Dori: Chris Hansen must have NBA team in back pocket

Despite repeated denials, Dori Monson is convinced hedge fund manager Chris Hansen already has a deal in place to bring an NBA team to Seattle.

“If I were a gambling man, I would bet any amount of money he already has a deal for a team that was contingent on this arena deal,” says Monson.

710 ESPN’s Brock Huard agrees and points out that Hansen has already spent over $50 million buying land for the new arena, not to mention millions more for lawyers, studies, and other fees.

“You don’t think he’s spent $60 million of his own right now unless he knows he has wink, wink, something in place,” says Huard.

Monson tried to get Hansen to admit as much during a recent appearance on his show, but Hansen wouldn’t budge, saying it is “technically impossible.”

“[NBA commissioner] David Stern’s exact quote is ‘until the shovels are ready to go in the ground there will not be an NBA team relocating to Seattle,'” Hansen said.

But Monson argues Hansen’s big name investment group has too much at stake to not have at least some guarantees already in place.

“You’re not going to spend the cache of the Nordstrom name, of the Ballmer name, those guys are not going to get involved in something only to say ‘Oh you know what, we failed,'” Monson says.