Something's Brewing in Seattle

Sniff, sniff. I smell a conspiracy.

You didn't hear it from me, but Howard Schultz is plotting to convert Seattle's Key Arena into the world's largest Starbucks.

Yep, the Mermaid's CEO hatched the idea last summer, and everything is going according to plan.

First, Schultz and the Basketball Club of Seattle -- the ownership group which he headed -- sold the SuperSonics and Storm to Clay Bennett. Bennett, a businessman from Oklahoma City, was a key (no pun intended) part of the equation.

See, Schultz knew that Bennett was an out-of-towner, and he knew of Oklahoma City's love affair with the displaced New Orleans Hornets. Schultz knew that Key Arena wasn't the most modern of facilities, and he knew from experience that the city and state's reticence to chip in for a new one.

Schultz knew, of course, about Oklahoma City's Ford Center, built in 2002 with a capacity of 19,559 -- almost 3,000 more butts than Key Arena accommodates.

And so, a year after purchasing the team and six months after asking for $300 million in taxpayer dollars, Bennett is, unsurprisingly, threatening to move. Seattle is unquestionably the superior city -- economically, intellectually, and aesthetically -- but Oklahoma City is Bennett's home. And it's already got the arena.

Somewhere, Howard Schultz is smiling about this. Either because he's just crazy enough to essentially boot the Sonics out of Seattle, or because all the pieces of his puzzle are filling into place.

Room for cream?