City to Sonics: How big's your legal war chest?

It's increasingly clear that the City of Seattle strategy in the dispute of the Sonics is politics-by-litigation, otherwise known as trying to run the other side out of money by imposing high legal costs. Time is probably on the city's side. The Sonics new Oklahoma City owners, meanwhile, are starting to cry uncle. On Thursday, they tried to speed up the trial date and get the case into mediation, according to an Associated Press report. No way, Jose, said the City. The city seemingly agreed on mediation, but only if the Sonics agree to discuss keeping the team in Seattle, which of course they did not assent to. The Sonics also asked for a March 24 trial date, saying that it's a pretty simple landlord-tenant dispute. The City's response: how about an October 27 trial date? Meanwhile, those hoping to keep the Sonics in Seattle suffered another possible setback yesterday, with announcement of the UW's plans to tap the otherwise-expiring stadium taxes to build a $300 million renovation of Husky Stadium. Those taxes would be a critical component of any deal to build the Sonics a new stadium, but now the Dawgs are laying claim. It's a complex game, beloved of lawyers. Push the Sonics so far that they run out of money and agree to sell to a Seattle purchasing group, but not so hard that they get really angry and make the case to the NBA that there's no way Seattle wants to keep the team. But even there, there could be a Machiavellian twist. Some think the City's strategy is to get the team to move to Oklahoma City, and then to buy up a different struggling team, at a much lower price, and move that team (New Orleans? Memphis?) to Seattle. Meanwhile, delay is all in Seattle's favor, and local judges are likely to comply. Delay keeps the team paying rent at Key Arena, and the more the team loses (latest losing streak has been eight games), the fewer fans show up. De-fense!