Comments

1
And little boys must have their toys.

I'm glad to know that a new sports team and arena are at the top of the to-do list for McGinn and Constantine. Priorities, kids.
2
Hell yes, great article, bring back MY SONICS!!!
3
This doesn't cost the tax payers anything and will add immeasurable to the city economically and socially. And the arena deal is groundbreaking, the way of the future. For comparison go check out what the good people of Minnesota just got stuck with in order to keep their beloved Vikings. Be gone, haters that don't enjoy basketball, find another thread to complain on. This is a great story.
4
What a fucking puff piece. One question, Goldy. Did you swallow?
5
Man, you guys are sure gullible.

Wake me when you count up all the money you don't have in the first place.
6
Get rid of David Stern and start calling traveling violations and I might give a shit about the NBA again.
8
Is this where people are opposed to sports as entertainment per se start making shit up about why the city shouldn't accept free stuff?
9
Too bad he's not passionate about helping the homeless, kids in the foster care system, or dogs and cats at what's left of the animal shelter.
10
He's not looking to piss away his money, @9
11
#9

Too bad we don't know anything about him other than his passion for basketball.
12
@11
Of course we do. He was on SNL, and now he has his own late night show. Look at that picture! Fallon pulling one on us!
13
In a thread about one of the earlier pressers someone wrote a comment that's worth thinking about.

If this were really as good an idea as Hansen claims his "whoever they are" ownership group wouldn't need our motherfucking bonding authority.
14
"...entirely self-financed via revenue that would not otherwise be generated but for the arena. "???

Oh, wait. Goldy wrote that. Anybody else would have wondered what happens to the lost revenue when sports fans buy beer at the new arena instead of buying it wherever they buy it now. The city is losing taxes from the entertainment dollar that gets spent in the arena and not the other attractions in the city. The difference is, the tax money from the other attractions isn't tied up paying off a loan for a millionaire's ego trip. This deal makes the city poorer and makes a rich guy richer. And that's only if the thing doesn't go bust and leave the city on the hook with a big worthless IOU from our new benefactor.

Why doesn't the city borrow money to build a new addition on my house? They can pay off their loan with the extra property taxes they collect from me. Deal?

I guess it's free blow jobs for millionaires day.
15
If we get a team and this stadium gets built I hope someone tells this guy to button his shirt another button. I don't want to have to look at that chest hair every time I watch a basketball game for the next 30 years.
16
This page on FB went up yesterday. Seems to have some interest...

http://www.facebook.com/SaveOurSoDoJobs
17
I am so going to laugh my ass off when this "deal" ends up fucking over the taxpayers like all the other "really good deals"
18
@14, your reasoning is very flawed and you know it. 85% of the attendees will be from out of the city, they will come in, hopefully by train and bus, otherwise they will pay for parking in the city, eat and drink in city bars, and spend money in the arena, paying off the bond and benefiting city establishments as well. Yes their is calculated risk, but this is mostly win-win for Seattle.

I'm all for it, especially if we get the NHL, can't wait to watch me some Seattle Metropolitans!
19
Yes NBA back in Seattle and who cares if we get hockey, I'm not opposed to it, but indifferent.
20
What a bunch of snooty uninformed whiners that hate rich people and basketball. Ha. This is a great day. Bring back the Sonics! Although I agree with #6 on Stern the slime bag... Also the flopping needs to go.
21
@18
I do not agree.

"Hansen and his partners will be responsible for all cost overruns, maintenance and capital improvements, and the city/county will be first in line among creditors in the unlikely event of a default."

So if things do not work out and the government is left with debt then at least the government is first in line to pick up the worthless assets.

We still owed $80 million on the Kingdome when we had to pay to demolish it.

"85% of the attendees will be from out of the city, ..."

Even if that number is accurate (what are the borders for "out of the city") it does not reflect whether they'd come to Seattle for a different reason.

People have a limited amount of discretionary income.
If they aren't spending it on a game and game related activities then what are they spending it on?
22
@17 You obviously never laugh much. Now or ever.
23
@7: They haven't gotten rid of hockey. They're building an NHL arena (which costs more and has worse sight lines for basketball). They're just not making the acquisition of an NHL franchise a prerequisite for breaking ground.

