Hopeless In Seattle?

Grant M. Haller / Seattle P-I Archives

Now that Steve Ballmer has won the bidding war and is the new, sole owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, what does that mean for Seattle?

It is said that the reason Ballmer won the bidding war was because he promised to pay his bid of $2 billion dollars in cold hard CASH! 

This purchase puts Ballmer above his former boss at Microsoft, Paul Allen, as the richest owner in all major US sports. Allen is worth $16 billion and Ballmer is worth $20.3 billion, well $18.3 billion with his latest acquisition.

This purchase is now the richest ever for a North American professional sports franchise. The Los Angeles Dodgers that were purchased for a record $2.1 billion a couple years back included their stadium; the Clippers purchase contains only a practice facility as real estate.

Ballmer had already declared that he has no intention of moving Clippers if he was to buy the team while he was talking with The Wall Street Journal earlier this month. Ballmer said, "Moving them anywhere else would be value destructive,”

If you can remember back in 2006 when a guy named Clay Bennett purchased the Seattle SuperSonics he had similar intentions as Ballmer, and said he had no intentions of moving the franchise.

One of the members of Bennett's ownership group would later come out to say that the plan was never to purchase the team to keep them in Seattle. The city of Seattle went through ups and downs as the process played out with the legislators, David Stern, Clay Bennett, Howard Schultz, and Greg Nickels all playing a pivotal role in the move to Oklahoma City.

It's highly unlikely that Ballmer would still look to relocate the team but when you're an NBA fan in Seattle you keep the hope in the back of your mind that you will get your team back. I mean if I was to buy a team for $2 billion there is not one person who is stopping me from doing whatever I please with the team, including bringing them to Seattle.

It was just last month that Steve Ballmer and Chris Hansen made a bid for the Milwaukee Bucks, for relocation to Seattle, but former owner Herb Kohl insisted on selling to a group that would keep the team in Milwaukee. 

So you can see why I still keep that little shining light of hope even though people thinking logically about this situation have already concluded that their is no chance of the Clippers making the move to Seattle.

Chris Hansen, Ballmer's former partner in trying to bring a team back to Seattle, released a statement on Friday congratulating Ballmer’s purchase of the Clippers as well as saying, "I would also like to assure Seattle fans that my remaining partners and I remain committed to bringing the NBA back to Seattle."  However, without the deep pockets of a person like Ballmer around it makes the uphill battle even harder.

Maybe Hansen can contact another former Microsoft employee and Seattle-area native, Bill Gates, to help the cause (Wishful thinking, but could you imagine the number he could throw at the NBA!).

Of all the scenarios to bring a team back to Seattle, it looks like the only real hope lies in Ballmer bringing the Clippers to Seattle once their contract with the Staples Center expires, but that won't be until the 2023-24 season.

So don't hold your breath Seattle, we still have a long way to go before we get our Sonics back.