#“No major findings stand in the way of arena construction,” Mayor Ed Murray said of the Final Environmental Impact Statement recently released for the project — except for one glaring omission: public funding.
#Murray and Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess have said that the current memorandum of understanding (MOU) with hedge-fund planner Chris Hanson would need to be reworked, with significantly more private financing, to bring an NHL team here before an NBA team. But no matter the arrangement, Hanson would still need public dollars to help fund construction of an arena.
#The City of Tukwila is already in talks with a group of major NHL team investors that include former SuperSonics star Fred Brown, NBA legend Bill Russell and Bellevue architect Jerry Lee. They not only intend to bring a team to the Seattle area but to build an arena as well — all on their own dime and land, no less. A new stadium, which would also accommodate professional basketball games, could be built there by late 2017.
#In 2012, then-Mayor Mike McGinn rushed to approve an MOU, valid through November 2017, to bring an NBA team back to the city, even offering up KeyArena and its property in backroom dealings. Hanson quickly spent millions of dollars buying up property in the SODO neighborhood to site a new sports facility, counting on public funding to pay for the bulk of construction.
#However, Hanson’s initial overzealous push to bring an NBA franchise to Seattle first has only resulted in the NBA biding its time to just say, “No, thanks.”
#It’s time the City of Seattle also said the same. Seattleites aren’t likely to pay more than the price of a single ticket for a new sports arena, considering how many tax dollars they’ve already earmarked in the last year — for a parks district, improved bus service and preschools. Then there’s the $930 million transportation levy that may be on the November ballot, as well.
#The proposal for a new sports arena in Tukwila — only 15 minutes south of Seattle’s downtown core — is a win-win for Seattle sports fans and non-fans alike. Not only would we not need to pay for a stadium, we wouldn’t need to address the impending traffic issues that come with a third arena in an already-congested part of the city. And it would be built sooner than Hanson’s proposed facility.
#Whether Seattle or Tukwila would be part of the teams’ names is up for debate, but this development is something we should cheer on.