Oct 26, 2016 Chris Hansen has offered to forgo public financing to build a new arena in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood. The group also said it would cover the current funding gap to build an overpass over Lander Street, a project long desired by freight and industrial interests concerned about congestion in around the Port of Seattle. The offer is a surprising move in the nearly five-year debate over building a new arena. The letter unequivocally says the group is willing to build the arena "at no cost to the City or the County," a change from the original proposal which called for the city and county to back about $200 million in bonds to fund construction. The group concedes in the letter that "the economic landscape has changed" since it agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding with the city in 2012: "The recession is behind us and we are deep into this new economic cycle," the letter states. "Interest rates have declined and the NBA has completed its new national television contract, creating more financial certainty in the industry. "These considerations lead us to suggest a new proposal. Our goal has always been to return the NBA to Seattle and to build a new arena to make that possible. Our partnership with the City and County started five years ago was based on a recognition that private financing of a new arena in the prevailing economic conditions was not economically feasible. The goal of this partnership was to build the arena and bring an NBA team to Seattle. Public financing was simply a mechanism that made that possible at the time." Hansen's offer follows reports of the NBA considering expansion once they finalize their new collective bargaining agreement. http://basketball.realgm.com/wireta...-Build-Seattle-Arena-Without-Any-Public-Money
Oct 26, 2016 So new team? Or is a team just switching over to Seattle? So happy Warriors lost last night
Oct 26, 2016 I'm assuming expansion. Seems the NBA is more open to it now with the new TV money coming in.
Oct 27, 2016 Would love to see Seattle back in the league. When I first started watching NBA it was the first year without the Sonics but reading about how s--- went down was depressing as f---.
