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Friday, February 29, 2008

Sonics Deal?

posted by on February 29 at 12:49 PM

Sources in Olympia confirm that there may be a new Sonics deal in play.

Details are scarce, but apparently a super-rich local crew is interested in putting up a major chunk of change to renovate KeyArena—with the public picking up a much smaller portion of the $250 million KeyArena deal that failed in the legislature two years ago.

RSS icon Comments

1

Won't work if Bennett & Co. maintain ownership. ...Look forward to the details.

Posted by Fitz | February 29, 2008 12:54 PM
2

COOL! That's the best idea, by far.

Despite whining by the usual trolls - whether you like pro basketball or not, having an NBA team here is a positive thing for the city over all.

Posted by Mike in Pioneer Square | February 29, 2008 12:57 PM
3

"smaller portion"

How does $0 sound to you?

I'm good with that ...

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 29, 2008 12:58 PM
4

@1 is right. A Bennett-owned Sonics team will not stay in Seattle.

Posted by DOUG. | February 29, 2008 1:09 PM
5

@4 - so why is that bad?

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 29, 2008 1:09 PM
6

This should not be a negotiation. Spending public money to support a private business, especially one in which a bunch of millionaires work for a bunch of billionaires, should simply not be on the table.

BUILD YOUR OWN ARENA.

Posted by Fnarf | February 29, 2008 1:17 PM
7

Will, I'm sorry you were picked last for kickball.
-----
From writer Bill Simmons:

"Nobody has ever summed up being a sports fan better than the New Yorker's Roger Angell in his piece "Agincourt and After," in this passage about Carlton Fisk's famous home run in the 1975 World Series:

It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitive as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look -- I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring -- caring deeply and passionately, really caring -- which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete -- the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball -- seems a small price to pay for such a gift.
That's what this Seattle thing is about. It's about caring, and joy, and memories, and what a franchise can and should mean to a city and a fan base."

Posted by cw | February 29, 2008 1:17 PM
8

@3 Will I'm good with that amount too...

Don't they remember what the agreed to deal is? NO PUBLIC FINANCING for an uber rich guy's hobby.

@1 is right. Bennett is probably pi$$ed about this new deal. He thought he had smooth sailing out of Seattle.

I say let them leave.

Tear down Key Arena and make it a huge Central Park style area. We need more wide open green space in Seattle for kick ass open air concerts anyway.

Enough Already!

Let's bring the NHL over to the Eastside and forget about paying undeserving black guys to bounce a rubber ball. At least the NHL guys earn their much more modest paychecks!

Posted by Reality Check | February 29, 2008 1:20 PM
9

I second Reality Check's ideas - pro hockey players make professional b-ball players look like absolute pussies. Plus, they're generally better-behaved in their private lives.

Posted by Hernandez (former hockey player) | February 29, 2008 1:24 PM
10

@3 and @5 - Will: It's no surprise that you hate the Sonics, because you complain about everything else too.

@6 - Fnarf: A public/private partnership [i]is[/i] appropriate for a venture like this that brings people to into the city, to Seattle Center, and provides residual benefits to neighborhood businesses.

So you don't like sports? Big deal. I don't like baseball, but I recognize the value that a stadium like Safeco Field brings to the city.

That's what I want -- things that enhance our city, whether I participate in them or not.

Posted by Mike in Pioneer Square | February 29, 2008 1:27 PM
11

Yo, cw: I've read every word Roger Angell has ever published, and I don't recall seeing anything in there about public financing. You want it, great -- pay for it.

I want a new house, with about, hmm, 24,000 square feet, gotta be waterfront, with a big pool for the winter months. I contribute almost as much value to the city as a pro sports team -- why won't the city buy me a house?

Posted by Fnarf | February 29, 2008 1:30 PM
12

@11: Maybe because nobody gives a shit about you, but obviously tens of thousands care about the Sonics.

Posted by duh | February 29, 2008 1:37 PM
13

@7 - actually, I was one of my school's best kickball players - it was football I was picked last for. (grin)

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 29, 2008 1:37 PM
14

The rebuild of the Key Arena is going to destroy local businesses, not help them, because their goal is to supplant all the bars and restaurants outside that make money on game day.

In general, sports teams provide very little economic benefit to their cities, as has been proven in dozens and dozens of studies. There IS a benefit, a small one, about the same as a good-sized store. Nobody is proposing to build a state-of-the-art high-tech facility for any stores. The Sonics are not in the top 100 economic boosters in this city.

I DO like sports. I like a lot of things. I don't think those things that I like should get a free ride off the taxpayers, though. I don't expect free liquor, and I don't expect free sports stadiums -- especially when the money goes straight into the pockets of some of the richest people on earth. What percentile do you think Clay Bennett is in?

Posted by Fnarf | February 29, 2008 1:44 PM
15

i love the sonics. i hate spending public money for private business. balance...

well, i also hate the traffic snarls...

Posted by infrequent | February 29, 2008 2:04 PM
16

Yay! I'm happy for all the Sonics fans. I would love to have them stay...

... as long as not one dime of my motherfucking tax money goes to pay for their pimped out stadium.

Posted by Reverse Polarity | February 29, 2008 2:05 PM
17

Fnarf,

The seattle art museum or many other public/privately funded institutions (with massive tax breaks too) are not in the top 100 economic boosters either. It's a lame argument. The life and energy of city is important and sports are part of that experience.

