1

Seattle Arena:

Deal or No Deal?

Supersonics Graffiti #1

By Blaine Fallstrom

Copyrighted by Blaine Fallstrom 2012

2

The issue of the proposed Seattle arena has dominated the headlines of local newspapers and television and radio programs for months. This ebook will look at the history of the NBA in Seattle, Chris Hansen’s proposal, the opponents of the arena, and the consequences of not building an arena. The Seattle City Council and King County Council are looking at both sides of the spectrum. A video of a town hall meeting can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/user/sonicsgate?feature=results_main . Building the Seattle arena will benefit everyone who enjoys sports, as well as those who enjoy concerts and first class entertainment. By letting Chris Hansen’s company ArenaCo borrow Seattle’s bonding capacity, taxpayers would own the arena and the land it sits on. It’s time to step up Seattleites and tell the city that you want basketball and hockey back, and not let this opportunity slip away.

Seattle Sonics Entrance

3

Sonics HistorySeattle was once known as a basketball crazy, Supersonic loving town. From their inaugural season in 1967, to when they acquired the great Lenny Wilkens in the ‘68-’69 season, then on to beating the Washington Bullets in the 1979 NBA Finals, the Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton era of the 90’s, and the drafting of the young and promising Kevin Durant before the team was relocated to Oklahoma City, Seattle has loved and supported their basketball team.

Supersonics Graffiti #3

eattle was also once a hockey town, way back when. In 1917 the Pacific Coast Hockey Association champion Seattle Metropolitans beat the National Hockey League champion Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup.

4

In 2006, Howard Schultz sold the Sonics to a group from Oklahoma City headed by Clay Bennett. The city didn’t want to build a new arena, instead they waited until the last minute to throw together a plan to renovate Key Arena, which was the smallest arena in the NBA and had no luxury boxes that are a requirement in this era. So, with an unsuccessful fight from then mayor Greg Nickels and Slade Gorton, among others, Clay Bennett and his group got their way and the Supersonics relocated to Oklahoma City and are now known as the Thunder. There has also been a movie, Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team, about the controversial move the team made. The movie can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/user/sonicsgate?feature=results_main .

Before moving to Oklahoma City, the Sonics drafted Russell Westbrook. Along with Kevin Durant, Westbrook led the Thunder to the 2012 NBA Finals, where they were defeated by the Miami Heat. Imagine what Seattle would have been like with the Finals in town. There would have been a boon for local businesses, and people from around the country would have flocked to the Emerald City. But it didn’t turn out that way. Let’s not bumble this opportunity to bring basketball back to Seattle.

Russell Westbrook vs. Celtics

5

The Proposal

Seattle Arena Agreement Announcement

Chris Hansen, a hedge fund manager in San Francisco who is originally from Seattle, has proposed an arena plan that is about as good as it gets when it comes to the costs he’s willing to pay. The proposal calls for city and county contributions of $125 million capped for an NBA franchise, and if an NHL franchise is also acquired then the contributions will go up to $200 million. This is only about 25 to 40 percent of what the arena will cost, which is estimated at $490 million. How much did the taxpayers pay for other stadiums and arenas in Seattle in the past? Taxpayers doled out 78 percent of the cost of the renovations to Key Arena, 70 percent of building CenturyLink Field, and 66 percent of building SafeCo Field. Not to mention the old Kingdome that is still being paid off, where taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the cost.

6

Arena Opposition

Proposed Seattle Arena Site

7

The site of the proposed arena, in the SoDo stadium district, is also a controversy. The Port of Seattle as well as the Mariners have expressed concerns about added traffic to the already problematic congestion in SoDo. The Port’s main concern is about the mobility of their freight through the crowded streets of SoDo. The construction of the Highway 99 tunnel definitely doesn’t help, but with its completion and other improvements in SoDo, traffic should be alleviated somewhat. The Mariners are also concerned about building another arena in such close quarters to SafeCo and CenturyLink. They too are worried about the traffic problems, but are also concerned with the scheduling of events and the problems it will create for parking. In order to try to lessen the concern of traffic, Chris Hansen paid $70,000 for a private traffic study to be done. The study concluded that while there will be traffic problems, for the most part it will be tolerable. The study also says that with improvements to the Link light rail, added parking, and road improvements would help to mitigate the traffic problems. As to the question of will traffic affect the livelihood of Port workers and transportation of freight, the study determined that the effect would be minimal. The fact is, that this location is perfect for an arena, it’s close to the light rail, downtown, and major highways.

