The sale led to immediate speculation that Bennett's group, the Professional Basketball Club (PBC), would move the team to Oklahoma City - which played host to the New Orleans Hornets last year and will again this season after Hurricane Katrina damaged New Orleans - though Bennett, Walker and Schultz were adamant that Bennett is committed to keeping the team in Seattle - sort of.
Bennett said Seattle has a 12-month deadline to either come to a binding agreement on the assurance of a publicly funded successor to KeyArena or the group would move the team to Oklahoma City.
When pressed on the issue, Bennett admitted the deadline is closer to six months because the 105-day legislative session ends in late April, by which time the team will know if it will be awarded public funds.
"It is our hope that we are on our way to a new facility. If not, we are contractually permitted to relocate," Bennett said.
He clarified that the contractual clause is in the purchase agreement with the Sonics, not with the city.
Though a city spokesperson said Seattle plans to hold the Sonics to their lease, which expires in 2010, Ed Evans, one of Bennett's four primary partners, said the PBC would try to buy out the lease if it decides to move the team, though he was not specific.