The worst kept secret in all of sports has been that the Professional Basketball Club ownership will soon announce that they will be moving the Seattle Supersonics from Seattle to Oklahoma City come the 2008-09 season.

All four of the Professional Basketball Club owners are from Oklahoma City and its well known in NBA circles that the group had no intention of keeping the team in the Pacific Northwest unless someone in the region bowled them over with an offer they couldn't refuse. That's been anything but the case and lawmakers, politicians and even fans in the state of Washington have all but kissed the Supersonics goodbye and let the current owners know that the well for public financial support has run dry.

Well today Chesapeake Energy Corp. Chair & CEO and Sonics investor Aubrey McClendon let the true feelings of the Professional Basketball Club ownership group out of the bag in an interview he did with the Oklahoma Journal Record. In the interview McClendon said, “They’ve got 60 days to make some decisions they haven’t been willing to make in the past year, and if they make them in a way that satisfies [Sonics Owner Clay Bennett], then the team will stay there. If they don’t meet the requirements he’s laid out, the team will move and Clay has indicated they’ll come to Oklahoma City. McClendon also added, “We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come to Oklahoma City.”

There. Just as I predicted ever since the day Clay Bennett and his group purchased the Supersonics in July of 2006, Seattle is going to lose its NBA team that has resided in the Emerald City since 1967.

Now just because Bennett and his group want to relocated the Supersonics from Seattle to Oklahoma City doesn't mean this move will be a cakewalk by any means.

First and foremost, the team's current lease with Key Arena runs through the 2009-10 NBA season. Thus, if they want to break the lease, there will be a stiff financial penalty to pay.

Next, Bennett and his ownership group will need to win the approval of the NBA's other NBA owners in order to move from Seattle to Oklahoma City. Then, if the relocation is approved, Bennett and his group will have to pay a relocation fee to the NBA. For example, the Memphis Grizzlies paid the NBA $30M to relocate from Vancouver to Memphis. Its safe to say the price for a relocation fee today would likely start at $50M.

Then there will be costs associated with moving the front office staff from Seattle to Oklahoma City. New office space will need to be secured and a new practice facility for the team will likely need to be built.

So Bennett and his group could be looking at well over $100M in expenses associated with moving the Supersonics from Seattle to Oklahoma City. Remember, Bennett's group purchased the Seattle Supersonics for a reported $350M so in essence, he'd be spending almost a third of that amount to relocate the team to Oklahoma City. Not an inexpensive proposition by any means.

But Bennett, McClendon and the rest of the ownership group have deep pockets. I get the sense this is more about the group bringing NBA basketball to their community and the owners having good seats at the games than it is about trying to turn a profit. Remember, most NBA owners don't turn a profit on an annual basis. The way they make their money is through increasing the overall value of the franchise and then cashing out when they sell the team.

Bennett has established a self-imposed deadline of October 31st to figure out a solution for his NBA team. The NBA doesn't require notification of relocation for the following season until March 1st, so if Bennett and company want to move the Supersonics for the 2008-09 season, he'd need to notify the league by March 1, 2008.

The Portland Trail Blazers could benefit greatly by seeing their neighbors to the north relocate to Oklahoma City. Just as the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks have successfully pulled ticket buyers out of the Portland market, the Trail Blazers would likely be able to pull some ticketbuyers out of the Seattle market for NBA games since the Trail Blazers would become the only option for NBA basketball in the Pacific Northwest. There could also be increased media rights exposure for the Trail Blazers if any of the radio or TV outlets in Seattle decided to carry Trail Blazers basketball games - as Portland radio and TV stations carry Mariners and Seahawks games.

It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out and what the Sonics move will ultimately mean to the region, but as I have said for the past year, I think its only a matter of time until Clay Bennett and company move the Supersonics to Oklahoma City. It will be an expensive move, but as Aubrey McClendon recently revealed, this has been the plan of the Professional Basketball Club group all along.