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Monday, September 10, 2012

City Sources: Council Reaches Deal on Sonics Arena

Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 10:10 PM

There's big news coming from the Seattle City Council in the morning about the deadlocked proposal for a sports arena in Sodo, according to sources familiar with the arrangement. The council has hammered out a tentative agreement with investor Chris Hansen, who wants to build a new basketball and hockey facility and bring the Sonics back to Seattle.

As originally proposed by Hansen and Mayor Mike McGinn, and initially approved by the King County Council, the project's total estimated cost is $490 million. The city and county contributions would be capped at $125 million with an NBA team (or $200 million if an NHL team is also acquired). However, several city council members had expressed concerns about the financing arrangements—with Council Member Richard Conlin suggesting in June that the deal was dead. The arrangement always provided that the city would fully recoup its investment without a tax on the general public, but still, council members have sought to redraft terms with Hansen to include more robust protections for the city's investment.

Finalizing the deal will require a majority vote of both the city and county councils. Stay tuned.

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Comments (14) RSS

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All hail Chris Hansen. And thanks to Goldy, Dominic, he unpaid intern and The Stranger for your unparalleled coverage. Super Sonic!!! Super Sonic!!!

Posted by Slog Tipper David on September 10, 2012 at 10:22 PM

Thanks for this - the Times has some detail. http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2…

Posted by gloomy gus on September 10, 2012 at 10:22 PM

Thank you Chris Hansen and Mayor McGinn. Any council members who vote against this are on my shitlist come November.

Posted by Gern Blanston on September 10, 2012 at 10:31 PM

Is David Stern dead yet?

Posted by DOUG.

on September 10, 2012 at 10:39 PM

I'll be making a call against this tax payer support sports palace. The FOURTH in the city. No way No way. Those that voted for this are on my shit list. If Millionaires want to build palaces and pay their employees millions go right ahead be my guest, but not one penny of mine allowed.

Tuesday I call the city council and say NO.

Posted by Sargon Bighorn on September 10, 2012 at 10:53 PM

Chris Hansen puts me in mind of Donny Wright.

Posted by rob!

on September 10, 2012 at 10:57 PM

Now it's time to unleash Steve Ballmer on the Maloofs and scare them into selling.

Posted by Chali2Na on September 10, 2012 at 11:17 PM

$120 million, not $125 million.
The Stranger regrets the error.

Posted by pkbrown on September 10, 2012 at 11:31 PM

Finally, people in power give something to bros who are into pro sportz.

Posted by raku on September 10, 2012 at 11:42 PM

@3 - yeah! How dare they negotiate a really good deal for the city. Instead we need to get rid of them so we can get council members who negotiate extra shitty deals, that'll be much better.

Posted by Bax on September 11, 2012 at 6:07 AM

Thank god we can blow our bonding capacity on a play ground for even more over-paid steroid ridden man-children!! I mean we sure as hell don't want to use that bonding capacity for stupid crap like replacing an aging bus fleet, repairing streets, adding real bike lanes, improving other areas of public need or making sure we can pay for the upcoming cost overruns of the tunnel for highway 99.

No, really...this is where our priorities should be at. That and providing a few temporary decent paying construction jobs (an admitted good) only to be replaced by hot dog vendors.

Brilliant move!!

Bring it up for a public vote!!

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on September 11, 2012 at 7:09 AM

A basketball stadium is better than:

bus system, roads, schooling, economic development programs, rent controlled housing, healthcare, drug rehab, city beautification, tourism promotion, government bureaucracy improvement or police/fire training and hiring

People in this city are so incredibly full of shit. You couldn't even fill the stands at the last sonics games, and now you're going to bend over to the tune of $140 to $200 million for them? Seattle is so insanely ass backwards for such a big city, it's disgusting.

Yet another reason to move to Portland.

Posted by caltrop_head on September 11, 2012 at 9:05 AM