SEATTLE- It was assumed that the annual “Rain City Showcase” would be indicative of an NBA expansion process in Seattle, but off-court play has not yet begun in earnest.

The Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trailblazers will play Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena. This is the third year in a row that the Clippers have played a game here. Both franchises have owners based in the Seattle area.

Plans were underway with several business and civic groups to use the event as a launching pad for a coordinated public relations campaign for the Sonics’ return.

But NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s comments to KOMO News in September put those plans on hold.

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“We will never be one step ahead of the NBA. That has always been our line because we don’t want that. We will prepare this building to be suitable for the NBA. We have everything prepared,” said Rosie Selle, vice president of the Climate Pledge Arena.

“We have a proven track record of playing basketball. We just completed our third Storm season where we had to go from Storm basketball to hockey to a concert and everything else under the sun. “We played college basketball,” she said, noting that the “Future NBA Locker Room” was set up inside the arena, which is the same size as the Seattle Kraken’s existing locker room.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver responded to a question from KOMO News about the owners’ meetings in New York on September 10th. He said at the time: “There wasn’t much discussion about enlargement at that meeting, but that was mainly because we told them we weren’t quite ready yet, and not for a lack of interest.” He continued: “We have told our board that we want to look into it this season. We’re not quite there yet, but I think there’s definitely interest in the process.”

He had previously indicated that an expansion committee would initially look at the idea and that Seattle and Las Vegas were top targets. He also noted that the league will be paying attention in September to how the exhibition game in Seattle is conducted.

The news comes after Silver also said the league would talk about expansion after it finalizes its new TV and digital rights deal. That’s exactly what the company did this summer, agreeing to a $76 billion package with Seattle-based Amazon, ESPN and NBC.

But immediately after the NBA Finals, another complication arose when it was announced that the championship Boston Celtics were for sale.

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Kevin Calabro, the longtime voice of the Sonics who now announces games for the Portland Trailblazers, said on KOMO’s “Inside the Arena” that he believes it’s a delay in expansion.

“I think they want to see where those numbers are when it comes to Boston and then get cost certainty about how much they’re going to share and what kind of formula they’re going to use and what method they’re going to use to potentially in the early years of this Expansion to participate in television revenues,” said Calabro.

Brian Robinson, a long-time fan, was involved in many civic efforts to either save or bring back the Sonics. He has now founded a volunteer organization called Seattle NBA Fans that is trying to drum up support for the seemingly inevitable marketing campaign surrounding the expansion process.

The Museum of History and Industry also protects all Sonics banners and jerseys for return.

FROZEN TIME | Hundreds of Sonics artifacts have been stored at the Seattle Museum for decades

Robinson admitted he believed the game would serve as a “point of reference” for the effort, adding: “There is nothing to suggest that the beginning of this process will have any impact on the end of this process.” We can So be a little disappointed, but I don’t think it has any impact on the final result.”

There also seems to be an appetite for the end of the story. A recent Seattle Metro Chamber poll of registered voters shows that 56% would like to see the city work to bring back the Sonics and improve the Seattle Center. Only 26% of respondents disagreed.

Selle says the arena should be full on Friday and will be ready to reiterate that it can accommodate a full-time team. She says schedules have been reviewed and the internal programming team can complete the transition from hockey to basketball in a matter of hours. Selle says there are enough gaps in the schedule in the coming years. She says CPA holds nearly 300 events each year, including small corporate meetings, Storm, Kraken, concerts and special events.

“We meet NBA standards, modern NBA standards. We’re just waiting and preparing so that when that day comes, we’re ready to go,” she says.