By Gail Wood
The Olympian

OLYMPIA — On Steve Pyeatt’s eighth birthday, he got a surprise gift.
His father gave him 100 shares of Seattle SuperSonics. His family has been season ticket holders since the Sonics arrived in 1967.

“I got to go to opening night, and we’ll not go to the last night here,” Pyeatt said.

On Saturday, about 300 Sonics fans wearing team T-shirts, caps and jackets stood on the Capitol steps as part of a “Save Our Sonics” rally. Sonics owner Clay Bennett has received approval from the NBA to move the 41-year-old franchise to Oklahoma City.

Bennett has offered the city of Seattle $26 million to buy out the remaining two years of the lease with KeyArena to move the team next season. Since an Oklahoma City-based group bought the Sonics in July 2006, Bennett has said he’d move the team if a new arena wasn’t built, and no progress was made.

However, this week, a private business group from Seattle offered to pay half the cost of a $300 million KeyArena renovation to try to keep the team in Seattle. State legislators have been asked to approve the deal before the session ends Thursday.

To show their support for the Sonics, Pyeatt and Brian Robinson coordinated Saturday’s rally at the last minute. They called for a rally Friday.

“I didn’t know if we’d come here and there’d be 25 people,” Pyeatt said. “This is great. This is a huge statement.”

The Sonic fans moved their rally from the steps of the Capitol to the legislative session and sat quietly.

“This is a powerful statement just by being here,” Pyeatt told the Sonics fans. “We don’t even have to say anything.”

State legislators are being asked to approve of a King County user’s tax that would raise $75 million. Last year, Bennett asked the state for $400 million to pay for a new arena and the legislators didn’t budge.

“This is a no-brainer,” said John Ostlund, a Tumwater resident and a longtime Sonics fan. “There’s nothing to figure. This has to be done now.”

Pyeatt said the legislators have been hiding under a “cover of apathy” and what he called “a perceived opposition” to build an arena with tax money.

“We showed them here today that there’s support for this,” Pyeatt said. “They were put into office by these people, and they can removed from office by these people. We need to remind them of that.”

Pyeatt said there’s a lot of “misformation” being spread about the Sonics arena issue.

“There’s not one dollar coming from (outside) of King County,” he said. “When you’re an elected official and someone tells you I’m going to give you $150 million to match your $75 million, you don’t get that kind deal down here.”

Ostlund has been going to Sonics games with his dad since he was little.

“There’s nothing like going to a Sonic game with your dad,” Ostlund said. “This is our team. They need to stay in Seattle.”

Adam Normoyle of Olympia called the governor’s office Friday to show his support for the Sonics arena issue, and he showed up for the rally Saturday.

“We don’t want to the Sonics to go,” Normoyle said. “They’re our team.”