Seattle's Potential NHL Expansion Owners Open to NBA Franchise as Well
The Oak View Group, which is attempting to bring an NHL franchise to Seattle, is also open to bringing an NBA franchise back to the city, according to Emily Kaplan of ESPN.com.
"If there is a franchise to be had from the NBA, we want to be up there fighting for it for Seattle," investment banker David Bonderman told Kaplan.
The Oak View Group is made up of Bonderman, Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the former president and CEO of the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment group, Tim Leiweke.
The group is planning on breaking ground on a remodeled Key Arena in October and already "submitted paperwork and a $10 million down payment to the league," with the NHL "likely to accept the bid, pending the results of the season-ticket drive" that will begin in Seattle on Thursday, per Kaplan.
The group hopes to have an NHL franchise playing by the 2020-21 season. The hope is that the new arena will be able to sustain more than one franchise, as Leiweke told Kaplan:
"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. 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."
Seattle last had an NBA franchise in 2008 before the Seattle SuperSonics were relocated to Oklahoma City by team owner Clay Bennett and rebranded as the Thunder. Since then, efforts to bring a team back to the city have fallen short, though Seattle remains at the forefront of potential expansion cities for the NBA.
"I don't want to put a precise timeline on it," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told Portland Trail Blazers star CJ McCollum during an interview for the Players' Tribune last July when asked about league expansion (h/t Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports). "But it's inevitable at some point we'll start looking at growth of franchises. That's always been the case in this league, and Seattle will no doubt be on a short list of cities we’ll look at."
