.  That successful bit of legal warfare resulted in the birth of the Seattle Mariners, which MLB was obligated to award to Seattle.  The goal of course with Slade Gorton’s current job is to keep the team in town this time.

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