Seahawks Mess Moves To Courts Nfl Team, King County Sue Each Other As Move Looms
The Seahawks’ move to Los Angeles detoured to court Friday with King County trying to stop “this madness” of shifting NFL franchises by holding the team to a lease that runs through 2005.
Seahawks owner Ken Behring countered with his own suit, claiming King County violated the lease by failing to correct deficiencies that made the 20-year-old Kingdome vulnerable to a large earthquake.
King County Superior Court Judge Dale Ramerman granted the county a 14-day restraining order, and scheduled a hearing Feb. 16 on whether to issue an injunction to keep the team from being moved or sold.
The order allows the team to shut down and move its local offices and training camp, provided the Seahawks play their home games in the Kingdome next season. The move will take place this weekend, according to the team’s attorney, Ronald L. Olson of Los Angeles.
“This madness in football of abandoning loyal fans simply must stop,” King County Executive Gary Locke said. “This is a football town, but this community will not be coerced in any form, in any fashion, to keep football here.”
Before filing the suit, the county rejected a $20 million buyout offer from Behring and said he could not legally break the lease, which commits the team to play in the Kingdome through 2005.
Minutes after county officials announced their legal action, Behring confirmed he was moving the franchise from Seattle.
“It is with great regret that I am announcing today that the NFL franchise we purchased in 1988 is leaving Seattle,” Behring said in a statement. “This decision was an extremely difficult one to make and one that was not made in haste.
“In the end, however, the insurmountable problems with the Kingdome and the county’s unwillingness or inability to solve those problems made the decision for us. Many of our problems with the Kingdome have been well documented.”
In New York, NFL officials said they had been advised by Seahawks officials last week “of their view that the Kingdome was unusable and unsafe due to seismic risks,” but didn’t take a stand on the matter.
Locke said: “Mr. Behring has a valid lease. This community expects him to honor it.”
He accused Behring of “moving the goalposts” repeatedly by upping his demands for Kingdome improvements.
“One has to seriously question whether Mr. Behring was ever serious about staying in Seattle,” Locke said.
The Seahawks’ suit said seismic problems at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after quake damage in recent years cost more than $90 million to fix.
“If anything, the remediation task at the Kingdome is more daunting, given the Kingdome’s unusual structure and seven-acre, thin-shelled concrete roof,” it said.
The suit says the Seahawks have given the county “repeated written notices of default,” but they “have been ignored by the county since September of 1994.”