In just the past few days a plan has been put forth for a brand new NBA/NHL arena in downtown Seattle. The arena would be funded by private investors mainly, but also a huge chunk coming from taxes generated by the arena. This all started thanks to the efforts of one Chris Hansen, who grew up in Seattle. The arena would be located south of the Safeco Field parking garage. The Seattle Mariners organization expressed concern that it would cause traffic and parking problems, but when the Sonics were here, they hardly ever played at the same time as the Mariners as they only shared ½ of a month (first half of April). But the biggest concern is getting both NBA and NHL teams to call it home, because many feel, myself included, that the arena would not be profitable unless we got both.
Getting just one team won’t be easy, let alone two. The most likely candidates are the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. The Kings face a March 1 deadline for their arena proposal, and if nothing adequate is put forth, the team will consider relocation. But I still see the city of Sacramento holding onto them, given their passionate and loyal fans, and seeing as that city has just one professional sports team to begin with. Worst case scenario, I see the Kings moving to Anaheim, giving the Los Angeles metropolitan area three NBA teams. However, I can see the Phoenix Coyotes coming to Seattle pretty easily. There is very little passion for hockey in the entire state of Arizona, and seeing how we embraced the Sounders, we would certainly embrace a hockey team as well. If we somehow got an NBA team, I think then getting an NHL team, most likely the Coyotes, would be fairly easy, so long as the centerpiece in all of this, Chris Hansen, gets a partner to acquire an NHL team.
There were a few reasons the Sonics left. The one used most often by the ownership group lead by Clay Bennett was that Key Arena was no longer suitable as an NBA arena. Now that a plan is in place, if an arena gets built, it will obviously be capable of housing multiple teams, hosting concerts and events (such as graduations) and more. Proving to teams that our arena would be up to standards would not be difficult at all. Proving to teams that we have the fanbase to support the teams shouldn’t be a problem either.
But the one big problem is acquiring two teams, one from each league. Expansion teams are almost out of the question, given the poor state of the NBA (which is closer to contraction than expansion) and the somewhat abysmal American following of the NHL. If we can’t get the Kings, who can we get? The Hornets? New Orleans has already lost one team in its history (the Jazz). All I can say is that it won’t be easy. But part one is done. We’re taking this one step at a time, but now it is time to start on part two. We’ll just have to see if the Kings will relocate. If not, it could be a long time before we see men’s professional basketball again in Seattle.
