KeyArena also a loser in NBA rejection of Seattle move
May 1, 2013, 3:29 PM | Updated: 3:57 pm
Chris Hansen isn’t the only loser if he doesn’t land an NBA team. The investor had agreed with the City of Seattle to invest millions in fixing up KeyArena if the Sonics returned.
The Seattle City Council was set to consider Wednesday the deal between Hansen and the city that called for him to operate KeyArena, pay at least $3 million for improvements and another $2 million a year in rent while a new arena was built in SoDo.
At a briefing on the proposal, councilmembers and officials agreed that it likely won’t happen now that the NBA’s relocation committee has voted unanimously to block the Sacramento Kings proposed move to Seattle.
While KeyArena has been working with Hansen’s group, Seattle Center Director Robert Nellams told the council they’ve continued to book events in case an NBA team didn’t materialize.
“We’re still holding dates for an NBA season,” Nellams said. “But we’re working where anytime an event comes to where we can challenge the date and say that we might need that, we’ve worked with the Hansen group to release that and book the event.”
The financial situation is far more stable for KeyArena than in the immediate aftermath of the Sonics departure. When the team left in 2008, the number of events plummeted from 170 to just 84 the following year, according to Nellams.
However, business has slowly returned. While KeyArena faced a $1.2 million deficit, the city-owned facility broke even the following year, and has made money each of the past three years. The arena is expected to net a $700,000 profit in 2013, according to Nellams, with 130 events booked.
Still, the apparent failure to bring the NBA back to Seattle for at least the immediate future will take a little toll on the bottom line.
“We won’t have the ability to raise the sponsorship dollars that we would have had if we had been the only game in town and been looked at as the only game in town,” Nellams said.
The Puget Sound Business Journal reported Tuesday Hansen still wanted to negotiate a deal to manage KeyArena despite the NBA vote. But there was no discussion of that at Wednesday’s briefing.
