First concepts of Seattle’s new arena released

Chris Hansen’s investment team has released the first images of what the new sports arena in the SoDo neighborhood could look like.

The images don’t depict a specific design for Seattle, but are the design plans for a typical sports arena.

“This graphic depicts a prototypical design of a multi-purpose sports arena. It is intended to display functions, spaces and circulation within a prototypical arena building. It does not represent a design for plan for the proposed Seattle Arena.”

While that’s not as exciting as looking at images with Sonics banners and ‘Squatch’s Seat’ on them, there are a few big ideas obviously being discussed.

For instance, we get to see what the neighborhood would look like with the addition of the arena. It’ll sit on the corner of 1st Ave. S. and S. Holgate St. and covers about two city blocks. It appears it’ll take out at least six existing buildings.

Three of the four example arenas, American Airlines Arena in Miami, AT&T Center in San Antonio, FedEx Forum in Memphis, and the Rose Garden in Portland, include practice facilities. The footprint in the SoDo images also appears to make room for a practice facility.

The images also depict options for switching an NBA court over to an NHL rink, and then into a concert floor.

While the images aren’t earth-shattering, it sure is fun to dream.