NHL's Seattle group eyeing NBA return to city
The ownership group looking to expand the NHL to Seattle might not stop at bringing hockey to the Pacific Northwest.
Is an NBA return to the Emerald City on their minds?
"The answer is absolutely," investment banker David Bonderman told ESPN. "If there is a franchise to be had from the NBA, we want to be up there fighting for it for Seattle."
The Seattle SuperSonics were part of the NBA from 1967-2008 before moving and becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder. With the Oak View Group, which includes Bonderman, sports executive Tim Leiweke and Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer, having submitted paperwork and a $10 million down payment to the NHL for an expansion team, the idea of an arena built to support more than a hockey team already has been considered.
"The way we are going to structure all of our contractually obligated income is making sure there will be revenue upside built in should the NBA ever consider Seattle," Leiweke told ESPN. "We are committed to making sure the building, all of our contracts, all of our partnerships and all of our relationships, are done in a way that we can maximize value.
"There is no need to ultimately build two (arenas) when you can make one work as long as you have the foresight and the vision to make sure you're thinking through that at the beginning of the process, and that's what we're trying to do."
The Oak View Group intends to remodel KeyArena, the former home of the SuperSonics, in downtown Seattle in October and hopes to enter the NHL in the 2020-21 season.
An NBA spokesman told the Louisville Courier-Journal in January 2017 that the league has "no plans for expansion at this time" and there is "no discussion of any teams relocating right now." However, commissioner Adam Silver told The Players Tribune in a video uploaded in July that looking into expansion is "inevitable" and put Seattle on "on a short list of cities we'll look at."
--Field Level Media
