For Ackerley, `NBA Champions' Has Nice Ring To It -- Owner Of Sonics Hoping For Title This Year

Barry Ackerley looked out his office window to a sweeping view of Elliott Bay and Lake Union and, surely, some of the ubiquitous billboards that make him one of Washington's richest men.

On the 40th and highest floor of Rainier Tower, Ackerley was on top of Seattle.

But these days, one thing nags the owner of the Seattle Sonics more than any unfinished business deal.

"The Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sonics are the only three teams in the NBA that have won 55 or more games a year for six consecutive years," said Ackerley. "Where are my rings? Boston's got rings, L.A. has got rings. Where are my rings? I didn't get a ring."

Ackerley, 64, a private man, spoke about his family, his business, his desire to wear an NBA championship ring and the impending decision of whether to rehire George Karl, the Sonics' coach since 1991.

"When the season is over," he said, "after we win the championship in June, we'll talk about what we're going to do."

No subject elicited as much enthusiasm from Ackerley as the prospect of winning his first National Basketball Association championship.

Those who work for him understand.

"Barry Ackerley wants to win a championship probably as much as Sam Perkins and Nate McMillan and George Karl and Detlef Schrempf and Gary Payton," Karl said. "We've teetered near it for so long that it now becomes an anger, a passion, an emotion. It changes its faces, but it's very much inside our stomach constantly."

The Sonics face Minnesota tonight at KeyArena in their first playoff game this year. They probably have as good a shot at winning the championship as any Sonic team since the 1979 squad gave original owner Sam Schulman his only ring.

The Sonics surprisingly led the league for most of this season. They finished third best in the NBA at 61-21, and atop the Pacific Division for the third consecutive season.

"We've already made hotel reservations for the Finals," said Ackerley, who purchased the team 14 years ago. Then he quickly added: "But we did that last year, too."

Last season, the Sonics lost in seven games to the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals.

The one time Ackerley did attend an NBA Finals was in 1996, when the Bulls defeated the Sonics in six games.

A family business

Those close to the Sonics' owner describe a man who cherishes his family more than anything - including "my ring," his wife, Ginger. She is co-chair and co-president of the company, the Ackerley Group. Son William, 37, is co-president and chief operating officer. Chris, 29, is vice president of development and management of the company. Chris' twin brother, Ted, is president of two local companies not affiliated with the family business. Daughter, Kim, 34, is involved in philanthropy.

"That's my son, Christopher," said Ackerley, pointing at a family picture and rattling off the names of everyone in it. "That's Ted's girlfriend at the time. I do not believe that's still his girlfriend but I'm not going to get involved."

Ackerley isn't known to meddle in Sonics' affairs, either. He rarely oversteps Wally Walker, general manager of the Sonics, or Billy McKinney, vice president of the Sonics.

"I've been in situations, or I've known other people that have worked in situations with an owner that is very involved in the operations, and sometimes it makes it difficult to do your jobs," said McKinney, who was hired in 1995.

In the summer of 1996, the Sonics had to make one of the more significant decisions in franchise history: whether to re-sign Gary Payton to the Sonics' most lucrative contract ever.

Ackerley "was more hands-off," said Payton's agent, Aaron Goodwin, who negotiated the All-Star point guard's seven-year, $88 million deal. "Wally went back to approve things with him, but he wasn't involved. I didn't talk to (Ackerley) throughout the negotiations or anything like that. Early on, we got together and agreed that we'd try to get something done, but that was about it."

The Ackerley empire

Ackerley has his hands full with the Ackerley Group, a media and entertainment company worth approximately $650 million. He owns about 70 percent of the stock in the publicly traded company, whose media division includes nine television stations around the country and three local radio stations, including KJR-AM, which broadcasts Sonic games.

The Sonics are under his company's entertainment division, which also includes the Seattle SeaDogs - a professional indoor soccer team currently seeking a league in which to play - and Full House and Entertainment, the business arm of the Sonics.

Team veterans fondly remember the court-side gyrating - and referee-baiting - Ackerley would do before he began watching games from his private suite three years ago. The club owner cheered enthusiastically when his team was ahead, and looked beside himself when it was down.

