BOARDROOM SPORTS: Sonics offer a lesson for cities with major league franchises
In 2006, the Basketball Club of Seattle, headed by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, sold the SuperSonics to an investment group led by Oklahoma City businessman Clayton Bennett. For the next year, Bennett tried to persuade state and local government officials to fund a new arena complex to replace Key Arena, which opened in 1962 and was rebuilt in 1994-95.