1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Former Sonics owner suing to undo sale

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by ArnoldBabar, Apr 15, 2008.

  1. ArnoldBabar

    ArnoldBabar Active Member

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/2004349361_schultz15.html

    This will be a fascinating case to watch. Emails have turned up showing Bennett was talking with his partners about moving at the same time he was swearing publicly he had no intention of leaving, so bad faith can be established. And all this is breaking days before the Board of Governors votes on the relocation.

    Schultz is an absolute villain in Seattle since selling to carpetbaggers. It will be interesting to see the reaction to this.
     
  2. sportschick

    sportschick Active Member

    Interesting tactic. This case and the Key Arena one will be interesting to watch in teh next coupla months.
     
  3. Oz

    Oz Well-Known Member

    Sweet. If this would mean the Sonics staying in Seattle, that would be good news. I'm sure the folks in Oklahoma City would support a team, but given the e-mails and how this has all gone down, it wouldn't be the way a franchise like the Sonics ought to leave town.

    Then again, I suppose you could say that about most franchises who have moved from here to there.
     
  4. wannabeu

    wannabeu Member

    It's like the Schultz sold his soul to the devil (Bennett), and now wants it back. I don't see it happening. I think Schultz just wants to get back in the good graces of the people of Seattle and look like he is making an attempt to get the team back. But I don't think it will happen.
     
  5. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    Agreed.

    One scuzzbag owner, not that long after getting his arena totally remade at taxpayer expense, sold the team to another scuzzbag owner, probably for a ridiculous profit, and now he's calling the new owner a scuzzbag and has filed a lawsuit to keep a team in the city even though not that not that many people care about the Sonics anymore?

    Boy, nobody in Seattle ever thought Bennett (scuzzbag No. 2) would even consider moving the team to Oklahoma City!
     
  6. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    Schultz has got a shot because of the showing of fraud by Bennett but his problem is showing what he would have done differently if he had know about Bennett's fraudulent intentions.

    Would he have kept the team? Not likely. He needs to swear under oath that this is what he would have done.

    Made the price higher? Maybe but then he does not get the team just some damages, which does not mean he gets the team back.

    But if he can prove fraud he can, at least under California law, undo the transaction. But this means he has to give all the money back.
     
  7. WazzuGrad00

    WazzuGrad00 Guest

    KeyArena was remodeled while Barry Ackerley owned the team.

    Ackerley was the one who decided that club seats and not luxury boxes were the wave of the future. He's also the one who had the arena designed so that seats would surround only half of the rink in the hockey setup.

    Of the three, Schultz is the least to blame (which isn't saying much).
     
  8. statrat

    statrat Member

    Went and got a venti latte this morning to toast to Howard's success in his suit.
     
  9. WazzuGrad00

    WazzuGrad00 Guest

    Schultz alleges that he and Bennett signed a side letter to the deal saying that Bennett would make a 12-month "good-faith effort" to find a way to keep the team in Seattle.

    Schultz has also described that letter as an intended "deal-breaker." If so, it seems there might be a real chance of this going the distance.
     
  10. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Removing the fact that all sports owners are skuzzbags (and I ain't going to believe for one second they aren't), this would be an interesting study in case law.

    Can the sale of a franchise in any business be voided if the sale was consummated under false pretenses, which is Schultz's claim? Or does Schultz have to prove that he would have kept the team had he known of Bennett's intentions of moving it?

    And does the NBA have any recourse, considering the implication that Bennett might have lied about his inability to keep the team in Seattle?
     
  11. PeteyPirate

    PeteyPirate Guest

    Howard misunderstood. He thought the investors were just going to open another Seattle Supersonics team in Oklahoma City, the first step in his plan to eventually have 30,000 mediocre basketball teams around the world.
     
  12. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Stern has been enthusiastically banging the drums for the Sonics move to OKC all year.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page