The Oklahoma City Bandits Thunder, sold out season tickets for the upcoming year with demand pushing well beyond. Clay Bennett’s success and relative ease in dominating the former Sonics franchise provides solid proof that any notion of karma existing in this universe is dead. On the plus side, WSU scheduled Division II Portland State for this coming weekend’s game so the chances of an adult football team from the state of Washington actually getting a......

The two clever guys living in Oklahoma City stumbled upon some pretty good evidence which appears to confirm that your Sonics will be known as the Oklahoma City Thunder next season. Seems the NBA is using that name on its website, too. (h/t Deadspin)......

While still not official, rumors persist that the former Sonics franchise will be renamed the Oklahoma City Thunder. If true, there is a certain LA-area mom-and-pop greeting card maker who will be giggling all the way to the bank. It seems domain-squatting is also part of their business model. See oklahomacitythunder.com.......

Oklahoma City media is reporting that the dearly-departed Sonics will be named the Oklahoma City Thunder. The only problem with that seems to be that there ALREADY is an Oklahoma City sports team with that name. Look out, minor league footballers...Clay Bennett might just ship you off to a place more God-forsaken than your own. And only someone with deep pockets like him could afford the cost associated with a seemingly impossible feat like that.......

Seattlest is still digesting the unsavory news of the loss of our beloved basketball team, the Supersonics. But rather than dwell on the downside, we are trying to keep our chin up and look for some positives. After all, it's not every day that we wake up to find $75 million in the front pocket of our well-worn jeans. We've been wondering all week about how the city might spend that big ol' chunk......

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......

The justice system may buckle in Oklahoma City’s favor this afternoon with results of the Sonics trial set to be announced at 4 p.m., but the wrath of God is clearly on Seattle’s side. Former owner Howard Schultz—the vindictive baby who sold to an ownership group intent on immediate relocation after being denied a taxpayer handout—is already feeling the sting of what is sure to be the first in a long line of curses......

A week from today the NBA teamowners will meet in New York to, among other things, discuss and possibly vote on moving the Sonics from Lower Queen Anne to Oklahoma City. It will be interesting to see how Portland Trail Blazer owner Paul Allen votes. He is a Seattle native, who lives, works, and develops here. He also owns the Seahawks, many of whose fans would be devastated if the Sonics were to move. On......

The Seattle Times' Jim Brunner points out a head-exploding irony in the Sonics' legal case to escape their Key Arena lease. For a lifetime, we've heard professional sports owners trot out the argument that we ought to pay for their arenas because they provide an economic benefit to the community. Think of the waiters, the parking attendants, the ushers and all the people that make money when the team plays. Or don't--they'd be getting their......

Great news for Seattle Storm fans broke last night: Sonics owner Clay Bennett will sell the WNBA team to a local ownership group. That group hasn't yet been identified, but we'll find out who they are at an 11am news conference today. Bennett had said he wasn't going to separate the Sonics and Storm. Why'd he change his mind? Brian Robinson of SonicsCentral and Save Our Sonics speculates: "In general I think the 'divide and......

Starring Michael Caine as Clay Bennett Steve Martin as the Seattle SuperSonics and Sonic Fans as Uncle Ted.......

So that paper Clay Bennett mask didn't score you the costume-contest office pool? Your Lewinsky dress was irredeemably soiled? It's not too early to think Haloween '08. And we've got the coolest outfit idea for you: Jerry Cantrell. The Alice in Chains guitarist/singer will even trade you his threads for a charity donation. Starting November 5 (and going through 11/26), Cantrell's auctioning off some of "his favorite clothes from key moments in his career" to......

You may not agree with his conservative politics, but if you like the Mariners, you owe an elaborate tip of the cap to ex-U.S. Senator Slade Gorton. Gorton, who was state Attorney General from 1969-1981, then a two-term U.S. Senator, and served on the 9/11 Commission, is almost solely responsible for the Mariners being here, and now he's agreed to help the city keep the Sonics. "We're lawyering up," deputy mayor Tim Ceis told the......

There's one person left in Seattle who thinks Sonics owner Clay Bennett is on the up-and-up, and that's state legislator Margarita Prentice. It wasn't the fact that Bennett's ultimate goal was to take the Sonics to OKC that kept the team from getting an arena. No, it was "Seattle's elitist attitude." Says Prentice:I just think it's part of Seattle's elitist attitude that somehow or another we're too cool for sports.Yes, if we weren't such anti-sports......

Sonics minority owner Aubrey McClendon confirms what we all suspected from the start. In an interview with the Oklahoma City Journal Record, he says:We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here. McClendon, who previously got bad publicity in Seattle for being anti gay rights, lauds Clay Bennett for "artfully and skillfully" (translation: underhandedly) getting the team. Here's the full quote:We started to look around, and at that time......

Mayor Greg Nickels told reporters yesterday he thought Key Arena was a great place for basketball, and if the Sonics would just pony up $100 million, the city would be willing to renovate it to match the team's needs. Sonics owner Clay Bennett's response was swift and unequivocal.We have been clear since July 18, 2006, the day the sale of the Sonics and Storm was announced, that KeyArena is not an option as a future......

