Local Ownership Announcement Tomorrow

The cat is out of the bag and the whole team is going to be in town to announce it.

Tomorrow afternoon a more substantial than expected local ownership group will be announced at an event featuring not only Tod Leiweke but also his brother Tim, Mayor Jenny Durkan and principal investor David Bonderman.

It’s exciting that the percentage of local ownership has been increased from original expectations and also that these local partners will be involved in helping present our city to the NHL.

We will soon also announce local partners, and many of those who have signed up are also friends of mine and I am just so excited about the groundswell that we feel now with this idea and with this franchise and all of those people will be with us that day, not maybe physically, but that day where we stand up in front of the executive committee, and it’s going to be a great story to tell. Tod Leiweke on KJR 8/28

This should be the first of several pending announcements, most of which have been teased by Lieweke in recent weeks. Pay attention to what he is saying to get a good idea of what to expect in the future. He’s remarkably candid in these interviews.

In advance of this announcement I want to say THANK YOU to the local leaders who are stepping up to help bring 2 professional sports teams to our region. The vetting process is significant and all of them could probably find better returns on investment if they didn’t want to do this so badly.

Several of these names are people who have been here, in the fight with the fans since 2006. Good people who I’ve known for more than a decade to be sincere in their desire to bring the Sonics back.

It’s good to have these friends in a more visible and active role. I look forward to supporting them in any way I can.