"He would just stand up and look at our bench during timeouts," Sonic guard Nate McMillan recalled, chuckling, "and you knew it was time to get busy: It's time to go to work or dive on the floor; show some type of aggressiveness because the big man over there is looking at you, and right now he's not pleased with the effort the team is giving."

After Ackerley purchased the franchise for $21 million in 1984, it lost money. Now, it is considered one of the more profitable in the NBA. Last year, Financial World placed the Sonics' value at about $140 million. The magazine estimated that the team made a profit of $12 million in 1996.

The Sonics generate added revenue through concessions, suite sales, sponsorship, advertising, television-rights fees and by broadcasting games over an Ackerley-owned radio station. This season, fans could watch 56 Sonic games on free TV, a stark contrast to past seasons when some games could be seen only on a pay-per-view basis, including all home playoff games not shown by the league's network.

The Sonics have sold out every game at 17,072-seat KeyArena since it opened in 1995. But Ackerley has been criticized for the cost of concession food and tickets.

"It bothers me when people say this to me," he said. "I don't even know them. People come up to me on the street. They're not mean. They say, `Boy, the games are so expensive. I really wish I could afford to take my wife and kids more often.'

"I feel kind of bad."

Players' salaries, Ackerley said, are the cause of increases in ticket prices. The Sonics have a payroll of $40.7 million. "I wish guys could go to games for $15," he said. "You tell Gary Payton to play for $50,000 a year and I'll lower ticket prices to $10."

Because of steady profits, though, next season the Sonics won't increase ticket prices, which range from $7 to $100.

"Professional sports really doesn't make that much money," said Ackerley, who last winter declined a proposal to buy into Major League Baseball's Florida Marlins for about $150 million.

Players for the Sonics say Ackerley runs a first-class organization. In 1994, he bought a new practice facility, considered one of the best in the league. About two months ago, he purchased a Boeing 727-200, from Air Morocco, replacing another private plane.

"Whatever we've needed on this team, we've gotten," said McMillan.

Willing to make decisions

Although Ackerley has not been a disruptive owner, there have been times when he has stepped in with a major decision. In 1985, Ackerley removed Lenny Wilkens as coach and moved him into the front office. In February 1993, Ackerley met with Laker owner Jerry Buss to iron out financial concerns, clearing the lane for the Sonics to get center Sam Perkins in a trade for Benoit Benjamin.

As for the decision to be made about Karl, "ultimately I have the last word," Ackerley said.

In 1975, Ackerley founded a small outdoor-advertising company, then bought out local competitors in the billboard business. Eventually, he gained the largest market share in the Northwest.

His company did not post a profit for much of the 1980s. By 1996, though, it posted record profits of $15.8 million on revenues of $280 million.

Today Ackerley has one of the largest outdoor-advertising companies in the nation and owns advertising space in 75 airports.

But he doesn't have a championship ring.

Disappointing loss

Ackerley was sure he would get one in 1994, when the Sonics finished the regular season with a club-record 63 victories. He was as distraught as any player when the Denver Nuggets stunned his club in the first round of the playoffs.

"I remember sitting out on a patio with him and Ginger that afternoon and it was a beautiful day," Chris Ackerley said. "It was an opportunity for us to sit back on a beautiful day and say: `It was a major disappointment, but we have a lot to be thankful for.' "

Today Barry Ackerley is thankful for his health. On Dec. 7, 1991, he underwent more than 10 hours of quintuple heart-bypass surgery. On his office shelf is a basketball autographed by the 1991-92 team, given to him after the surgery. "It was a nice little touch," Ackerley said.

He works out four times a week in the team's practice facility, occasionally bumping into his players. "I used to belong to a health club," he said, "but I have the nicest health club in town. Why can't I go there?"

Since his heart surgery, Ackerley has delegated more authority to his top managers, but he isn't thinking of stepping down any time soon.

Business is booming. Yet, there's unfinished business on his mind. "This is the year," he said with excitement. "This is it."