And city/county put in $80 million less until a hockey franchise is obtained, and Hansen's group eats the difference.
24
@21: Worthless assets? The NBA franchise alone is worth a couple hundred million dollars at least, and even the Phoenix Coyotes in bankruptcy are worth $130 million. Just the franchise rights—the right to field the teams—would cover the city/county's investment.

A worse case scenario would see the city/county having to make the difficult choice between liquidation—covering its costs but losing the teams—or agreeing to lesser terms that keep the teams but with less revenue. But that would be our choice.
25
Bump that troll, Goldy! Sealth require HOOPS!
26
@24
"Worthless assets?"

Yes, worthless assets.
Because anything of any value will have been disposed of BEFORE they default and BEFORE the government gets anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdome#De…
We are still paying for that.

"... or agreeing to lesser terms that keep the teams but with less revenue."

You might want to focus on that because your entire position depends upon the government having the power to FORCE the team to play where the government tells them to play and for how much the government will pay them. And that depends upon the government getting control of the team in the first place.

If this is going to bring in so much money then they can pay for it without the government's help.

If they need any of our help then we can cut the taxes that they'd pay.

But we should not be spending a single penny to pay for any of this.
27
@18

85% ? Impressive.

As in "85% of all statistics are made up on the spot."? Yep, I knew that.
28

Pretty "ghosty" out on the highways right now:

http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/seattle/def…

Did everyone leave?

Methinks they have to cram this thing into downtown to fake the idea that this place is still happening.
29
The arena site is 0.8 miles from the SODO light rail station and also 0.8 miles from the Stadium Station.

How many fans are going to walk 1.6 miles round trip, at night, to attend a basketball game?
30
Goldy, don't waste your time reporting on Slog. No one here is interested in facts. It's the mirror image of Fox News. Unless it fits the idea of what should be, it can't be true.
31
@29 That's a really good question.

also: I WANT HOCKEY!
32
OKC just took game 2!!

Go Thunder!!!
33
@29

All of 'em. They're already cattle.
34
It's pretty funny how when Goldy gets a few minutes with a charismatic bigshot he gets all googly-eyed and writes stuff that will likely come back to embarrass him later.
35
"Hansen and his partners will be responsible for all cost overruns, maintenance and capital improvements, and the city/county will be first in line among creditors in the unlikely event of a default."

This is what makes this deal different from 99% of stadium deals, including the Kingdome, and Safeco, and Century Link, and every proposal for Key Arena. I don't even like basketball or hockey, and I hate give-aways to corporations, and I still see this as a good deal for taxpayers.
36
@13 "If this were really as good an idea as Hansen claims his "whoever they are" ownership group wouldn't need our motherfucking bonding authority."

There are one simple reason why the city's bonding authority is crucial to this project. It allows the bonds to carry a much lower interest rate than private corporate bonds would get, thus saving millions in financing costs.
37
I am opposed to this project because I think, as many have already pointed out, that private ventures like this should fund themselves. I don't understand how people with semi-decent critical thinking skills can call a project like this "self-financed" just because government investment will (that is, "is supposed to") get recouped in taxes. Those taxes are basically funding a for-profit group of investors when the taxes garnered from basketball should be funding some of the humungously underfunded projects that actually help people.

But I have another point, which is this: Anyone who buys on face value anything that Chris Hansen tells us or the press is a fool. This isn't to say that he is lying, just to say that we have no reason to think he's telling the truth. It's not about Hansen. That story has been cooked up for us so the pill will go down smoother: "Local boy who does good and has a love of basketball, decides to come back home and fulfill a dream, blah, blah, blah." That is the story that has been spun up by the investment group and by the PR firm that they hired. The PR firm's job is to decide exactly how best to spin this story so that people like Goldy fall in love. They decided, astutely, to make the story about Hansen, and he's doing his job well, distracting us from the fact that this is an investment group looking for a sweet deal. The fact that Goldy was even interviewing this guy, and that his handsomish visage and life story is included in all these articles and blogs, means they've won.
38
@ 32 Screw the zombie sonics, go lakers
39
@24, as well as control over a $490 arena.

There is nothing about this that some people will ever like, Goldy. A vocal minority will make up all kinds of fact-less scenarios to support their opposition.

The dollars spent at the arena that would have gone some place else is a maximum 25%, that includes dollars not spent in Bellevue, or Everett, or Tacoma, but spent in Seattle's arena.
The "area" dollars argument is an interesting one, the area gets bigger when accounting for where dollars would otherwise get spent, and smaller when measuring where the positive economic impact is.

