The Seattle Storm used to be the ‘tail’ on the ‘dog’ of its NBA counterpart. Now the WNBA team is leading the city’s basketball revival
In the first eight years of the Seattle Storm’s existence, the WNBA team was the “tail” on the “dog” of its NBA counterpart, the Super Sonics, according to Storm co-owner Ginny Gilder. Both bought in 2001 for $200 million by an ownership group led by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, the Sonics and the Storm shared a practice facility and entertainment complex Key Arena for games. Still, the men’s team brought in the cash and was responsible for the majority of the fixed costs. But the Sonics—Seattle’s first professional sports franchise, founded in 1966—left the city in 2008 over an arena dispute, relocating to Oklahoma City and rebranding as the Thunder. That same year, a group of local businesswomen including Gilder, formed Force 10 Hoops LLC and bought the Storm for $10 million, or just 5% of the total value of the two-team package Schultz purchased years before. Over the next two decades, the Storm grew into a franchise with an estimated value of $425 million, among the top five of the WNBA’s 13 franchises—all of which have exploded in value amid the league’s catapulting popularity. The team tallied four championships, all with 13-time All-Star Sue Bird, who, after her 2022 retirement, joined Force 10 Hoops as a Storm’s owner in 2024. There’s a good chance Seattle will not be a one-team basketball town for much longer. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said he’s focused on the return of the SuperSonics as part of the league’s expansion, with the team potentially resuming play in Seattle as early as 2028. The ownership of the Seattle Kraken NHL team is the parent of One Roof Sports and Entertainment, which is positioning itself as the next owner of Seattle’s revived NBA franchise. While the Sonics were the foundation of basketball in Seattle, Gilder and the rest of the Storm’s ownership spent the last 16 years building the very basketball culture the NBA now wants to re-enter. To them, the return of the Sonics is not just an opportunity for the Storm to celebrat