i hope people hear what Sen. Margarita Prentice said and understand that it's not all clay bennett's fault. quit trying to stick it to the man and cough up some dough to keep the team here!

yahoo sports is reporting that bennett could have bought out the key lease for 45 mil after last season. i must have missed that. has anyone else heard that? eric?

Did Clay Bennett and his band of minions buy the Sonics to help the city negotiate for a new arena? No. Have they basically given us lip service the whole time? Yes. The Sonics will make way more money staying in Seattle with a half-sold out antiquated arena then they ever will in the eventually NBA subsidized Oklahoma City. With all the money that the league would have to put into that team to lower ticket prices and keep it in Oklahoma City, Clay Bennett will become David Stern's Puppet. Or they will eventually end up the same way the Montreal Expos / Washington Nationals ended up being for a while; a team owned by the league. Sell the team, make a profit, and move on. Worked for the last owner who was full of crap too.

Chuckler123: I read the story on Yahoo Sports and that's the first I've heard of something like that. I'll check into it to see how accurate that is.

to those of you thinking that the new ownership group is just paying lip service to keeping the sonics in seattle, i suggest you check out this website...

http://www.eventscenterfacts.com/

What is it that people don't understand about this arena deal! I checked out the website eventscenterfacts.com and it syas it will cost 50 cents to someone who spends 100 dollars at a restaurant. While true it isn't much money nevertheless it is still a tax. Why can't anyone figure this out? If the sonics are to stay here the owners should spend the money to keep them here period. Even if it is 50 cents i personally don't want to spend it to keep the team here, and obviously alot of other people don't either. So then after going to this web site im still wondering why it wants me to think that my portion of tax for the arena is so small i should not care. It will still be a tax regardless who pays for it visitors or locals. Let me try this again NO TAXES FOR ANY ARENA.. None nada not 1 penny and that is even cheaper then 50 cents..

"we want the ball and we're gonna score", the events center website hasn't been updated in about 120 days. Is that continuing effort? Doesn't look like it to me.

Eric, there is some speculation about that yahoo quote at sonicscentral's newest post.

Well, if you want to scrutinize the economics, the 0.5% restaurant sales tax will be levied to the restaurants (seems fair considering that they are benefiting from the additional business) and it is the restaurants choice to pass on the tax to the consumer. if you really want to you can just tip 19.5% instead of 20.0% and you will not have to pay any additional taxes. seems fair to me. also, considering that you most likely live here you probably won't have to worry about the hotel and car rental tax.

i could be mistaken, but i believe that clay bennett is still waiting to present this plan to the legislature (hence, no need to update the plan)... i believe Rep. Frank Chopp's exact words were that the plan was "dead on arrival"... http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2766198

I just can't wait until this all goes away (either way) and all us Sonic fans can start concentrating on going after everybody elses tax-payer funded pet projects. It goes both ways and I for one will work till my dying day to kill everybody elses joy.

When McLendon said what he did, we saw the cloven hoof. These guys are The Enemy, and they own an NBA team.

jaz:
It's not that they "own an NBA team" it's that they own OUR NBA team!

Keep up the good fight. Say informed at SonicsCentral.com

Big Chris

I'm a Sonics fan who lives out of state and I'm a prime candidate to pay any new taxes that help keep the team in Seattle, and I have no iissue with that, it is more than fair and I aplaud the transparency of the tax as well...

I also appreciate the fact that not everyone is a Sonics fan or even a sports fan for that matter....that's your choice, no problem there at all...

However what does irk me is folks climbing upon their respective pedestals preaching away on the issue of his/her refusal to pay taxes for any arena...quick point: while you're entitled to your opinion it's fundamentally flawed, sorry it just is...Either you believe in the concept of the peopls paying for a portion of whatever it is that makes up our lives or you don't...if you don't, welcome to Bedrock...

Universities, schools, the arts, roads, and a billion other entities and amenties are funded by taxes....not just in Seattle but in every other city and town on on the planet...

If you are opposed to taxes for some items (arena's for instance)that's fine...but do the honorable thing and list what else you are opposed to and then list the taxpayer-funded amenties you don't mind funding with your tax dollars...this way we're able to debate like adults rather than listen to you pontificate ad invitnitim about your opposition to a new arena tax without others beingn able to contest your preferences...

