Seattle, WNBA Storm agree on 10-year lease

Published 8:25 pm Monday, January 12, 2009

SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels says the city and the WNBA Seattle Storm have completed negotiations to keep KeyArena as the Storm’s home court for the next 10 years.

Terms of the new lease were not announced. The lease agreement is subject to City Council approval.

Last winter, four Seattle-area women — Anne Levinson, Ginny Gilder, Lisa Brummel and Dawn Trudeau — purchased the Storm from Clay Bennett for $10 million. Bennett moved the NBA Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City after the 2007-08 season and renamed them the Oklahoma City Thunder. Bennett was unhappy with KeyArena as an NBA facility.

KeyArena has been the home court for the Storm since the team’s inaugural season in 2000.

Levinson calls KeyArena “a terrific home court for all the fans who have been so loyal to the Storm over the years.”