Seattle basketball arena (Bellevue, Renton: credit, loan, purchase)

[BellevueNative]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

Regardless, a Seattle franchise is going to have a hard time competing with big-market teams for revenues and payrolls.

I don't follow you. Seattle is a top 15 media market - the largest market without an NBA team. In terms of payroll ... Seattle's teams' owners are some of the wealthiest in sports. Payroll hasn't been a problem here (exception being the Mariners owners just not wanting to spend money that they have!). Our facilities are also very impressive (whether it's NFL, MLB or MLS). Did you see the renderings for the new arena? They're amazing, and there's nothing like it in the NBA or NHL.

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by DevanXL

I'm aware of that, but you stated they will have a hard time competing is what i'm wondering about.

I didn't

[DevanXL]

Originally Posted by Botev1912

I didn't

Whoops! Apparently I looked at the wrong comment and got the usernames confused. Guess thats what I get for using C-D while im sick!

[Bimmerfanboy]

Originally Posted by Ira500

People here are pretty apathetic to sports both at the professional and collegiate level (except for the Sounders I suppose).

The Seahawks? This town was absolutely insane last year. I'll admit that Seattle fans are fair weather fans, but the '95 Mariners? The 79 Sonics? This town was insane when the Sonics won the NBA title. And attendance was actually very good until Howard Schultz drove the team into the ground(running a coffee company successfully does make you a genius running an NBA team). Sure, Seattle deserves both an NBA team and an NHL team.
But I agree that mental health facilities should be a higher priority. But it doesn't work that way, anywhere. There aren't any billionaire mental health team owners who demand taxpayer subsidies. What would they say? If you don't build me a new mental health facility, I'm going to take all of my schizophrenics and paranoids, and move to Oklahoma?

The Seahawks craze was a craze and nothing more. The average person did not give a flip about the Seahawks until they became good. I'm already seeing things quiet down given how the Seahawks are a fringe Wild Card team this season. The diehards have always been there (like in every NFL city) but Seattle as a whole is filled with bandwagon fans.

In regards to the NHL, I see very little support for any form of organized ice hockey around here. Youth leagues are sparse, high school level teams are nearly non-existent, and you can get into UW Husky games almost for free. They play in a small rink and nobody goes to watch their games. I grew up in a couple midwestern states where it was the polar opposite.

Anyhow, even though I don't think Seattle deserves another team, I do think that financially it would make sense for the league. The Seattle metropolitan area is growing in both population and wealth and is a Top 15 media market. I also think the league had no business allowing a historic team like the Sonics to relocate. It's one thing if it's the Timberwolves, but moving a 40+ year old team with a championship is unacceptable IMO.

[Bimmerfanboy]

Originally Posted by Seattlephil

I just want hockey. Badly. But, luckily Canucks prices are way down so I can make a few games this season!

I love hockey too. Go Red Wings! The Canucks have some of the highest ticket prices in the league so I only attend games there every once in a blue moon. I haven't heard anything about their ticket prices decreasing. Where did you hear that?

[BellevueNative]

Originally Posted by Seatown1

In regards to the NHL, I see very little support for any form of organized ice hockey around here.

...except for the two WHL teams in the Seattle metro, the one WHL team in the Tri-Cities and the one WHL team in Spokane. And the WHL team in Portland, if you want to consider that city part of our NHL market.

[wutitiz]

Originally Posted by Seatown1;37316439,

I do think that financially it would make sense for the league. The Seattle metropolitan area is growing in both population and wealth and is a Top 15 media market. I also think the league had no business allowing a historic team like the Sonics to relocate. It's one thing if it's the Timberwolves, but moving a 40+ year old team with a championship is unacceptable IMO.

This is why I always say that the NBA needs Seattle more than Seattle needs the NBA. The Seattle area is really in a boom right now, and the league is missing out on it.
Seattle's sky is full of cranes (and we're not talking about birds) - Puget Sound Business Journal

With the move to OKC they traded the 14th largest market for the 45th. Hence when they finally try to bring a team back here, they league and/or team owners should pay for 100% of their stadium. And no back door subsidy where the tax revenue they generate goes into their pockets. Their tax revenue goes into city coffers, as with any other business. That's the price they pay in exchange for getting access to the rich Seattle market.

[Botev1912]

it's not how it works.

[elkotronics]

I don't follow you. Seattle is a top 15 media market - the largest market without an NBA team. In terms of payroll ... Seattle's teams' owners are some of the wealthiest in sports. Payroll hasn't been a problem here (exception being the Mariners owners just not wanting to spend money that they have!). Our facilities are also very impressive (whether it's NFL, MLB or MLS). Did you see the renderings for the new arena? They're amazing, and there's nothing like it in the NBA or NHL.

BellevueNative's got it right, here. Come on, NBA, David Stern, with your faraway look, did you have ta be so hardcore against Seattle and all it's hardcore fans like myself? Listening to David Stern talk NBA business is like talking to a poker hardcore in a smoky bar talk about poker. Only with David Stern he's so obviously deflecting the truth of the matter. Seattle's market being No.15, the Sonic's tenure as a NBA franchise being 40 years, and these guys are gonna bank the whole team off the corner felt and into the corner pocket and then hang up their cue stick and smile and say "good job, Clay Blockhead, you and you Oklahoma money is just what we needed here in this sad situation."

Just cover over the pool table with a decease blanket, pull life support and act like everything's fine. Ya know who had the best NBA basketball record overall in the 1990's? You guessed it, Seattle's Sonic's. This is not a small problem that only hardcores have to suffer through. This is a wronged city as far as NBA ball goes. Howard Schultz claims he was losing $15-$17 million a year. OK, that's pretty bad.

But when negotaions begin to try and save Seattle's team, slick money and lawyers shoot down in flames every idea that comes up. I'm talking the 2007-2008 timeframe now. David Stern bent over backwards to KJ and SAC ownership to help them, yet Seattle he felt he could discard like a Dick's Deluxe hamburger wrapper. This isn't over. Period.

[tifoso]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

[i]

But when negotaions begin to try and save Seattle's team, slick money and lawyers shoot down in flames every idea that comes up. I'm talking the 2007-2008 timeframe now. David Stern bent over backwards to KJ and SAC ownership to help them, yet Seattle he felt he could discard like a Dick's Deluxe hamburger wrapper. This isn't over. Period.

Not so sure about that, at least in the near term.

There are no existing teams for sale and the league has no firm plans for expansion. And the city isn't likely to allow construction if no team has been secured. Nor would it make any sense for Hansen to do so even if he had the go-ahead.

The question of whether the financial terms of Hansen's memorandum of understanding with the city meet the test of the city's voter-approved Initiative 91 is something that is in dispute and will almost certainly be litigated. The NBA certainly would love to be back in Seattle but it seems rather unlikely that they would commit to anything until that issue is resolved.

Meanwhile in Sacramento, despite Chris Hansen's underhanded attempts to derail it, they actually got an arena deal done instead of just talking about it; the project broke ground three weeks ago.