Seattle SuperSonics relocation to Oklahoma City
In 2008, the professional basketball team Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) relocated to Oklahoma City from Seattle, Washington, after successful negotiations with the owners. The SuperSonics became the third NBA franchise to move in the 2000s, and began to play as the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2008–09 NBA season.
The SuperSonics' ownership group, led by Howard Schultz, had sought to persuade Washington state government officials to provide $220 million in public funding to update KeyArena. After those efforts failed, he sold the team to the Professional Basketball Club LLC (PBC), an investment group headed by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett. A condition of the sale was that PBC execute a "good-faith effort" to secure a suitable arena in the Seattle area for the team. The new owners failed to persuade local governments to pay for a new $500 million arena complex, and consequently announced that they intended to move the team to Oklahoma City. When they sought to be released from the lease that required the SuperSonics to play in KeyArena through 2010, a judge rejected the request and Seattle sued Bennett's group to enforce the lease. On July 2, 2008, a settlement was reached: among other conditions, PBC would pay $45 million to break the lease plus $30 million if Seattle had no replacement team after five years.
In months before the settlement, Seattle officials released emails exchanged by members of Bennett's ownership group, alleging that they indicated that some members intended to move the team to Oklahoma City all along, and had not negotiated in good faith. As a result, Schultz sued to rescind the sale and transfer the team to a court-appointed receiver. He dropped the suit after the NBA noted that he had signed a binding contract not to sue Bennett's group and argued that his proposal would violate league ownership rules.
In 2019, Schultz said, "Selling the Sonics as I did is one of the biggest regrets of my professional life. I should have been willing to lose money until a local buyer emerged. I am forever sorry."