Seattle Story ...

This story ran in today's Seattle P-I. An interesting read. I will provide a lengthy comment at the bottom of this post and you can read on if you're interested:

For ex-ball boy turned exec, Sonics saga hits close to home
By CRAIG HARRIS
SPECIAL TO THE P-I

PHOENIX -- It's a warm spring morning, and Rick Welts, a Seattle native and current Phoenix Suns president, strolls into Matt's Big Breakfast, a small, crowded corner shop where coffee is a little more than a buck and there's no espresso.

The youthful-looking Welts pulls up a chair and begins talking about his journey into big-time sports before ordering a ham and cheese omelet and hash browns for $7.75.

Welts, owner of three homes, including one near Beverly Hills, chose to meet at this greasy spoon near downtown because, frankly, he's just as comfortable here as he is rubbing shoulders with wealthy ballplayers.

Perhaps it has to do with his Seattle roots, where Welts says he got his big break at 16, when he became a ball boy for the Sonics in 1969.

During that time, the National Basketball Association was nothing more than a struggling mom and pop operation where coaches played in games and traveling in chartered jets was unheard of.

In fact, the league was so small-time that Welts, a graduate of Queen Anne High School and later the University of Washington, was given a key to the Seattle Center Coliseum so he could go in and wash team uniforms.

"It was my personal hangout. I could shoot baskets while the uniforms were in the dryer. I was the coolest kid in high school. It was high-status stuff," Welts says with a laugh.

Welts, who would later become the team's public relations director when the Sonics won their only NBA title in 1979, developed a deep love for the franchise.

The 55-year-old, who until recently also had a framed personalized Sonics jersey in one of his homes, said he's upset the team he grew up loving may leave for Oklahoma City.

"It breaks my heart, but at the same time I understand it," Welts said. "But even if the team leaves, I believe there will be another NBA team. It would be the most attractive (U.S) city not in the NBA."

Welts said a new facility must replace KeyArena for Seattle to get another NBA franchise.

"If an arena is built, I just think the market would be incredibly attractive for another NBA team," Welts said. "But that's my heart talking. There's not much I can do about it professionally."

Welts, who became president of the Suns in July 2002 and previously worked 17 years at the league office, never thought he would make a career out of the NBA.

After two years as a ball boy, Welts enrolled at Washington and studied communications during the Watergate era. He wanted to become a journalist, but the team hired him as the assistant media director while he was in school. After he graduated in 1975, the Sonics promoted him to media director.

After a 10-year stint with the team, Welts began working for a Seattle public relations firm whose client was the Sonics. He was selling ads for Sonics Superchannel, a new concept by which the team would sell its games on cable TV.

"I was having a blast, and I thought I would do it forever," Welts said.

But then in late 1981, Welts received a call from a young attorney at NBA headquarters by the name of David Stern.

Stern, who would later become commissioner, was in charge of developing a business plan for a league plagued with drug problems and some teams on the verge of bankruptcy. At the time, TV ratings were so bad that some of the Finals games were on tape delay.

Welts wasn't so sure about leaving home, but the following year, Stern persuaded him to move to New York, and Welts became the league's 35th employee as director of national promotions. Today, there are more than 1,000 employees at the league office.

"I had no idea how bad the NBA business was," Welts said. "We were the fourth-most-popular major sport behind hockey. But I had a one-way ticket to New York and no way to go home."

Scrambling to find national sponsors, Welts finally hit pay dirt during the 1984 All-Star Game in Denver.

He created an old-timer's game with former stars Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, and he started a slam-dunk contest -- now a staple for the All-Star weekend. Schick and American Airlines picked up the tab for the legends game, while Gatorade sponsored the slam-dunk show. And Welts persuaded an upstart cable company called ESPN to show the dunk contest.

"Then we were off to the races," Welts said. "It was really a lucky series of events and desperation from me to want to stay employed."

Welts would go on to become president of NBA properties, with which he would market the original Olympics Dream Team with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan in 1992. He also helped launch the WNBA and developed an international presence for the league by opening the first office in Australia. By the time he left in 1999, Welts held the titles of president of NBA properties, executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

"When we were looking to set up a marketing department in New York, we knew he would be a great choice," said Zollie Volchok, former general manager of the Sonics who recommended Welts to Stern. "We brought him to market, and he excelled in every way."

Fred Brown, a former Sonics player who mentored Welts when he was a ball boy, said his friend's rise through the league was astronomical.

