Some still eager for NBA arena on the Eastside

The Port of Seattle is unhappy with arena plans which could make it the
perfect time to chime in with a reminder that the Eastside might be ready
to welcome an NBA/NHL arena.

Peter Steinbrueck is a former Seattle City Councilman-now architect
and land use expert who helped pass an ordinance in 2000 to create a
“stadium transition overlay district.”

Steinbrueck said the district was designed to create pedestrian
connections and maintain separation of commercial and industrial
development. But, the proposed arena would likely violate the ordinance
and put area development in “non-compliance” with both city and county
policies.

Aaron Pickus, spokesman for Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, who supports
the arena proposal, said in a statement that putting the facility in SoDo is
“legal and appropriate.”

Steinbrueck’s argument for an Eastside facility during a meeting with
King County Council on Tuesday was supplemented by census data.
“Sixty percent of the fans are from the Eastside. Most of the growth in
[King] County is on the Eastside, far less in Seattle. Most of the traffic
will be east-west coming to this new facility. Does it really make sense
that it’s located in Seattle?” he asked.

Patrick Bannon, the Bellevue Downtown Association’s vice president of
communications, pointed out during a meeting in February that Bellevue
had been a part of the big picture in 2006 when Clay Bennett purchased
the Seattle SuperSonics and was looking for properties to build a new
arena.

Still, investor Chris Hansen is discussing plans to move forward in SoDo,
where he has already purchased land, despite discord from the Port of
Seattle.

Port of Seattle Commissioner Tom Albro told the King County Council on
Tuesday that a third stadium would cost jobs unless a lot of money is
spent mitigating the impact of a new facility. Albro said he’s not opposed
to bringing the NBA back to Seattle, but other locations should be
considered.

“Basketball, good. That siting, without massive mitigation, bad,” Albro
said. “Siting an arena there is a job killer for us.”

County Councilman Larry Gossett pushed back against Albro’s claim
that a new SoDo arena could hurt employment.

“I don’t know how you can already be able to make that prediction, when
in fact traffic mitigation has already been looked at by the city … nothing
remotely suggests that the building of a stadium in SoDo would be
massively bad for our community,” Gossett said.

As concerns arose during the meeting, Hansen was asked if he’d be
willing to put the arena to a public vote. That is why, Hansen said, the
public has appointed the county and city councils to their positions.
“Government would be dysfunctional if it required a public vote to get
every single ordinance that attempted to be passed.”

Hansen hopes arena supporters, many of whom are SuperSonics fans,
don’t become disillusioned if it ends up taking five to seven years for pro
basketball to return if his current arena proposal is approved by
local lawmakers.

It’s important to Hansen that those fans will be able to attend games as
soon as the arena is ready and a team is ready to call it home. “Where I
grew up it’s important to me that people from my neighborhoods can
afford to go to the games. I think it’s important to the players. They want
the real fans closer to the action, not stuffed up in a handful of 300 level
seats.”

Hansen has proposed building a nearly $500 million arena
just south of Safeco and CenturyLink fields. The plan calls for nearly
$300 million in private investment from
Hansen’s group. The amount of public support would be $200 million if
an NBA and NHL franchise moved here.