The City of Seattle will be paid $45 million in exchange for letting the Sonics go straight to hell. The team will pay an additional $30 million if the city doesn't secure another team within five years. Of course, any new team would immediately begin complaining about Key Arena and threatening to move.

The first inclination is to not really care about the Sonics. Just another insufferable sports owner holding a city hostage. But as Bill Simmons eloquently explained a couple months ago, this should matter to all sports fans (click here).

To answer the most pertinent question: No, the Blazers are not moving to Seattle. Reports I have seen say their lease is much more iron-clad than the Sonics' lease, and it's for something like 25 years.

The question, of course, is whether the market is big enough to support two such stations. The hunch is that it's not. On the other hand, it wasn't that long ago that the idea of any 24-hour sports station seemed ridiculous.

"I think the city can support two," said James Derby, program director for The Game. "That being said, we want to be the one. If the other station goes out of business, they go out of business."

Consider that the gauntlet being thrown down.

The Fan has Colin Cowherd, Mike Tirico, Dan Patrick, and a local show of Isaac Ropp and Jason Scukanek. It also the Mariners, with interminable pregame and postgame shows.

The Game has Katy Brown and Kenny Vance in the morning, followed by Jim Rome, Chris Myers, John Canzano, Gavin Dawson, and Brian Wheeler. They'll have game broadcasts for the Ducks, Seahawks and Blazers when the seasons start.

So, any thoughts, now that we're about six weeks into the competition?

Now we just need to figure out whether Clark County has ever had any track and field Olympians. Anybody know?

>>>Bethlehem Shoals of TheSportingBlog.com takes a look at the upcoming NBA free-agent pool (click here). Among the possible prizes: Gilbert Arenas, Baron Davis, and Elton Brand.

>>>AOL's Fanhouse points out a Christian news site that automatically changes the word "gay" to "homosexual." This is bad news for sprinter Tyson Gay (click here). Thanks to TheSportingBlog.

>>>Jerry Brewer of The Seattle Times catches up with Shawn Kemp, who was a guest celebrity Saturday at the International Basketball League All-Star Classic (click here). Yes, that's the same IBL that includes our own Vancouver Volcanoes (click here).

>>>David Vobora, a Eugene native from the Unviversity of Idaho, talks to the Idaho Statesman about his week in Southern California as Mr. Irrelevant -- the last pick in the NFL Draft (click here). The trip included a visit to the Playboy Mansion: "In the simplest terms -- it was a slice of heaven. The mansion was awesome. ... The playmates toured us around. We got to see the famous grotto and spend some time at the mansion, which was beautiful. ... It was such a small group -- about 10 of his friends and us. We got to sit down and have dinner with them, and then we went to into the theater (room) and watched a great 1935 music called 'Top Hat.' We were pretty giddy." Thanks to TheBigLead.com for the link.

>>>And finally, we bring you a golf club that can actually get you out of that difficult rough. It's a weed-whacker disguised as a driver (click here). The story says the club is illegal. We'll check the rule book and get back to you on that. Thanks to TheSportingBlog.com for the link.

>>>Five rounds down, and Patterson still has the lead at 191-9.

>>>We're through four rounds, and Patterson still has the lead. She just missed improving on her fourth throw, but she has the two best throws of the night.

>>>Three rounds down, and the 12-woman field is being cut to eight. Patterson moved back into the lead with a throw of 191-9. If she finishes in the top three, she earns a trip to the Olympics.

>>>Patterson had another solid throw in the second round, but she didn't improve her mark and fell to third behind Dana Pounds and Kim Kreiner. Pounds, the defending national champion, leads with a mark of 189-9.

>>>Through the first round, Kara Patterson is in first place with a throw of better than 182 feet.

>>>There's been a slight delay in the start of the women's javelin finals because the crowd at Hayward is going nuts. We just had the finals of the men's 800 meters, and Nick Symmonds, who attended Willamette University in Salem and now trains in Eugene, finished first, followed by Oregon's Andrew Wheating. They're going to Beijing.

>>>If you were at Hayward Field on Sunday, you saw Tyson Gay run 100 meters faster than any person in history (click here). But ESPN.com's Jim Caple wonders if we'll ever be able to enjoy track and field without wondering about performance-enhancing drugs (click here).

The interesting thing about Gay's 9.68 is that he was fortunate to be in the finals. In the first round, he built a huge lead and then shut it down with about 15 meters to go. He had to scramble to finish in the top four and advance to the next round. Gay finished fourth in that heat and had the same time as the fifth-place finisher. In his remaining three races, he left no doubt.

>>>The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that attendance at U.S. sporting events is up, but fans are spending less on hot dogs and beer (click here): "Even in an economic downturn, fans still go to sports games, and some leagues are setting attendance records, but such statistics hide a more complicated story on the effect of a weakening U.S. economy on sports." Thanks to Fark.com for the link.

>>>SportsByBrooks.com passes along a story about the Iraqi Paralympic team (click here): "As a country that participated in many wars since 1980, we have many disabled people," said Ahmed Abid Hassan, a wheelchair fencing coach. "Our Paralympic team is better than our Olympic team."

>>>SportsIllustrated.com has a story about the dying art of the knuckleball (click here). Apparently, Boston's Tim Wakefield and Seattle's R.A. Dickey are the only knuckleballers in the major leagues.

>>>And finally, from the believe-it-or-not file, we bring you this from the Austrian Times: "TV chiefs have apologised after broadcasting the Nazi lyrics to the German national anthem during a Euro 2008 match. Stunned viewers were asked to sing along to the war-time 'Deutschland �ber alles' song which has been banned for 63 years" (click here). Thanks to Fark for the link.

>>>From Alla Kudryavtseva, upon beating Maria Sharapova on Thursday at Wimbledon: "I don't like her outfit. Can I put it this way? It's a little too much of everything, of the same thing" (click here).

>>>No matter how bad your life seems to be, remember this: You could be a Knicks fan (click here). Thanks to TheSportingBlog.com.

>>>Because last night was the indisputable final word on this year's NBA Draft, YahooSports.com brings you the winners and losers (click here). Yes, there's nothing more definitive than assessing players before they've even played a game. For the record, Portland was a winner.

>>>And finally, we bring you the story of a man who robbed a convenience store at banana-point (click here). Thanks again to Fark.com.

>>>Speaking of the trials, on Saturday, Skyview graduate Kara Patterson will compete in the preliminaries of the women's javelin. If she advances, the finals are Monday evening. Patterson has the best mark by an American woman this year, throwing 202 feet at the Big 10 Championships. The next-best mark is 196-7 by Dana Pounds.