"Rick's story is unlike any other I can think of when you look at the global reach. He went from being a ball boy to the No. 3 guy under David Stern," said Brown, who is working to build a new Seattle arena to save the franchise. "He took NBA licensing from $100 million to over $1 billion."

Welts said he left NBA headquarters because he wanted to run his own team, and there was no chance of becoming commissioner.

"When you are around David, you know he will never leave," said Welts, who remains good friends with Stern.

Welts added the controversy surrounding the Sonics situation, in which Stern has taken an antagonistic approach against the city of Seattle, has made their relationship uncomfortable at times.

"It's a subject I don't discuss with him because it's too personal for me, and I have too much respect for him," Welts said.

Stern, in a phone interview from New York, said he, too, would not comment about the Sonics situation. Yet he had overflowing praise for Welts.

"He's about as complete a sports executive that exists," Stern said. "His contributions have been so complete to the NBA you could not do him justice to isolate one thing."

Stern said Welts also created the 3-point shooting contest during All-Star weekend, but the commissioner jokingly said he took all the credit.

Stern said while Welts excelled at the league office, he knew his friend would eventually run a team because of his competitive nature.

Welts in 1999 became president of Fox Sports Enterprises, an entity that managed Fox's interests including the Los Angeles Dodgers. He then was a partner in a sports consulting firm before the Suns hired him in July 2002.

At that time, the Suns were floundering, deep in debt and having trouble filling their arena. But the team's ticket revenue has since tripled while sponsorship revenue has doubled. Also, the team's payroll has skyrocketed by more than $30 million, and the Suns have become one of the best teams in the NBA.

"My IQ is so much higher when we are winning 60 games compared to 29 games," Welts quipped.

But Robert Sarver, who bought the Suns in 2004, said Welts is directly responsible for improving the team's business operations, which has made the franchise profitable the past three seasons.

Sarver said in addition to improving the marketing and bringing in more corporate sponsors, Welts created the Phx Club, which has more than 1,300 people who pay to be on a waiting list for season tickets.

"The biggest thing to me is he is someone I can count on and trust to make the decisions," Sarver said. "He knows how to think outside the box."


***

TL commentary:
The story, which ran on the A-1 page of the paper, touches on the toughest part of sports and business. The emotional tie to a franchise versus the business issues of a franchise and the relocation of a team that the local city government chose not to support.

Watching it all unfold from a distance, I will provide my take on the Sonics situation with a personal 'cliff notes' history of what has happened to get the team to the brink of relocation to Oklahoma City.

First and MOST importantly: The city of Seattle helped the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners build brand new, state-of-the-art venues for NFL football and MLB Baseball use.

2nd: The Seattle Sonics, who worked through a modest renovation of the Seattle Center Coliseum/Key Arena in the 1994, sought to have local funding to build a new arena for basketball, hockey, concerts, shows, etc. (This is a key point, because unlike a baseball and football arena, an indoor facility has the ability to draw and host many more events -- cultural and sporting -- than that of an outdoor facility (an NFL building is used for 8 games and two preseason games).

Seattle's Art Thiel wrote:

Seattle fixed up KeyArena in 1994, and built from scratch Safeco Field in 1999 and Qwest Field in 2002, to a public-subsidy tune of around $1.5 billion when the last of the principal and interest is retired on the construction debts.

3rd: The former ownership group, headed by Howard Schultz of Starbucks, hit a brick wall and total lack of support for any assistance of public funding to build a new building, forcing a standstill and, ultimately, the sale of the team to Clay Bennett.

4th: Bennett, an Oklahoma business man, bought the team with an agreement to try to keep the team in Seattle by solving the arena crisis.

5th: Everyone is Seattle took one giant step away from the issue and figured it was Bennett's problem to solve.

6th: Minority owners in Bennett's group starting spouting off about the possibility of moving the team to Oklahoma City as it became obvious that the local and state government of Seattle and the State of Washington were not going to budge on public funding. The fans and the government types began to realize their colossal mistake and started to cover their butts or pray for a solution (Save our Sonics campaigns).

7th: It was TOO late. Bennett pulled the plug on the Sonics.

8th: When REALITY set in - and ONLY AFTER reality set in, the local government types ran for cover and tried to cover their butts for losing the Seattle SuperSonics.

