I hope Licata and the task force will look into another potential revenue source for Key Arena: allowing concertgoers to take beer/booze to their seats. Why is this only allowed at sporting events?

The council AND the Sonics need a reality check on this. First, 2004-2005 was one of the best non-Sonics evet booking years for Key Arena ever. Some months have been at near saturation with Sonics, T-Birds, Concerts like Gwen Stafani, U2, The Stones, Prince, System of a Down, and events like Disney on Ice, etc. And yet the Key is still losing the City millions per year.

Some things to consider. A major concert has load in and load out. It is not a one day event, even though that is what the public sees. so we can't fill every off day without the Sonics with a major concert. And you can't just go out and manufacture tours like the ones we have seen recently. It is not often bands that can sell 13,000 tickets tour, and rarely will we ever see touring seasons like the last one. The Stones, U2, Prince, don't tour often. And boxing?? That is just unrealistic. Boxing happens in two places - Vegas and Atlantic City. There is not even a boxing promoter in Washing State who could put on an event to fill the Key. Theatrical productions?? Extreme sports? There is a reason these things are not in the Key now, it is because (a) they are not large enough and (b) it is nearly impossible to work around the Sonics and Storm schedules.

I agree with Licata's conclusion that we might not want to retain the Sonics at the Key. But let's think of better things to do with it than extreme sports and boxing.

What we know is that the State probably won't give the Sonics $200 million, and that there is little to no political will to spend more tax dollars supporting professional sports now that we know the economic impact of a pro-sports franchise is zero to negative for a city. To ask taxpayers subsidise a team owned by one of the richest men in the world who pays it's workers millions a year so they can take their money and spend it elsewhere makes little sense.

What we need is a serious conversation about what The Key and Seattle Center look like without The Sonics.

Seattle has several strengths. A few of them - music, technology and film, are begging to be brought together in a unique way. The governor has stated she wants film to be developed as an economic driver in the state. These three industries have massive crossover potential that could be made to happen in Seattle.

If the Sonics left the Key, we should use the space to make a massive film, music & tecnology center. The main part of the building could still be used for concerts, but made to be scalable. There are very few concerts that will fill the whole Key. 80% of concerts in the US are attended by under 7,500 people. What Seattle is lacking is a quality 3,000-7,500 capacity venue. Those sized concerts aren't coming to the City, they are going to Everett and Tacoma. Let's build a scalable venue that will attract those concerts AND the large ones. Then let's build a soundstage for recording major film scores with the Symphony. Austin has done this and it has attracted a lot of work in film and music. The Seattle Symphony is already the 3rd largest scorer of films in the world. Let's be #1. Then let's create office space for film, music and technology companies. Cheap space for new companies. A sort of incubator for these businesses. Let's move Sub Pop there, KEXP, The Recording Academy, etc, etc. The business development that will come out of this would be huge. And the money it generates would create local jobs with good salaries and new local businesses, not multimillionaire ball players who leave town after the season. The music industry is already one of the largest industries in Seattle driving over $1.3 billion in economic activity per year. That number could be tripled. The same with film, and obviously the tech side of the equation could be massive.

This type of project would better fit Seattle Center's mission. It would cost much less money, drive private investment, create jobs, and increase use of the Center year round. Beyond that it could be a legacy project for The Mayor and Council. Seattle's Millenium Park so to speak. Something historic and unique to Seattle.

or we could just bring Arena Football to the Key. That would be thinking big, wouldn't it?

i've got a basketball jones and to all you peckerheads (incl. Licata) that don't wanna keep the sonics in town:

practice bending over, beeahhtches, cuz the sonics ain't goin' nowhere. word.

p.s. - mr. howard schultz (sp?) may be satan, but the NBA is the promised game