When Sonics and politics mix, part one

The NBA's Seattle Sonics crept their way into the Washington political landscape earlier this year when a new local ownership group stepped in to try to stop the team's relocation to Oklahoma City by proposing a half-private, half-public solution to renovate Key Arena with an emphasis on the half-public. In order for their plan to even be considered they needed $150M from a combination of city and state coffers. However, presented late in a session that was already struggling to fund its legislative priorities, the plan was not considered before the end of business March 13.

Seattle's basketball time has gotten so far into the politics scene, in fact, that the TNT's Sonics writer Eric Williams even got the chance to do a little political reporting this weekend when he spotted Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi sitting courtside across from the visiting Sacramento Kings bench this past Sunday evening watching his first Sonics game of the season.

"Normally I don't support these types of things," Rossi told Williams about his support of the Key Arena proposal. "But this was a very rare deal that was brought forward. You have four people who have stepped forward who really weren't interested in owning a team. But they understand what it meant for the region. I've never seen a deal like this before, which is why I stepped up."

Rossi went on to give Governor Gregoire some free advice about the situation.

"She could still call a special session, which I think she should," Rossi said. "If the City of Seattle or King County can't figure out a way to do it on their own, that's the simplest way of doing things. They should have just done it while they were there. And the nonsense that they were jammed at the end, they knew about this weeks before this became public. They weren't being jammed at the end. That's pure nonsense. She completely dodged the whole thing."