SEATTLE (AP) -SuperSonics owner Clayton Bennett testified Tuesday that the team’s financial losses at KeyArena are “ever-growing,” but that he has the resources to absorb them.
Bennett is trying to move the team – Seattle’s oldest professional sports franchise – to his hometown of Oklahoma City, two years before the KeyArena lease expires. The city is asking a federal judge to force the Sonics to honor their lease.
Under questioning from city of Seattle lawyer Paul Lawrence, Bennett said the $65 million the team could lose if forced to honor the remaining two years of its KeyArena lease is significant, but “would not significantly alter” his family’s lifestyle.
Bennett also testified he’s a “reasonably sophisticated” investor and knows how to perform due diligence in making investments. The city has argued Bennett’s Professional Basketball Club knew what it was getting into when it bought the Sonics in 2006, and that the team should not now be able to claim financial hardship in breaking the lease.
Bennett followed Jyo Singh, a Seattle Center official who works with the Sonics on arrangements at KeyArena. Seattle mayor Greg Nickels testified Monday, the first day of the trial.
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