updated 3:43 p.m. ET March 6, 2008

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer heads a group investors wanting to buy the Seattle SuperSonics and renovate KeyArena to keep the team in the city, the Seattle Times reported Thursday.

Ballmer and Deutsche Telekom chief John Stanton are joining Costco CEO Jim Sinegal and Seattle developer Matt Griffin in the latest effort to keep the Sonics in Seattle.

Under their plan, the group would buy the team and then pay half the $300 million proposed cost to renovate and expand the KeyArena, where the team plays its home games, the Times said.

Sonics owner Clay Bennett, whose hometown is Oklahoma City, has repeatedly stated that the team is not for sale. And the Washington Legislature doesn't seem warm to the idea of pushing through a funding bill when it begins session next week.

"They do the same thing every year. They come in at the last minute," House majority Leader Lynn Kessler told the paper. "I don't see it happening."

The plan does have the support of some who were critical of previous plans to keep the team. Anti-stadium activist Chris Van Dyk and Seattle City Council member Nick Licata both support the investors' plan.

On Tuesday, Oklahoma City residents passed a special sales tax to refurbish the Ford Center in hopes that the Sonics will move there.

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