It's Settled: Sonics are Leaving for Oklahoma City

In a landmark settlement that brings to an end four decades of NBA basketball in the Emerald City, the City of Seattle has accepted a $75 million buyout from the Supersonics to release the team from the remaining two years of the club's lease at Key Arena.

In addition to the cash payment, the city will also retain the "Supersonics" name and the franchise history, which could be applied to a future franchise. The agreement also included a rebate provision, which would reduce the payment to $45 million if the city receives a new team in the next two years. The Supersonics, owned by the Oklahoma City-based Professional Basketball Club LLC, will move to Oklahoma this summer and begin the 2008-09 season in their new home.

Just hours before Judge Marsha Pechman was set to announce her findings in the case, word spread across the city that a settlement was in the works. The city rejected a $27 million settlement offer earlier in the year. Negotiations took place throughout the day leading up to the judge's deadline. Talks included Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, a former owner of the team, who had filed a lawsuit against the Sonics for failing to fulfill a legal agreement to make legitimate efforts to keep the team in Seattle.

In the lead-up to the trial, documents and testimony revealed that several members of the PBC had admitted the owners had no intention to keep the team in Seattle when they bought the team from Schultz's group in 2006.

Seattlest is sad to see our team leave town. From Downtown Freddie Brown to D.J., to The Glove, ,to our latest assemblage of "talent," we enjoyed heading down to the Key, pondering how hot Squatch must be in that costume, and gettin' our groove on with the dance team during timeouts.

Some will view the news of the settlement as the cup being half empty. Some will view the news as the cup being half full. But, we tend to agree with the late George Carlin: Maybe the glass was just too big.

Depressing photo courtesy of the Seattlest Flickr pool contributor S x 2.