I see this statement, talking rather than email, a lot.
Assume for giggles and grins there was zero intent to ever play a day in Seattle.
Assume someone knew the team could not be purchased unless there was a dog and pony show put on to pretend Seattle was the cultural and bball center of the universe.
It seems some suggest it would have been ok to out and out lie if done so in a less detectable way.

For what it's worth, I don't think they lied. I do think they knew that short of coming in and building an arena 100% out of their own pockets the prospects of a new arena fell somewhere between no and hell no. As they were not required to do the arena on their own as part of the deal, choosing not to has nada to do with good faith.

I'm not near as impressed as the espn folks are with the suit. the whole concept of kill this deal but let me keep my profit and don't make me take the team back is just somewhat silly.