Brian Robinson is Director of Save Our Sonics & Storm. (He also runs a real estate company and owns the two Firehouse Coffees in Ballard). Robinson, along with longtime stadium opponent Chris Van Dyk, recently announced an initiative campaign to force the Sonics to stay in Seattle until their lease is up after the '09-'10 season. We emailed Brian questions, he emailed back answers. I think it's amazing that you've joined forces with Chris Van......

Save Our Sonics and Citizens For More Important Things' Chris Van Dyk are working together to keep NBA basketball in the city…until 2010. Owner Clay Bennett is going to try and move the team to Oklahoma City at the end of the season, even though the team has a lease with the city that runs through 2010. Bennett could buy his way out of the lease; a prospect that the city may like considering that......

Apparently, Clay Bennett wants to talk again. Now, we don't know squat about owning sports teams, so we won't presume to give Mr. Bennett advice on how to negotiate with this waterside shanty-town. But one thing we do know is Love, specifically the requisite sweet-nothings that lubricate this most powerful of human conditions. And, as far as we can tell, this is what this Storm/Sonics thing is all about: Bennett and Seattle coming to an......

Clay Bennett and Greg Nickels talked today, and the upshot is that--a year and a day after buying the team, and only a few months after saying he was moving--Bennett wants to reopen talks about staying in Key Arena. So says Jim Brunner of the Seattle Times. KEVIN DURANT WE LOVE YOU! David Stern has seemed to cool on the idea of the Sonics moving, maybe the NBA doesn't want the Western Conference to be......

When he named Sam Presti the Sonics' new GM yesterday, owner Clay Bennett also stripped Lenny Wilkens of the title of President and retitled him Vice-Chairman. A source told the Tacoma News Tribune Bennett wanted "to put Lenny out to pasture." Ranching metaphors: just one of the many joys of having your team owned by guys from Oklahoma City.From Wilkens’ unsavory handling of the announcement of his position of president to his perceived mismanagement of......

SonicsCentral pointed us to this story from the Daily Oklahoman, where Clay Bennett is as explicit as ever about his desire to move the Sonics:"For now, without a building solution, it's our intent to play in Seattle and apply for relocation immediately after the (Oct. 31) deadline."It's good that Bennett's finally declared his intentions, NBA-backers can now prepare for the big fight. The Sonics' lease, signed after we taxpayers remodeled the Coliseum for them, runs......

On Saturday, Frank Hughes of the Tacoma News-Tribune reported that local real estate developer Dave Sabey had offered to buy the Sonics from Clay Bennett and make them the centerpiece of a development he's planning south of Boeing Field. By Sunday, Percy Allen of the Seattle Times had interviewed Clay Bennett, who said "I am a friend of Dave Sabey and I respect him as a businessman ... but there's nothing there." Now, today, Gary......

Gary Washburn Frank Hughes of the Tacoma News Tribune reports that real estate developer David Sabey (at right) has offered to buy the Sonics from an increasingly disillusioned Clay Bennett. Last month, Sabey bought a 55-acre parcel south of Boeing Field from Associated Grocers (you know the land, it's that depot with all those container trucks that's just before I-5 makes a right turn toward the airport). He offered that land to Bennett for an......

Via True Hoop, the News Tribune's Frank Hughes reports today that the Sonics' organization is "enveloped by a cloud of paranoia, mistrust, distrust and, now, anger." The lowlights: --Clay Bennett fired Bob Hill just two hours after Hill returned home from having hernia surgery. --Bennett didn't have a news conference to announce the firings because he's "mad at the media." --Bennett believes he was misled about the Sonics' chance of getting an arena--that then-CEO......

Say this for new Sonics owner Clay Bennett--he knows shitty basketball when he sees it. And he's replacing the men most responsible for bringing it to you, GM Rick Sund and coach Bob Hill. Hill ends his Sonics tenure with a 53-81 career record--worst for any coach who lasted at least a full season since Al Bianchi, who can be excused since he was coaching an expansion team. We hope this gives some small measure......

Because they didn't file relocation paperwork with the NBA by some deadline, we know that the Sonics will play the 2007-08 season in Key Arena. Sonics Central and Supersonicsoul are thus far silent. Buzzer Beater outlines the possible scenarios, including the exciting "Sonics win #1 pick take Greg Oden and a tidal wave of excitement compels politicos to push through taxes" concept, better known as the "'95 Mariners Script". Maybe. But Clay Bennett, when he......

Sonics owner Clay Bennett, displaying an uncanny sense of timing, delivered an estimate on keeping the Sonics to Governor Gregoire today, 24 hours after she'd decided there wasn't enough money for an Alaskan Way Tunnel. From the letter [pdf]:To make this project work, it is clear that we will need at least $300 million in revenue sources authorized by the state. These would be taxes collected only in King County... The entire project, Bennett says,......

Since we are trying our dangest to fall in love with the only remaining NBA team in the Northwest, the one with all those Seattle connections, we have mercifully been spared following the Sonics this season. However, we couldn't help but read Percy Allen's article in the Times this morning, which claims that unless the team starts winning by the end of the month, then the coach and some of the players will be leaving......