This is big local sports news with a franchise and ownership that has been at odds politically with the city. Will the Seattle Supersonics being staying at/near the Seattle area or moving to Oklahoma City? The speculation is yes, we have lost the NBA in Seattle. Please don’t tell me, and no offense to the ladies, that all we are left with is the Rain Storm (WNBA) [Update: As heard on KOMO 1000 radio, it is a package deal, both the Storm and Sonics are together.]

They have threatened to sell the team after their lease expires in 2010 unless the city gives them a larger cut of any revenue and $220 million in taxpayer-funded remodeling of KeyArena. Since then, they have held informal discussions with leaders in Bellevue and Renton about potentially building a new arena in one of those cities.

I never saw a Sonics game played at Key Arena, although I did see one played in the Tacoma dome. Would like to have seen them cut some kind of deal to keep them somewhere, but taxpayers are getting tax poor supporting these professional teams. People could still be reeling from the aftermath of the Seahawks deal that was voted down and then passed through anyway by the politicians. Then again, look at how good the Hawks did last year. Winning can cause a change of heart and the Sonics haven’t been doing a lot of that lately.

The Mariners attendence has been declining despite arguably the finest baseball facility in baseball. No doubt this isn’t helped by their losing reconds the last couple season, although they are doing better (not the last 11 games though). The division is weak, hopefully ownership will pull the trigger on some big deals before the tradeline.

There is a lease through 2010 at Key Arena, so the Sonics won’t be going anywhere next season, at least unless this group pays off the lease. Not sure if there is a clause which allows prepayment or not. Lots of speculation at this point, but a news conference is scheduled for 3pm PST today and supposedly our illustrious Governor Christine Gregoire is in on the talks with the team. Let’s hope she does better with this then she did with online gambling in this state.

We’ll find out in a few hours.

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