Here’s a wrap up of an eventful morning in court so far in the third day of the trial between the City of Seattle and the Sonics over terms of the KeyArena lease.

Sonics chairman Clay Bennett was back on the stand for all of the morning session, and began with Brad Keller, lead attorney for the team, continuing his questioning.

Keller again pointed out in the sales agreement between Bennett's ownership group and the former ownership group headed by Howard Schultz that it included a clause that the team would pursue a successor venue, and a plan to consider renovating KeyArena was never considered because the Key is considered a substandard NBA facility and the team could never make a profit there.

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Bennett said after the Renton project failed in Olympia his group pursued a consensual termination of the KeyArena lease with city officials. And as part of that process, Bennett contacted Oklahoma City manager Jim Couch to figure out possible dates for the Ford Center and also contacted Joel Litvin of the NBA to see about the possibility of relocation for the 2007-08 season.

According to Bennett, the city sought relocation for four reasons:

1. KeyArena could not serve as an economic drive to support the development of a successful NBA franchise because of its limited amenities available for high-end clients.

2. The Sonics needed public subsidy in a new arena, again to help with the profitability of the team.

3. The operational challenges of running a team in two lame-duck seasons.

4. The opportunity for overwhelming support and profitability in Oklahoma City.

Bennett described the litany of problems the team would have if it had to serve out the final two years of the lease, which would include more uncertainty of Sonics players and employees, a struggle sell tickets, secure sponsors and market the team, and the struggle to attract free agents to an uncertain situation.

Bennett also indicated he was losing employees, including a vice president of sales that recently left a few weeks ago for a similar job in Orlando.

Bennett finished his testimony with Keller with this quote:

“I believed from the bottom of my heart that we would succeed, and I am deeply disappointed that we did not.”

In his redirect, Paul Lawrence, lead attorney for the City of Seattle, continued to hammer on the fact that Bennett was only willing to contribute a nominal or negligible amount to the $500 million Renton proposal.

He presented an email responded to Jim Kneeland, who was working on the Olympia proposal for the ownership group. Kneeland relayed a feeling from players upset with the prospect of moving, to which Bennett responded in the email: “Boo Hoo.”

According to Lawrence, this comment seemed to contradict Bennett’s expressed concern for the players’ frustrations.

Bennett said he apologized for the comment to players and received a favorable response after it came out in the media.

Lawrence also pointed out that Bennett was not required to move to Oklahoma City, and could have quietly fulfilled the remainder of the KeyArena lease and took the team without litigation at the end of the 2009-10 season.

Lawrence presented an email conversation between Microsoft CEO and Bennett in which Balmer asks what concretely he can do to help with the team’s arena push in Olympia, and Bennett tells him that he’s OK and his efforts are not needed.

Another email between former Renton mayor Kathy Keolker and Bennett points out that after the Renton project was rejected, Bennett shut down future proposals because of the team’s unwillingness to help pay for cost overruns involving the construction of the building.

An email from Edward Evans, who helped negotiate the deal between Schultz and Bennett’s group, and Bennett, in which Evans said he his opening meeting between Seattle deputy mayor Tim Ceis over the prospects of renovating KeyArena went “amazingly well,” and what the city had offered to Schultz’s group regarding the KeyArena renovation was a starting point.

Evans later withdrew from the group, reportedly because he wanted to be the point person for the ownership group, and the majority of the Oklahoma City-based owners wanted Bennett to lead.

Bennett again reiterated that the team never considered an arena renovation, even though Evans had the initial conversation days after the announced sell with Ceis.

Lawrence finished up by presenting the emails between Bennett and fellow owner Aubrey McClendon after his comments in an Oklahoma weekly business journal where he stated the ownership group’s intention all along was to move the team.

Documentation presented by Lawrence showed Bennett was concerned about the legal ramifications of McClendon’s comments, and the possibility that they could undermine the “good faith best efforts” stipulation in the sales agreement.

The city finished up the morning session by calling Sonics CEO Danny Barth to the witness stand.