Kansas City Welcome Mat Out for Seattle SuperSonics

City officials have told the Seattle SuperSonics they can move here if they wish to leave Seattle.

Sonics owner Barry Ackerley has expressed dissatisfaction with the Seattle Coliseum and has suggested that he would move the team.

He was contacted Monday by City Councilman Frank Palermo.

“I told him that we’re very happy in Seattle,” said Bob Whitsitt, president of the Sonics. “We don’t have a Mayflower truck parked out front here. We don’t have our bags packed, because we love Seattle. We have great fan support, and we’re hopeful we can work something out here.”

The Seattle Coliseum is the third-oldest arena in the NBA behind the Boston Garden and Chicago Stadium. Ackerley asked Seattle and King County to build a new stadium but was not successful.

He then bought land to build his own arena, but the county imposed restrictions that would have allowed him to operate only when the nearby Seattle Kingdome had no events scheduled.

“I’m sure they’ve got the people in Seattle a little antsy now, so they may get their new facility,” Palermo said. “But sometimes teams do move, and when they do, we want to be in place to fill that void.”

The Sonics have also been contacted by San Diego; Anaheim; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati; Toronto, and St. Petersburg, Fla.

Kansas City lost its NBA franchise when the Kings moved to Sacramento in 1985. Whitsitt was a vice president of the Kings for three years.