There are some great aspects to the Seattle Seahawks being sold. One is that the proceeds of the sale (likely to be between $7-10 billion) will be donated to charities. That is good for humanity. What might not be good for NBA fans, though, is that the football team being sold might affect the SuperSonics' return.
The reason is the size of the market and the potential buyers. While multiple professional sports franchises have been up for sale at the same time in the same city before, mostly in New York City or Los Angeles, which are obviously big enough to host multiple franchises in all of the big four sports leagues in North America.
The greater Seattle area certainly has people with lots of money, especially in the tech realm; how many of those want to own a sports team is in question. Moreover, one person who might be interested in owning the SuperSonics, Samantha Holloway, could be interested in owning the Seahawks. She isn't going to own both while also owning the NHL's Kraken.
Seattle Seahawks being sold could affect the return of the Seattle SuperSonics
Holloway might want the money that could be invested in the NFL franchise could be put into upgrades of Climate Pledge Arena, the home ice of the Kraken, to allow for an NBA franchise, too. That way, the same arena would host both hockey and basketball. That would streamline Holloway's return on investment.
And that's all part of the problem. The same people who might want to buy a football team may be the same people who want to own a basketball team, so the pool of investors is shrunk. It is also important that the Seahawks are first to market in being up for sale. The NFL franchise will be sold first before the NBA potentially could announce league expansion that includes Seattle.
The NBA appears set on discussing expansion this summer. One city that seems to be a lock to get a franchise is Las Vegas. What makes sense is to add two, of course, to keep the league with an even number of teams.
Seattle deserves to get an NBA team again. The fan base was great for the Sonics before the team was stolen from Seattle in 2008. "We won't move the team to Oklahoma City. Oh, but what we will." The wound hasn't healed.
But the Seattle Seahawks being sold first and the need to rebuild the market of potential investors in the Pacific Northwest could force the NBA to push back on giving an expansion franchise to Seattle for a few years. One day, that will happen, but likely not soon enough for basketball fans.