In case you were wondering what’s up with Chris Hansen’s Seattle arena plans, the Seattle Times’ Geoff Baker had an article yesterday confirming that nothing is happening anytime soon. In short:
- The final environmental impact study isn’t due until February, then there will be appeals, then the city council will need to vote on it. By the time all this is done, it will likely be 2016.
- Not that that matters much, because Hansen won’t start building until he has a team, and he doesn’t have one. Conceivably the Milwaukee Bucks might become available if they can’t get their arena demands met in Wisconsin, but as Baker notes, “that’s theoretical.” An NHL team is more likely, but the current arena deal requires basketball, and neither Hansen nor Seattle Mayor Ed Murray seems excited about changing it to be hockey-first.
In other words, same as it ever was. But bookmark this for the next time sportswriters speculate about any number of teams relocating to Seattle.
I seem to remember a whole bunch of Seattle folks who were claiming that their arena was shovel-ready and ready to go, while Sacramento was just a pipe dream that would never see site demolition, much less actual construction.
Good times.
Hockey first makes way more sense than basketball first just from a construction/logistics standpoint. An area designed around NHL hockey is guaranteed to have an acceptable capacity for an NBA team. An arena designed around an NBA team is not guaranteed to have an acceptable capacity for and NHL team. Just look at Barclay’s Center: 17,732 for the Nets and 15,795 for the Islanders (starting next year). That’s tiny for hockey considering it’s the biggest city in the country.
Baker’s timeline could be accurate but the appeals process doesn’t necessarily mean they would hold up construction. The requirement is the final EIS results which after delivered, will take 4 to 6 weeks of public input. Assuming no red flags, (which the preliminary EIS did not have) this should be a rubber stamp. But…to get any funding from the city, they need an NBA team. What is not clear is if an NBA team is required for building and is the county still on the hook for the 75M if the NHL team comes first. (City puts up 125M in public financing for NBA and county puts up 75M for NHL).
Can someone explain to me where this Hansen guy was when the NBA was trying to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City? Why didn’t he buy the team and build this arena?
@Tom Larue
I always wondered the same thing myself but found out that Hansen didn’t start up his company, Valiant Capital, until after the Sonics were sold. Not sure what his worth was before that or if he had enough to at least buy a minority of the team along with others but it seems as though he didn’t become a billionaire until Valiant started up.
JB, under 5 – Financing, Section C, there’s an NBA and NHL scenario and an NBA only scenario. The county has no agreement to provide money if NHL only.
www.seattle.gov/council/attachments/2012arena/20121008ila.pdf
Tom, the NBA was grandstanding for a new stadium before the paint was dry on a heavily remodeled KeyArena (which has a Barclay’s-type hockey layout, thanks to the old Sonics owner demanding more seats by lowering the floor). It wore thin and Ballmer was very, very late to the game. Clay even fooled Sonicsgate folks that the ownership was genuine in his attempt to keep the team in Seattle and had them rally around his efforts, which were even more ridiculous than Schultz. Ballmer made a last-ditch overture to Clay, but owning a team was Clay’s long ambition, not flipping it.