November 30, 2006

Sonics: What the 49ers said

The Seattle Sonics are reportedly focusing their arena efforts on a site in suburban Bellevue - one whose main property holder is Cushman and Wakefield, the realty company in charge of searching out arena sites for the team. Gosh, don't know how that could have happened.

As for who would pay for this beast, Sonics owner Clay Bennett isn't talking, beyond saying he hopes to have a "preliminary economic model" done by the end of the year and that it would involve a "significant public investment." Whether Washington state legislators will be more eager to throw money at a sports team than Seattle voters remains to be seen; it's certainly happened before, though.

Meanwhile, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels threw a twist into the arena debate by announcing that if the legislature gives money to the Sonics for a suburban arena, he'll demand money to rehab KeyArena to keep it "viable" and "financially solvent." Which makes sense, except that it's almost inconceivable that Seattle and Bellevue could find enough events to support two arenas in the same metro area - Minneapolis-St. Paul, which is basically the same size, had to dynamite its Met Center once the Target Center opened, to ensure one of them could be viable. So the state of Washington would be paying twice, to build two arenas, neither of which would be a benefit to taxpayers (beyond, presumably, assuring that the Sonics didn't move to Oklahoma). Two wrongs may sound equitable, but that doesn't make them, you know.