Wasn't it Hansen's call to build it in Seattle? He's the force behind this whole thing, and the guy who's writing the check. Doesn't sound like he even considered Bellevue.

If these Bellevue developers were the slightest bit enterprising, they could have approached the Bellevue city council with their own plan long ago. Did they?

I really don't know why all these cities like Bellevue, Kent and so on stay as part of King County.

The KC Council did absolutely zero except rubber stamp plans to cram yet another traffic obstacle in downtown Seattle when the arena belongs any place but.

It's bad enough having a state Government that doesn't serve the 5.4 million who aren't in Seattle, but why should we subject ourselves to an extraneous layer that does things not in the exurbs best interests.

"KeyArena—already on the downslide toward the end of its 25 to 30 year lifespan—is doomed regardless"

Wait a minute: the Key Arena was (re)built in 1995, making it 17 years old. And that puts it on the downslide towards the end of its life? That is an interesting way of reframing - basically, anything that is past the half-way mark of its planned lifespan is on the downslide, and thus doomed? Way to round up! We might as well call these buildings "disposable arenas", just like disposable cups and plates.

Good thing we don't yet think that way about people... There's just something disturbingly short sighted and unsustainable about this kind of growth.

@2 - If you've got a better way for your suburb to include public transportation, expand its police force, and provide basic services to all its unincorporated neighbors (just for starters)—all funded in large part more economically dense parts of the region, I'm sure the city council would be interested in hearing about it.

Bellevue developers: Stop pouting. Just because your older brother gets a car doesn't mean your parents love you any less.

Nothing has stopped them from presenting their own plan over the past 4 years except the fact that they don't have a plan.
The endless rumors over the past two years that "anytime" they were going to roll out their big plan amounted to nothing.
The fact is that they would have required more than backing bonds, they needed actual public cash subsidy, and they fucking know it.

@ 2 - Nobody cares about your babbling ruminations, Bailo.

In the unlikely event that the Eastside ever gets a team, I hope Seattle will sue to prevent them from using "Seattle" in the name. No one gives a shit where "Bellevue" is at a national level. Fuck, "Tacoma" is a punch-line for not being Seattle.

@2 Put a loaded gun in your mouth and pull the trigger.

@3 Like it or not, the average useful life of a sports and entertainment arena is about 30 years. So yeah, the region is likely to to start building a new arena within a decade or so, regardless of what happens in Sodo.

Oh, and since the NBA has already deemed Key unfit as permanent home, there's no way we get a team without a new arena. (And Key was never fit for the NHL.)

Bellevue deserves to host pro sports. They deserve an arena boondoggle. It's a marriage made in heaven. Let Bellevue Republicans enrich pro sports team owners with their tax money, if that makes them happy.

Seattle has suffered enough, been ripped off enough. When can we unload some of this kind of shit on the suburbs?

@10 The problem is, it would be OUR tax money. It would be a countywide tax like that used to finance the stadia, which means the bulk of it would be paid in Seattle.

That's why an Eastside arena would be such a sweet deal for Eastsiders. They would get to steal the business away from Seattle, and we'd largely pay for the privilege.

Goldy, are you saying Bellevue doesn't have a city government with taxes that could issue bonds ? Just replace all places that say Seattle with Bellevue in Hansen's MOU and change some of the locations specified and you've got a Bellevue arena deal with Bellevue bonds funding 90% of an NBA-only position.

Wow, so they're hypocrites in Bellevue! Film at 11! Now, Goldy, how about the hypocrisy of the phony "progressives" of Seattle who are going to give a billionaire and his bondholders a $350 million kiss with taxpayer money?

Ah, forget that! You're a "progressive," and therefore you are Good! Or was that "we are Christians, and therefore God is on our side?"

Will you please not use the word "monies"? It's stupid and pretentious. What does it mean that "money" does not?
Thank you.

The word on the Eastside from years back was that certain developers desired to build a stadium for minor league hockey in Bellevue, with snagging an NBA team a desired but idealistic goal.

The talk was that the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Bellevue was the desired spot for such a project (which would make sense, as I think Eastlink light rail would pass by it), but something centered around Meydenbauer Center was also considered as a fallback option. (Which would have made the delays on I-405 during game nights/late afternoons even more interesting.)

But that was just talk.

...While Goldy picks a side in developer on developer action.

BTW Goldy, the county vote was 6-3. Only two votes going the other way will kill the whole deal. Guess what?

I'm SHOCKED that developers -- whether from Bellevue, Seattle or Walla Walla -- would talk about the "public interest" when they mean their own interests.

Thanks for the breaking news, Goldy.