I don't support a $500 million demand from a right wing a-hole either. I do support a $200 million renovation (50:50 public/private)...still costly, but I'm willing to pay for such entertainments.

Good luck getting that house built. Have you thought about a move to Oklahoma? They got some nice reservoirs in the region and flat land is plentiful.

To Reality Check, a heartful 'thank you' for the lovely sentiments about black people...you douchebag.

Posted by cw | February 29, 2008 2:14 PM
18

@14 - um, I do expect free liquor.

I rarely get it, but then, one can always hope.

I'm all for putting some public money into expanding the monorail to help them deal with traffic congestion, if need be. Just not one dollar for the stadium though (except maybe replacing the seats).

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 29, 2008 2:15 PM
19

they're gone. bennett didn't buy them to keep here. he bought them to take home to his hicktown.

remodeling the Key won't mean shit after tuesday when OK City votes to tax themselves to update a 5 year old arena.

Posted by max solomon | February 29, 2008 2:15 PM
20

Sweet, so you moving with them, max or cw?

If not, you're not very loyal ...

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 29, 2008 2:18 PM
21

There are perfectly good (in fact, very good) NBA arenas that were build with private money (e.g. in Denver and Minneapolis) there's no reason not to insist on the same in Seattle, or just let the team leave.

Posted by JMR | February 29, 2008 2:49 PM
22

Kevin Durant in OKC, LeBron in Cleveland, the San Antonio Spurs are your dynasty, no wonder the NBA is fucked. David Stern got the NBA out of it's late 70's early 80's coke haze, but it aint gonna work this time. You need a new commish and get a star player in Chicago for fucks sake, oh wait, shit for brains John Paxon is running the team.

Posted by Nat Cur Vag | February 29, 2008 3:19 PM
23

@17,

Those institutions aren't owned by billionaires and don't pay their employees millions of dollars.

Posted by keshmeshi | February 29, 2008 3:28 PM
24

@ 20:

will, so you're saying i'm not "loyal" to the sonics because i can read the writing on the wall? this has been a done deal since the day schultz sold us out. you don't overpay by $100 million to let a 3-year lease stand in your way. the city is making it difficult on Bennett mostly for sport.

the sonics are my favorite local team. this is heartbreaking, but we will survive. being a cynic doesn't mean i'm wrong.

Posted by max solomon | February 29, 2008 3:32 PM
25

Unless "much smaller portion" equals zero, I'm not interested.

Posted by Ryan | February 29, 2008 4:09 PM
26

Umm, the financing for the renovation is not for the millionaire players. It's for the fans. Especially the fans who foot the tax bill for an opera house, a symphony hall, an art museum, 1% for art projects, and a host of other amenities that a wealthy community provides for its citizens, whether wealthy or poor. Which do you suppose more working-class Seattleites follow, the Sonics or the Ring Cycle?

As another example, I would much rather have tax money spent fixing up Key Arena than building the Galer Street overpass for the use of one corporation, Amgen.

If OK City votes down the sales tax, it would not be the worst crime against humanity to put some money into a publicly owned multipurpose stadium (especially if it leverages the investment of private funds) that will have a lot more open space for concerts, etc., after the T-Birds move to their new home in Kent.

Or could house the Blazers if Paul Allen decides to move them up here.

Posted by kk | February 29, 2008 4:25 PM
27

@26,

Fine. Then let's have all sports teams owned by nonprofit corporations. As long as team owners are raking in profits, they don't have any business begging the taxpayers for money.

Posted by keshmeshi | February 29, 2008 4:45 PM
28

keshmeshi @27: Don't forget to tear down Amgen's Galer Street overpass. And why is it that Boeing gets to use Paine Field, but not general commercial aviation? Taxpayer-funded logging roads benefit Weyerhaeuser. Private cruise ships use the Port's terminals that were funded with tax dollars. Private charter companies use the Chittenden Locks for free. And they all make--shudder--profits.

But as long as an enterprise is so expensive and unpopular, such as opera or the symphony, that it can't generate a profit, well, then, I guess it's ok to force working-class folks support it with their sales taxes.

Makes sense to me!

Posted by kk | February 29, 2008 5:01 PM
29

This only works if the team ownership changes hands. As far as I'm concerned, they've got one foot out the door until this happens, no matter what anyone says.

Posted by Gomez | February 29, 2008 5:56 PM
30

I hereby second the "not one dime" comments.

A multi-billion-dollar industry does not need taxpayer subsidies, especially given all the studies that show that they add almost no jobs and almost no money to the local economy.

Posted by supergp | February 29, 2008 7:05 PM
31

"Anyway, as soon as the third quarter ends for one of Seattle's upcoming home games, the Sonics fans should simply leave their seats and walk onto the court. Don't be violent, don't antagonize anyone ... just walk onto the court en masse, and as soon as the court is filled with people, start chanting, "SAVE OUR SONICS!" for 10 minutes straight. Assuming you had 3,000-4,000 people stroll onto the court, there's no possible way they could arrest everyone, and if they called the game, who cares? You were probably losing the game, anyway. The crucial thing to remember is that it should be done as nonaggressively as possible; the rest of the nation won't be sympathetic to your cause if you act like jerks. And you shouldn't chant anything like "BENNETT SUCKS!" or "STERN SUCKS!" You want everything to be as simple and benevolent as possible."
-bill simmons

who's in?

Posted by mark | March 1, 2008 3:05 PM

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