Ship Canal Bridge Traffic in Seattle

8

Consequences of Not Building an Arena So what happens if the arena deal isn’t approved and it’s not built in Seattle? Well, taxpayers could be in for a rude awakening. If the arena never breaks ground in Seattle, taxpayers could be on the hook for at least a half million dollars for lawyers and consulting contracts for the proposed arena. That’s just one downside if the arena deal doesn’t get done. A Chicago investor who owns a minor-league hockey team, wants to build an arena in Bellevue, bring in an NHL team, and share the arena with an NBA team. This means that the fans won’t be spending their money in Seattle, instead they’ll be spending their money in Bellevue, and Bellevue’s businesses and economy would benefit, not Seattle.

9

ConclusionThis arena deal that has been proposed by Chris Hansen has some risk, but it comes with major reward. Sure, there will be traffic problems in SoDo, but there’s already traffic problems. Once the construction is complete, and roads and light rail are upgraded, these concerns will be alleviated. The community needs to get involved. Email elected officials and let them know that you want first class entertainment in your city. Like SonicsArena on Facebook and show your support, or follow them on Twitter to show that the masses of Seattle want this arena. Post a testimonial video on the SonicsArena YouTube page, and tell the world why Seattle deserves to have a sports and entertainment arena. Or, sign the petition on SonicsArena.com to show your support for the arena, then share the petition with all your friends on Facebook and Twitter. If this deal falls through, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves for not stepping up and letting our voices be heard.

Supersonics Graffiti #2

10

Works Cited Brewer, Jerry. “Arena proposal is game-changer that makes Seattle truly major league.”

SeattleTimes.com. 16 May 2012. Web. 5 July 2012. Computerguy890100. Ship Canal Bridge Traffic in Seattle. 3 October 2009. Fallstrom, Blaine. Supersonics Graffiti #1. 16 July 2012. Fallstrom, Blaine. Supersonics Graffiti #2. 17 July 2012. Fallstrom, Blaine. Supersonics Graffiti #3. 31 July 2012. Fallstrom, Blaine. Seattle Arena Proposed Site. 16 July 2012. Ferguson, Bob, and O’brien, Mike. “Arena Town Hall Meeting.” Seattle City Council.

Seattle, WA. 10 July 2012. Town Hall Meeting. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY9SxuEokqg>

Frisch, Aaron. The History of the Seattle Supersonics. Mankato: Creative Education, 2002.

Print. Hughes, John C. Slade Gorton, A Half Century in Politics. Washington: Washington State

Legacy Project, 2011. Print. Humbert, Jon. “Taxpayers stuck with research costs if arena deal fails?” komonews.com. 10

July 2012. 10 July 2012 Mayor McGinn. Seattle Arena Agreement Announcement. 4 April 2012. Peck, Mike. Seattle Sonics Entrance. 17 Dec 2004. Seattle Arena Multimodal Transportation Access and Parking Study. 23 May 2012. 1 Aug

2012. PDF file. Seattle Metros Logo. Before 1923. SonicsArena.com. Web. 18 July 2012. Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team. Dir. Jason Reid. Green and Gold Media, 2009. DVD. Stranger Staff. “Build a New Sonics Arena”. thestranger.com. 24 July 2012. 26 July 2012.

11

Associated Press. “New Seattle arena would be ‘job killer’.” mynorthwest.com. 19 June 2012. 7 July 2012 < http://mynorthwest.com/27/677703/Port-unions-voice-opposition-to-new-arena-

Associated Press. “Mariners oppose new arena.” msn.foxsports.com. 3 April 2012. 7 July 2012

<http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/Seattle-Mariners-say-new-arena-in-neighborhood-will-not-work-040312 >.

Wikipedia contributors. "Sonics Arena Proposal." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia,

The Free Encyclopedia, 31 Jul. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. Wikipedia contributors. "Lenny Wilkens." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The

Free Encyclopedia, 13 Jul. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. Wikipedia contributors. "Shawn Kemp." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The

Free Encyclopedia, 20 Jul. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. Wikipedia contributors. "Gary Payton." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free

Encyclopedia, 22 Jun. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. Wikipedia contributors. "Kevin Durant." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The

Free Encyclopedia, 29 Jul. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. Wikipedia contributors. "Seattle Metropolitans." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia,

The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Apr. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. Wikipedia contributors. "Howard Schultz." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The

Free Encyclopedia, 22 Jul. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012.

Wikipedia contributors. "Clayton Bennett." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 22 Jul. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012.

Wikipedia contributors. "Slade Gorton." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free

Encyclopedia, 29 Jul. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. Wikipedia contributors. "Russell Westbrook." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia,

The Free Encyclopedia, 26 Jul. 2012. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. Yzukerman. Russell Westbrook vs Celtics. 31 March 2010.

12