They should look at the obvious:

NFL building - Done.
MLB building - Done
Basketball, concert, great indoor building - NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Here is another recent Seattle P-I column:

Greg Nickels avoided questions about his next move involving the Sonics' future on Tuesday, but Seattle's mayor left no doubt where his proposal for a KeyArena renovation stands.

Nickels confirmed the city will be unable to meet this Thursday's deadline to come up with the final $75 million in public funding to complete a $300 million remodeling project in conjunction with Microsoft chairman Steve Ballmer and three other Seattle businessmen.

Calling it "a truly missed opportunity" to upgrade KeyArena and provide a possible solution to the city's NBA situation, Nickels said the city would continue forward now with its lawsuit to keep the Sonics bound to KeyArena for the final two years of their lease.

Asked at a City Hall news conference whether he will now be open to entertaining settlement offers from Sonics owner Clay Bennett, Nickels declined to slam the door as in previous cases, instead referring to the upcoming legal battle.

"We have a court case in June and we are preparing for that court case," Nickels said. "Beyond that, I am not going to comment on the status of the litigation or the potential for any settlement before that litigation."

Pressed on whether that was a different answer than before, whether he might be open to an expansion team in exchange for a lease settlement or whether the idea of keeping the Sonics name would be considered as part of a deal, Nickels repeated the same answer to each question: "We have a court case in June."

So the city is sticking to its public stance that it'll fight Bennett and his Oklahoma City ownership group in U.S. District Court, even though a favorable outcome there would still allow the Sonics to leave in two years and the city would remain saddled with a KeyArena debt of more than $26 million.

Nickels had hoped his $300 million KeyArena proposal, along with the inclusion of financial heavyweight Ballmer, Costco CEO Jim Sinegal, wireless magnate John Stanton and Seattle developer Matt Griffin as a potential ownership group, might sway the NBA Board of Governors to think twice before approving Bennett's relocation request at its April 17-18 meeting in New York.

But even with Ballmer's group offering $150 million in private money for the arena makeover and Nickels pledging $75 million from city revenues, the city failed to successfully lobby the Legislature to open up another $75 million in revenue streams from future King County restaurant and car-rental fees.

Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, whose K&L Gates law firm is representing the city in its suit against the Sonics ownership group, blasted Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature for failing to take action on the city's requests.

In a statement, Gorton said the city recently asked the state to authorize the city's ability to impose a hotel-motel fee to raise the $75 million, but those attempts also were rebuffed.

"This is a failure of both imagination and courage on their part," Gorton said. "In this case, political leaders who should have been a part of the solution were, instead, the problem."

Gorton said even if another arena solution arises after the Board of Governors' meeting next week, "it will make the challenge of finding a new NBA franchise much more difficult as well as more costly. It also means the loss of the $150 million private contribution offer."

Gregoire responded with a statement expressing disappointment that funding could not be found for the renovation project, while saying the issue isn't dead.

"As with the Seattle Storm, I am committed to keeping an NBA team in Seattle and I want that team to be the Sonics," Gregoire said. "The current team owner, Clay Bennett, indicated to me that he will not sell the team. That does not mean we should give up. I am continuing to work with community stakeholders, local officials and the Legislature to explore options for the future."

Nickels also tried to sound an optimistic note, pointing out Seattle went to the 11th hour before approving both Qwest and Safeco field funding in the past.

"This issue has been frustrating, certainly," he said. "But it's also true that we've had this kind of situation with baseball and football. As I said before, it ain't over till it's over."

Nickels said he had communicated with Fred Brown and Dave Bean about their $1 billion Emerald City Center proposal, but he isn't throwing his support behind that effort now that KeyArena's remodel is back on hold.

"I had a conversation with them the week before they announced their proposal," Nickels said. "I have said it's an intriguing idea in the long term. It's something that ought to be considered along with a lot of other options. But for the foreseeable future, we think the NBA home in KeyArena is what we're going to focus on."

Griffin, spokesman for Ballmer's group, said it was unfortunate things didn't work out now, but that the four businessmen would "keep an open mind" if asked for future involvement in an NBA project.

Nickels said he would hold the Legislature to its promise that it would consider the $75 million KeyArena request as part of a broader package of funding issues at next year's session.

"We will find a way to make sure KeyArena remains the region's venue for cultural, entertainment and civic events," Nickels said, "and hopefully NBA basketball."

Nickels closing comment says it all. He just didn't care.