I have been reviewing photos of the past week and I have to just say I am stunned by the magnitude of this thing, the number of people who wear SaveOurSonics gear, the high School Kids with SAVEOURSONICS written on their chests, the whole nine yards.
Really breathtaking. There is simply a surge going on right now.
What I think we are really starting to get a sense of is something I have been saying for a while. People ask how I can be involved in such a David VS Goliath type battle but they never realize that OUR TEAM IS GOLIATH! The combined business power, consumer base and government influence of this region should not be intimidated. We're coming at the league from all angles now and it feels very good.
When all is said and done the core argument of this case is not going to be the side letter. It is going to be the argument that the side letter only confirmed their other discussions, which were further verbalized in the press conference when the team was sold. A central consideration for agreeing to this transaction was the belief that Clay Bennett would make a good faith effort to keep the team here. Here is how one legal paper describes this basic obligation.
"Every contract imposes a duty of good faith and fair dealings in its enforcement. This rule is intended to prevent opportunism and a bargain without being unduly suspicious of his contractual partner."
This same document also advises that generally good faith is almost impossible to define and that for the most part courts allow juries to examine the specific facts and circumstances involved in a situation to determine whether "best effort" has been performed.
I know that up until the last round of e-mails members of the former ownership group simply felt that a claim of best effort was unlikely to be successful. They never believed that the Bennett deceit would be so well documented and blatant. Now not only would they get to show his plan for what it was but also they would be able to go to a jury showing the blatant lies and cover ups Bennett is capable of and calling into question any defense he may have.
Now we have another case, another jury, and this time the goal will be slightly different. This lawyer will be taking the material the city has already compiled, and using it to prove beyond a shred of doubt that an intentional conspiracy occurred.
I'm filling this thread in but first I'm going to stack some legal stuff...Have we ever mentioned that this will be getting embarrassing for the league?
I'm going to speculate here that Clay Bennett will have to fall back on a defense that, when he lost in legislature it qualified as a failure for the year and he had no feasible opportunity to go on beyond that point. In this case I think we'll also be able to see that his efforts will be compared and contrasted to other ownership efforts to get an arena. When this starts to vet publicly Clays efforts are going to look pathetic.
I think there is a strong possibility that this results in a deferral of the vote. It is getting somewhat out of control and that is a good thing.