This individual has not yet begun to warm up for her act, folks.....

Commissioner Stern, in his own totally unendearing hem-and-haw way admitted at his press conference this afternoon that the NBA and the Professional Basketball Club will be bound by whatever time line the Federal Courts set for the Oklahoma Whatever-Their-Names-Are being able to leave their current identity as the Seattle SuperSonics.

Out of the three litigations currently pending (City of Seattle versus PBC to be heard in June 2008; Howard Schultz (and possibly the balance of the old ownership group) versus PBC (due to be filed within the next 10 days by attorney Yarmuth) to be heard whenever it makes it onto the Federal Civil Calendar; and the season ticket holders class action suit, to be heard in Federal Court in March 2009)), only the first two are liable to have any impact on when (if?) the team leaves Seattle for their intended new home.

Should the city prevail in their action for specific performance of the conditions of the team's lease of the Key Arena (as Mayor Nickels said this afternoon that absolutely NO buyout offers will be entertained from this juncture onward, and that includes after the litigation is resoved), they will be required to play all home games in the Key Arena through the end of the 2009-2010 season.

Should the judge in the Schultz action issue an injunction preventing the team from being removed from the city of Seattle until the conclusion of that action (a reasonable assumption, because it would cost two fortunes to move the team twice if Schultz succeeds in having the sales contract rescinded), they could be playing in Seattle for quite a considerable time after that if the trial is not fast-tracked.

The fans' litigation would not, likely, have any effect on the moving timelines.

What effect is this going to have on the NBA as you know it, and on the PBC?  Could be quite considerable.  Both the city and Schultz' actions will require PBC to pay court costs and attorneys fees should they lose in their bid to flee immediately.  Guessing the number of billable hours in the tens of thousands on both sides, at a minimum of $500.00 per hour (and likely much higher than that), my head is spinning with imagining how many zeroes could be on the end of whatever figure might be at the front.

The Sonics organization has already suspended sales of season tickets (after another broken promise to season ticket holders that they would be available, without price increase, through the end of the 2010 season--hence the class action suit), and they could barely sell for $10.00 tickets that used to go for $60.00 and up this past season without some really creative marketing. They have removed the word Seattle from the team's website some months ago, thus removing any brand identity.  PBC has already estimated that they lost $30MM per year over the past two seasons, despite their fire sale tactics in regards to player personnel and contracts.

The relocation fee that PBC will have to fork over to the league (to be split amongs the owners) will be $30MM.  Aubrey McClendon's fine for letting the cat out of the bag about the fact that PBC never had any intention of keeping the team in Seattle despite their signed contract codicil requiring them to through the end of the current lease was $250K.

Beginning to get the notion that the PBC could be quite cash poor by the time they finally pack up the moving vans and start the trek southeast?  (Probably why they made the good citizens of the state of Oklahoma and the City of Oklahoma City fork over 100% of the cost of the Ford Center renovation and tax incentives for bringing the team to Oklahoma......money that any state can ill afford to lose in these recessionary times). 

Never mind the fact that for many, myself included, the letters N, B and A have ceased to exist in the alphabet when found in direct conjunction with each other and those three letters will be receiving  no more of my hard earned cash in any way, shape or form; nor will any of their sponsors or media outlets (Carnival Cruise Lines, are you listening??  Remember all of those cruises that I've paid you tens of thousands of dollars for?  Well, no more, folks, not as long as Mickey Arison is your CEO).  I'm going to continue to cover the legal actions as appropriate, and as I can, but that costs me nothing but a few minutes of my time.

Just remember, it ain't over til the fat lady sings.