OKLAHOMA CITY — Seattle SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett believes public funding is the most logical way to pay for upgrades to Oklahoma City’s downtown arena that are aimed at luring the NBA team to town.
While the improvements could benefit the SuperSonics if their relocation bid succeeds, Bennett said Thursday the city stands to gain more from a renovated building. Bennett said a lease to use the city-owned building would likely leave the ownership group with “a significant, if not total, equity component that is nonperforming.”
“So you can go through the steps that then suggest, well, perhaps this is an appropriate use of public investment because it is going to provide such dramatic public return,” Bennett said at a sports business conference.
“Unlike maybe a handful of individuals building the building that would never see any of it back, they might perhaps rationalize some benefit to the company, but the broad benefit really goes to the community, and not just intangibles.”
Oklahoma City voters will decide March 4 whether to back a proposal to extend a penny sales tax and use about $121 million to upgrade the Ford Center and build an NBA practice facility. No organized opposition to the plan has emerged, but one City Council member wants lease negotiators to insist on the team paying for part of the project.
Bennett, who wants to move the SuperSonics to his hometown, said the method of paying for sports arenas is “a decision for each market to make.”
“There would be an immediate tangible return through sales tax, certainly around downtown immediately. Then you’ve got players coming that are purchasing homes, buying vehicles, a staff of 150 or so jobs that’s developed,” said Bennett, who runs Oklahoma City-based Dorchester Capital. He added that the “real benefits” over time are the prospects of more businesses relocating because they’re attracted to an NBA city.
Bennett, who sought public financing for an arena in suburban Seattle that would have cost more than $500 million, said the upgrades planned in Oklahoma City would be “exactly what we need for the foreseeable future.”
Bennett characterized Oklahoma City — which would be among the NBA’s smallest markets — as a favorable place to play if the team is able to maximize its revenue streams and if local government and businesses rally around the team.
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