The bottom line is that this team matters to many of us, much in the same way as many tax-funded issues matter to you...and in a democracy that's how it works...we each articulate our thoughts and hope that the leaders in our community listen to all of us and help us all to arrange our priorities in building our communities where we call home...and it is those priorities that contribute to the make up of each city/town around the country...it is what differentiates each city from eachother...cities and the people who inhabit them embrace different respective priorities, no two are alike...

The folks who've chimed in here are honest and upfront in conveyinig what matters to them and why with respect to this issue....it would be refreshing if those of you opposed to this new tax option would spend less time lecturing us, and perhaps spend more time conveying some basic honesty and candor in revealing what taxpayer-funded initiatives you do support...unless of course there aren't any---which likely means somebody is subsidizing your Internet access from Bedrock city...

If you are opposed to taxes for some items (arena's for instance)that's fine...but do the honorable thing and list what else you are opposed to and then list the taxpayer-funded amenties you don't mind funding with your tax dollars. Well here i go i will be the first to take the bait! First and foremost i must commend you on your last blog heffman 929 it was rather articulate and well put. So here is my stand, to tell you the truth i dispise most taxes period! not so much in the fact that im from a bedrock point of view on them (altho that could be the case) but what i generally have the problem with is not the tax itself but how the taxes are used. You made a comment about taxes and schools here is one area we differ in respect with an arena. Taxes that are collected for schools,universities,roads, and a billion other entities and amenities as you put it are usually funded for the general population at large. The supersonics arena is not in the same league whatsoever as the afore mentioned. I'm surprised someone with your apparent smarts could not comprehend the differance. The supersonics arena will be for the most part for private enterprise who by the way has the means to build there own arena. How will the general populace benefit from a taxpayer subsidised arena that only the rather well to do crowd are the only ones that can afford to even go to a game? Ok OK i know your gonna say the taxes that those same well to do crowd are paying into the system. But that is not the case as the rent and the taxes paid by the ownership are usually only enough to cover the cost of maintaining the arena. Remember the Kingdome? taxpayers were hosed on the deal to the day they imploded it! The truth behind a sonics arena that Clay Bennett and his cronies want is that they will profit from the 350 million dollar purchase with taxpayers building there Taj Mahal otherwise they lose there ass. Why do you think Starbuck Schmuck sold them Cuz they were making money? I could go on and on with the truth about taxes and how i hate the way they are spent however im not sure your view is that much different then mine when it comes to the way they are spent, taxes are blown away daily you know that. But that doesn't mean we should continue to spend unwisely to the fiddles of out of towners just because they made a bad business move. Yeah yeah we have a few folks here that call themselves fans but do you remember how many people were in the stands at these same sonic games last year? They had trouble filling the Key! and they want a new and bigger arena? Again i will reiterate my feelings i don't want any taxes for a bunch of rich millionaires and i also wish the politicians would quit wasting taxes period, even when they are for so called public benefits. But you and i know that will never happen.

jeggo, and anyone else opposed to taxes for the sonics arena...

i hope you guys can sleep happy knowing that you are saving 0.50% on your next restaurant bill and then going home to watch the Oklahoma Sonics... I hope you can buy something nice with the couple bucks you are going to save, don't spend it all in one place...

jeggo...we agree to disagree...I could go on for quite some time citing more examples of private enterprises and all the tax breaks they receive both directly and indirectly...but to what end? I've got better things to do and I am hopeful you do as well...Clearly your mind is made up and so, too, is mine...we've had our say, it's time to let others do likewise...

I insinuated at the outset that you owe it to both the debate and yourself to listen to the other side while at the same time share with us more of what you support and what you don't...you, in turn, elected to go on a rant about how too much tax money is wasted...thanks for the insight---earth shattering :) but you tried---and you deserve points for that effort, however imperfect...

Best wishes for the rest of the summer,

heffman

Maybe there are two kinds of fans, ones that go to the games and the ones who don't. I live in Gig Harbor and haven't been to a game since they played at the Tacoma Dome and probably will never go to Seattle to see a game. But I follow the Sonics in the paper and on TV and would hate to see they move.
Perhaps I shouldn't have an opinion since I don't live in Seattle but I,too, dislike taxes that the general public pays but only a small percent of the population benefits from. I am still mad about the Mariners and Seahawks stadiums. In my area the big money guys tried to put a NASCAR track in and wanted public money. It didn'd fly, yea.
If the people of Seattle want to pay a tax, great. But if they want me to pay for a tax for something I never use, forgat it.