At a time the Seattle SuperSonics are coping with the fact they lost $17 million this past season, the organization laid off six of its employees Friday morning.

The cost-cutting measure amounts to five percent of the team's 120-person staff, a stark contrast to the 88 layoffs the Portland Trail Blazers made last month, but a signal of financial concern nonetheless.

"Yes, cutting costs was the motivation behind the layoffs," Sonics spokeswoman Valerie O'Neal said. "But it also was a reorganization to align our work force with a new sales emphasis."

Though the Sonics say their ticket sales were flat for the 2002-03 season, clearly not as many people attended games for a year in which the Sonics had a losing record for the first time in 15 seasons.

During the 2001-02 season, the Sonics said, the team lost $10 million and had hoped to further lessen those costs this past season.

However, even after receiving a luxury tax payout from the league in excess of $15 million, several team sources said the franchise lost $17 million, at least half of which will be incurred by majority owner Howard Schultz.