Howard Schultz wants the Sonics back

[djwhokid]

Howard Schultz says he wants the Sonics back.

Nearly two years after selling Seattle's NBA franchise to Oklahoma City investors, the Starbucks mogul has hired a lawyer and is preparing to file a lawsuit against Sonics chairman Clay Bennett to rescind the July 2006 sale.

Attorney Richard Yarmuth confirmed Monday that his Seattle-based law firm, Yarmuth Wilsdon Calfo, is representing Schultz and plans to sue Bennett's Professional Basketball Club in the next two weeks.

"The damages that are being sought is to rescind, unwind the transaction," Yarmuth said a day after the team played what could have been its final home game in Seattle.

"It's not money damage. It's to have the team returned. The theory of the suit is that when the team was sold, the Basketball Club of Seattle, our team here, relied on promises made by Clay Bennett and his ownership that they desired to keep the team in Seattle and intended to make a good-faith effort to accomplish that."

Sonics | Howard Schultz plans to sue Clay Bennett to get Sonics back | Seattle Times Newspaper

He should have never sold the Sonics in the first place. What a lousy NBA owner he was.

[elvin]

What is happening with him first he wants the supersonics in OKC and now he wants it back. What is wrong with him? Can't he make up his mind already?

[Wiggen]

Try paying attention, Elvin. Schultz sold the Sonics to Clay Bennett with the understanding that Bennett would make a good faith effort to keep the team in Seattle. Now, with the release of internal emails from Bennett and his merry band of thieves and rogues, it appears the intent of the Bennett group was to move the team to Oklahoma City all along! Go figure.

Apparently clueless David Stern - he of the crooked referees in his league - is part of the heist.

This is going to be a great court case - even better than the one by the city against Bennett.

[bedir than average]

I'm quite excited about the multiple lawsuits that Clay Bennett and the Oklahoma RobberBarons are facing.

From illegally breaking a lease (City of Seattle)
to
Illegally breaking the lease, breach of contract/good faith (Schultz Ownership Group)
to
Class Action based on false advertising of season tickets (Season Ticket and ticket package holders)

I haven't been this excited about the Sonics in probably two years.

[bedir than average]

I thought of something on the drive home tonight. Someone on KJR-AM said that if Schultz didn't want the Sonics to move he never should have sold them in the first place. Which while true reminded me of something from the time of the sale.

Schultz' group turned down more money from Larry Ellison because he would NOT agree to stay in the lease until 2010 nor negotiate with the city/state about staying in Seattle. Bennett's group did agree to do those two things.

I'm wondering if in the lawsuit we will see the paperwork concerning the Ellison attempt to purchase the Sonics. Because that turning down of more money was specifically because Schultz wanted a contractual pledge to keep the team in Seattle.

If you want to contact anyone in NBA ownership, here's a fine list

Atlanta 404-878-3800 (corporate owner)
Boston 617-854-8000 Wyc Grousbeck
Charlotte: 704-688-8600 Robert Johnson
Chicago: 312-455-4000 Jerry Reinsdorf
Cleveland: 216-420-2000 Daniel Gilbert
Dallas: 214-665-4660 Mark Cuban
Denver: 303-405-1100 Stan Kroenke
Detroit: 248-377-0100 Bill Davidson
Golden St.: 510-986-2200 Chris Cohan
Houston: 713-758-7200 Leslie Alexander
indiana: 317-917-2500 Herb and Mel Simon
Clippers: 213-742-7500 Donald Sterling
Lakers: 310-426-6001 Mitch Kupchak
Memphis: 901-205-1234 Michael Heisley
Miami: 786-777-4328 Mickey Arison
Milwaukee: 414-489-2120 Herb Kohl
Minnesota: 612-673-1600 Glen Taylor
New Jersey: 201-935-8888 Shawn Carter
New Orleans: 504-593-4700 George Shinn
New York: 212-465-6471 James Dolan
Orlando: 407-916-2400 (corporate owner)
Philadelphia: 215-339-7666 (corporate owner)
Phoenix: 602-379-7900 Robert Sarver
Portland: 503-234-9291 Paul Allen
Sacramento: 916-286-3400 Joe Maloof
San Antonio: 210-444-5000 Peter Holt
Toronto: 416-815-5600 (corporate owner)
Utah: 801-325-2500 Larry Miller
Washington: 202-661-5000 Abe Pollin

Larry Miller and Mark Cuban have both stated they will vote in favor of the team staying.

[bedir than average]

Flash back to the day the purchase was made public

PRO BASKETBALL; Sonics Are Sold to Oklahoma City Group - New York Times

At a news conference yesterday at the Sonics' training facility, Schultz said, ''In making this transaction, we made it with the belief that the group has a genuine interest in keeping the teams in Seattle for the future.''

The acquisition also included the W.N.B.A. Storm.

