Survey showed little support for Sonics in Washington

Voters in Washington state in March were overwhelmingly against a proposal to keep the Seattle SuperSonics there, according to a survey made public Friday in court papers.

"Not the answer we were looking for,” wrote John Stanton on March 18, according to the court papers.

Stanton was one of four businessmen who came up with a plan this year to buy the NBA team and improve Seattle's KeyArena where the team played.

They were willing to put $150 million of their own money toward the KeyArena improvements to be matched by $150 million in public funding.

How much they were willing to pay for the team has not been revealed. They made their proposal even though the team is not for sale.

The plan failed to find support this year at Washington's capital.

Working for the group, professional pollsters surveyed 500 Washington voters on March 16 and 17.

Voters were asked: "A plan has been proposed by four local businessmen to invest $150 million to upgrade the KeyArena and keep the Sonics basketball team in Seattle. Their plan requires that the state authorize the county and city to spend an additional $150 million for improvements to the KeyArena paid for by taxes on restaurants and rental cars in King County. Would you support or oppose such a plan?”

Only 31 percent of the surveyed voters supported the plan while 59 percent opposed it. Most of those opponents were strongly against it. Ten percent didn't know.

The current owners of the team failed in their own efforts to get public funding for a new arena in Washington. They plan to relocate the team to Oklahoma City but face lawsuits in federal court in Seattle over the proposed move.