SEATTLE — SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett testified Wednesday that he made mistakes in dealing with the city of Seattle after he bought the team in 2006 — and that he is indeed a civic villain.
“We bought this team with grand visions for success,” he said. “Did we do everything right, and did we understand everything there was to understand? Certainly not.”
Bennett began his second day on the witness stand in a federal trial over the Sonics’ lease at KeyArena under friendly questioning from team attorney Brad Keller, and didn’t specify his mistakes. He finished his testimony shortly before noon and was replaced on the stand by team president Danny Barth.
Bennett is also on the Sonics’ witness list, so he may testify again in the final three days of a trial that is to end June 26. He will remain in court seated at the defense table, his spokesman said.
Bennett suggested he misunderstood the region’s political climate. But he also testified he simply wasn’t willing to commit to the things that his local advisers told him would be necessary to win government support for a new arena and keep the Sonics in town: make an out-of-pocket contribution toward the construction, and agree to cover cost overruns.
The 48-year-old Oklahoma business tycoon, who received calls of “Liar!” when he entered federal court Monday, also said he’s regretted his failure “to integrate more completely with the people” of Seattle — it’s to the point “I can’t go to games.”
“I’m not real popular,” he said with a rueful smile.
Some fans seated in the rear of the courtroom chuckled.
Bennett is trying to move Seattle’s oldest professional sports franchise to his hometown of Oklahoma City, two years before the KeyArena lease expires.
He said that if U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman forces the team to honor the final two years of the KeyArena lease, it would cost the Sonics $60 million and make it tough to attract good players and coaches to improve from a franchise-worst record of 20-62 last season. The league’s most talented players probably wouldn’t be interested in moving to Seattle for just two years, he said.
He also extolled the virtues of Oklahoma City’s Ford Center, where, he said, the team could make $17 million over the next two years. He cited the “wildly enthusiastic” support for the NBA there when the Hornets relocated temporarily from New Orleans.
New courtside suites, exclusive lounge areas just off the court that Bennett said are becoming the trend in the newest NBA arenas, are expected to installed in the Ford Center by the 2009-10 season — just the type of high-end amenity KeyArena lacks, Bennett said.
In the non-jury trial, the city is asking Pechman to force the Sonics to honor their lease, which includes a clause that either side may “specifically enforce” the terms. Seattle lawyers say Bennett’s a sophisticated businessman who knew what he was getting into when he bought the team, can absorb the losses without difficulty, and should not now be allowed to plead hardship in breaking the lease.
Bennett testified Tuesday that he was a “man possessed” to keep the team in Seattle — despite e-mails that show he and co-owners discussed relocating soon after buying the team. He cited his efforts to have a new arena built in the Seattle suburbs.
“I believed in the bottom of my heart that we would succeed. And I am personally disappointed that we did not,” he testified Wednesday.
The city argues that Bennett’s demand for a new $500 million arena — presented late in the 2007 legislative session — was so unreasonable as to have been designed to fail. The team offered $100 million from future revenue, such as ticket surcharges and parking fees.
In e-mails to his lobbyists, advisers and others, Bennett said any team contribution would be “nominal” or “negligible,” and suggested the amount could be offset by a credit for the team’s ongoing financial losses.
When Keller was done questioning Bennett, Seattle lawyer Paul Lawrence had another crack at him, suggesting that Bennett may have made mistakes in dealing with Washington politicians, but that doesn’t excuse the team from the lease.
Lawrence repeatedly asked Bennett about e-mails to and from his co-owners, seeking to establish that they were bent on relocating from the moment they bought the team.
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