Seattle, King County hear from public on arena proposal
Jul 20, 2012, 6:26 AM | Updated: 11:05 am
The Seattle and King County Councils teamed up to hear
from the public on a proposed arena in downtown Seattle on
Thursday.
More than 500 attended the hearing Thursday night.
Many voiced support for the NBA arena in SoDo.
“It was in many ways remarkable to just see how many
people shared this sense of community with the Sonics. It
was an overwhelmingly, and I don’t say this with bias,
although I’m biased, an overwhelmingly pro arena crowd. I
would say 75 to 85 percent,” said 710 ESPN host Mike Salk
who was in attendance.
“Look at the numbers. This is the best arena deal in the
country, unequivocally,” said one supporter.
“Give me the NBA. Give me the NHL. Give me major concerts.
Give me a facility that can host all these things. Let me
keep my money in the state where it belongs,” said
another.
The Port of Seattle is still voicing its concerns. Port
CEO Tay Yoshitani says the city shouldn’t take
this decision lightly.
“I don’t think anybody really understands the full nature
of the issues and the problems, we certainly don’t, and
we’d like to have that studied. I think that the stakes
are too high.”
The proposed $500 million facility would sit just south of
Safeco and CenturyLink fields.
The Port of Seattle contends an arena would derail their
traffic flow of trucks at the port and cost hundreds of
jobs and revenue for Seattle.
Miss the hearing Thursday night? Watch it here.
