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Push For NBA Team Met with Opposition

New SODO Basketball Arena Sparks Public Debate

by Alyxandra Goodwin on Jul 09, 2012
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With the Oklahoma City Thunder—formerly the Seattle Supersonics—making it to the NBA finals just four years after leaving Seattle, Emerald City basketball fans are hungry for a team to call their own, but that won't come with out a fight.

After rallies and public battles on both sides of the arena debate, a public hearing scheduled for July 19 at Seattle City Hall should be a lively affair.

A memorandum of understanding singed by Seattle officials would provide $120 million for construction of an arena in the SODO neighborhood if investors can find an NBA team interested in playing in the city. Under the deal, King County would contribute an additional $80 million if a NBA and NHL team moved to Seattle, and $5 million if there is no NHL team, according to a report in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

A public rally in June in support of bringing an NBA team back to Seattle brought thousands of people to downtown Seattle and a capacity turnout at the July 19 meeting is likely.

“I don’t foresee getting over it anytime soon, unless we get a guarantee of a team coming back here," Adam Brown, producer of a documentary about the basketball team's departure, recently told ESPN. "The team was here for 41 years and they’ve only been gone for four, so maybe talk to me in another 37 years and I’ll start getting over it”

Paul Merrill, one of the founders of the SuperSonic Soul blog, told ESPN that it’s like rooting for your ex-girlfriend to do better than you.

Nuemos, a popular Seattle venue and supporter of the new arena, recently posted an article on it's website encouraging support and highlighting that the cost to property owners for a new arena would only be $2.50 a year.

Opposition is arriving from a variety of organizations, including the Pacific Merchant Shipping Associations, which wrote an open letter to Mayor Mike McGinn against the MOU.

"The MOU presumes the arena will be constructed in SoDo without first carefully considering alternative locations and mitigation of reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts," wrote Robert B. Spitzer, on behalf of the PMSA.

The July 19 meeting begins at 5:30 per in the Bertha Knight Landes Room in City Hall.

More info:
http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/4861/how-long-should-fans-stew-over-lost-teams

http://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/Sodo-arena-would-push-up-everyone-s-property-taxes-3617027.php



by Alyxandra Goodwin on Jul 09, 2012
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