The $45 million paid to Seattle by the owners of the former Seattle SuperSonics (NBA) will be used to pay off KeyArena debt and make up for lost revenues.
The $45 million paid to Seattle by the owners of the former Seattle SuperSonics (NBA) will be used to pay off KeyArena debt and make up for lost revenues.
The largest piece of the pie, $34.2 million, will be used to pay off debt from the most recent KeyArena renovations, performed at the behest of the former Sonics owners. That completely takes the debt off the books and frees the city to look at either a new arena or another renovation of KeyArena.
Other uses of the settlement incude legal fees ($2.8 million), improvements ($2.3 million), other Seattle Center projects ($3.8 million) and revenue lost because of the move of the Sonics to Oklahoma City ($1.4 million).
The Seatte SuperSonics Professional Baseball Club agrees to pay the city $45 million to break their KeyArena lease early, paving the way for a move to Oklahoma. In addition, the club agreed to pay an addition $30 million if the city agreed to build a new arena and no NBA team moved to town.