Clay Bennett, the leader of the new ownership group, did not fully commit the Sonics and Storm to staying in Seattle. He said he would spend the next 12 months trying to make a deal to keep the team in the area.

later

''There were many prospective owners who came to the table who were disingenuous about their efforts to keep the team here,'' Schultz said.

There were two other bidders in the final stage of the process, one from Kansas City, Mo., and another from San Jose, Calif., led by Larry Ellison, the chief executive of the Oracle Corporation.

Ellison has expressed interest in buying the Golden State Warriors and the San Francisco 49ers and has talked to the National Football League about owning a team in Los Angeles. He has a basketball court on his yacht.

The Seattle Times: Sonics: "Fabulous rate of return" from Sonics/Storm selloff

here's the Bennett price

$350 million paid for the teams by Oklahoma City investors was $150 million more than Schultz and his 57 partners paid five years ago.

At a news conference Tuesday, Schultz said he had turned down offers of more than $350 million in order to sell the Sonics and Storm to a group that would try to keep the teams in Seattle. Sources told The Seattle Times last week those offers included a $425 million offer from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who wanted to move the team to San Jose, Calif.

Bennett's fraudulent agreement to keep the Sonics in Seattle through 2010 cost Schultz' group 75M$ and cost Seattle the team.

[Wiggen]

Originally Posted by bedir than average

I thought of something on the drive home tonight. Someone on KJR-AM said that if Schultz didn't want the Sonics to move he never should have sold them in the first place. Which while true reminded me of something from the time of the sale.

Schultz' group turned down more money from Larry Ellison because he would NOT agree to stay in the lease until 2010 nor negotiate with the city/state about staying in Seattle. Bennett's group did agree to do those two things.

I'm wondering if in the lawsuit we will see the paperwork concerning the Ellison attempt to purchase the Sonics. Because that turning down of more money was specifically because Schultz wanted a contractual pledge to keep the team in Seattle.

If you want to contact anyone in NBA ownership, here's a fine list



Larry Miller and Mark Cuban have both stated they will vote in favor of the team staying.

How do you think Paul Allen will vote? I think he will vote no just as long as he's reasonably convinced the 'ayes' have it.

[bedir than average]

I'm with you in thinking that Allen will vote no or abstain if possible.

He won't be the vote that pushes the team away.

[bedir than average]

Paul Allen voted no, as did Mark Cuban.

The other 28 owners decided that continually moving to smaller and smaller markets was a way to build a league.

Clay Bennett though did admit that everyone in his ownership group but himself had never intended for the team to stay in Seattle.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABP...2004359393.pdf

Q. I know you say that your e-mail in particular was misconstrued, but there were other e-mails between your business partners with the franchise; how would you characterize those, or how would you care to explain those e-mails?
CLAY BENNETT: I'm not sure which ones you're referring to.
Q. Back and forth between Mr. Ward and Mr. (Aubrey) McClendon about getting the Sonics to Oklahoma City in time to play the following year.
CLAY BENNETT: I think Aubrey and Tom perhaps all along wanted to have a team in Oklahoma City. They knew it was not to be the Sonics. Our commitment, our objective, my efforts, my representations to the seller, to the league, my representations in the purchase agreement, my absolute hope, faith and expectation was that we would be successful in Seattle. And they knew
that, and they supported me every step of the way.

How can he say that a majority of his group (by shares of ownership) wanted to move the team but supported his efforts?


I'm feeling that the chance Shultz wins the lawsuit went upwards significantly. It also helps that the lawyer he's using has won two similiary suits, one against MLB after the loss of the Pilots and one against the Mariners in 1986 when they threatened to leave.

[bedir than average]

Sonics | Howard Schultz suit adds fuel to e-mail fire | Seattle Times Newspaper

He's filed the suit

"Mr. Bennett confided to his co-owners that he was comfortable with the Purchase Agreement's good-faith provision because, in the event a Seattle arena deal could be negotiated, the Oklahoma City group could simply sell the team in a 'sweet flip,' and leave Seattle and the Oklahoma City group 'would still be in good shape for something in OKC,' " according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

My impression of the suit is gaining strength the more i read into Bennett's statements.

[Wiggen]

It seems to me that early email from Bennett is as close as you can get to a smoking gun. He admits here that the Oklahoma City ownership group has no intention of operating the franchise in Seattle, and if the money for an arena is found, they'll simply 'flip' the team and move on.

Since the premise of the sale was that the ownership group would make a good faith effort to keep the sonics in seattle, I think this admission is devastating. They have essentially admitted that they had no intention, from day one, of owning the team and keeping it in Seattle.

Not that this comes as a great shock or surprise to any of us who have been following this fiasco.

[Timberwolf]

It is hard to believe that Bennett will come out of this undamaged. He might end up being ordered to play two lame duck seasons in Seattle AND having to pay Howard Schultz $75 Million, the difference between his offer and the San Jose offer.

Schultz had to basially admit that he got played as a chump to avoid being the villian.

[Wiggen]

I'm just hoping that David Stern gets hit by some of the shrapnel.