Questions raised about Husky Stadium renovation in light of Seattle arena effort

While many critics of a
proposed new Seattle arena are vehemently opposed to the
use of any public money to help finance the project, the
Seattle Times’ Danny Westneat is raising some hackles by
suggesting in a new column
the renovation of Husky Stadium is a much bigger risk to
taxpayers.

“Imagine the public is asked to go into debt to
build a sports stadium. Imagine the institution borrowing
a quarter-billion dollars is one of our most cherished,
and has been hard-hit by the recession to boot.

Surely there would be eyebrows raised about this.
Hearings held, tough questions asked. At least a display
of the usual Seattle cranky skepticism?

Only there wasn’t. Scarcely anyone appears bothered
that this is happening right now just across town from
all the hullabaloo about the proposed basketball arena in
Sodo.

I’m talking about the $250 million remodel of Husky
Stadium at the University of Washington.”

While Westneat says he isn’t bashing Chris Hansen’s
arena deal, he does say it’s a conversation worth at least
bringing up. And 97.3 KIRO FM’s Luke Burbank agrees.

“They found $250 million to build this new
stadium. They have financed 80 percent of it and if
something goes south with the deal, if they can’t raise
the
money through ticket sales and the like afterwards, then
the UW, essentially all of us, the taxpayers of the state
of
Washington, will be on the hook for all this money. If
you
want to talk about a precarious deal that is more
precarious then the arena proposal,” says Burbank.

But vocal arena critic Dave Ross says in this case, the
UW can do whatever its leaders decide is best for the
school.

“The point is the UW went to the state and asked for
state financing and they were decisively turned down.
They asked for government financing of the same variety
Chris Hansen is asking for and the state turned them
down,” Ross says.

Ross argues UW regents can do whatever they deem most
appropriate for the school and can move money around to
cover any potential shortfalls that might come from the
Husky Stadium project. But Burbank says that money is no
different than the tax dollars requested for the Seattle
arena.

“They get a massive amount of public money and whether
they take that massive amount of public money and rejigger
it around within the UW, somehow they have to pay the
bill,” he argues.

By Josh Kerns, MyNorthwest.com