Take this from a Seattle native and someone who knows what is really going on:
This is not over by a long shot!
Clay Clay better be ready for court, first trial starts May 2nd! Then June 16th for the City of Seattle one, and Howard Schultz's date has not been discussed yet but it will be later than the City's. This is going to be fun!
Talking and hearing with several people who know how you can word contracts and agreements, it sounds that Howard has a better than average chance at winning this case. He used specific wording for the "good faith" clause, which obviously, from the emails, Clay Bennett and his ownership group did not fulfill those agreements that were signed. Remember also that Howard Schultz is not suing just Clay Bennett, but Clay's whole ownership group which includes our two good friends Aubrey McClendon and Ward. Well, the fact that Aubrey stated in an Oklahoman business journal that they had no intention on staying in Seattle (this was last year), and the fact that he was fined $250,000 for saying that by the NBA puts us in pretty damn good shape.
There are so many other things in the mix here it would take hours of typing to try to explain it all. We DO have Slade Gorton (great politician and legal genius) who is orchestrating all of this. He won't take kindly to what David Stern said about him yesterday. He is the man who helped save the Seattle Mariners on numerous ocassions, as well as helping to get them in the first place.
The problem here is that people outside of Seattle have not been hearing what is really going on up here! For God's sakes, when the AP article about Clay's email exchange with McClendon and Ward came out, he had it edited when it was printed in the Oklahoman to take out the line where Clay stated that he was "a man possessed"! Why, you ask? Because Clay's family owns the Oklahoman newspaper as well as some of the TV stations in the area.
Like I said at the beginning of my post, this is FAR from over. Can't state that enough!