Yay! the folks in Seattle and Washington seem to be holding to a firm NO building a new $500 million arena for the NBA.

But now it gets hard. Sonics owner Clay Bennett is looking hard at Las Vegas in addition to his hometown of Oklahoma City. Trouble there is that Vegas hasn’t bowed to David Stern’s demand for a ban on gambling on NBA games in local casinos. Which makes it look like Seattle is still in the mix — if they come around on the arena thing.

The big picture is that we’ll soon get a clear idea of just how much in demand a NBA franchise really might be.