Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan spoke to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and is “very optimistic” as the city is moving to land an expansion franchise to replace SuperSonics.
Silver told a news conference last month that the NBA was dusting off its long-dormant expansion consideration and devoted more time to the concept during the current pandemic. He spoke to Durkan shortly after, and the mayor reaffirmed the city’s desire to hire a team; SuperSonics was relocated and became Oklahoma City Thunder after the 2007-08 season.
“It is very good news for the city of Seattle that they are thinking of an expansion team,” Durkan told Seattle KING 5 TV station. “And I was honest with him. He knows that Seattle wants to be at the front of the line. We are where the team should be. But we will respect them as they progress to his property, because the [owners], Do you know, [have] to approve it. “
League leaders emphasized that the expansion is likely to take years, if at all. The NBA’s most recent expansion, when the Charlotte Bobcats joined in 2004, the franchise was awarded two years before it started playing.
In addition to its history, fan base and large corporations, Seattle is attractive as a relocation site because a renovated arena is due to be completed later this year. The Climate Pledge Arena, site of the former KeyArena, will be home to the expansion of the NHL Kraken franchise next season, after a $ 900 million rebuild that took more than a decade to complete.
Private equity titan David Bonderman, the majority owner of Kraken and a minority investor in the Boston Celtics, expressed interest in participating in an NBA franchise expansion offer to share the arena.
So did Seattle native Chris Hansen, who runs a successful hedge fund and tried to buy the Sacramento Kings and transfer them to Seattle in 2012. Hansen and some partners still own a piece of land in the SoDo section of the city where they hoped to build an exclusive NBA arena in the event of a return of Sonics.
There may be other bidders if the NBA decides to move on as well, which prompted league officials to set a price target in the $ 2.5 billion range as a possible rate of expansion, sources told ESPN.
In the past nine months, the NBA has increased its credit line from $ 650 million to $ 1.2 billion and then arranged a $ 900 million loan to face losses during the 2020-21 season, with each team receiving $ 30 million in assistance.
Durkan said that these financial scenarios, among other reasons, could help advance expansion as an option among NBA owners, who should discuss the possibility.
“I think it’s real. But I think again, the commissioner is going to consult the property, and the property for the first time is being very public that they think [expansion] it’s probably a good idea for basketball, “said the mayor.” Part of this is the economy of COVID. Part of that is sports economics. But look, there is no city that I think is better positioned to succeed. “