It's better for Seattle, worse for Bellevue, and hockey fans not spending their dollars in Vancouver but in Seattle. Should we make the "area" where dollars would otherwise get spent to include parts of Canada?
Should we feel bad for Canadian taverns, too? No?

How about Sacramento, should the "area" include the location where the NbA franchise comes from, where that franchise revenue would otherwise get spent? No?

Fuck Bellevue, we are taking their otherwise spent in the "area" of Bellevue beer and entertainment dollars.
40
@37, so, he didn't go to Roosevelt, and he didn't live in the Rainier valley, or is it his feelings you don't believe?

Maybe you are the one spinning. Why should I believe you? I know even less about you (and don't care to know more).

Assuming the negative doesn't make you anymore or less trustworthy.
42
Kind of ironic (and a little tone deaf) that you met in a Starbucks. If not for that turncoat, Howard Schultz, we'd probably be watching Kevin Durant's Sonics march toward the NBA Finals right now.
43
"This is about passion, not money."

Okay, then we'll just hold on to our $200 million, thank you very much.
44
I LOVE that this area ripoff gets all of these newbie commentators on Slog! It seems almost contrived
45
thanks for the spoiler 32, i had that game on my dvr.

fucker.
46
@35 "This is what makes this deal different from 99% of stadium deals, including the Kingdome, and Safeco, and Century Link, and every proposal for Key Arena. I don't even like basketball or hockey, and I hate give-aways to corporations, and I still see this as a good deal for taxpayers. "

Seahawks said they would cover cost overruns, and they did.

Mariners said they would cover cost overruns, then refused to pay them, eventually the state sued them into paying up.

Qwest/Century Link field has been good for Seattle. Seahawk games have been sold out since the stadium opened and the Sounders FC are simply kicking ass and setting attendance records for the league. Bars and restaurants couldnt be happier about this sports combo.

You really cant say its a good deal for tax payers, until it actually begins to pay off.
47
If Hansen doesn't care about the money then why doesn't he sell the property back for a resonable profit. He stands to make a quik return on the RE alone.
Nice shilling Goldy, you sucker of satan's cock.
48
@40. You don't have to trust me or know anything else about me. I don't know any more than what I read, but I'm trying to read this from a critical perspective. The original article in the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…) notes that "His visit to The Times represented his first public step in introducing himself to the region, helped by a high-profile public-relations firm with experience in navigating Seattle stadium deals."

I have no reason to think that Hansen isn't a nice guy; I never said that he didn't go to Roosevelt and live in Rainer Valley. What I am addressing is the story and the way the story is being supported in the media. The facts of the story can be true, but it is still a story and some facts are included, some are left out. A simple example, in recent interviews, Hansen is basically implying that he isn't doing this for the money. He is saying this for a reason - the implication being that if he's doing this out of passion, and love for Seattle, then we can trust him to keep "our" interest as the priority. I am saying that we should not take this story at face value, especially when a large public investment is being requested. Whether this should move forward is largely a technical issues related to taxes, investments, costs and benefits for the city. The "personal story" is a distraction from those issues, but it keeps coming back. That is why I am concerned.
49
@43 We don't get to just "hold onto" our $200 million. It doesn't exist. What is so difficult to understand about this?
50
@49
"We don't get to just "hold onto" our $200 million. It doesn't exist. What is so difficult to understand about this?"

Probably the fact that people keep saying that it does exist and then claiming that it does not exist.

If it does not exist then we cannot spend it.

If we can spend it then it does exist and can be saved.
51
@45: If you don't want to hear the results of sports events a day after they happened you best stay off the Internet.

Oh, and Jermaine won "The Voice."

52
@18,

Studies prove that sports arenas create a net loss in economic activity for a city. Money otherwise spent at small businesses gets spent at the stadium/arena itself, which almost exclusively benefits out-of-town investors and players. I'm afraid it's your reasoning that's flawed, not the least because it's based on assumptions and not on facts
53
To me the financing seems to pencil out, conceptually. I like basketball. But it just seems disingenuous to take a successful hedge-fund manager at his word that bankrolling an enormous capital project like this is mostly an act of passion. What kind of successful hedge-fund manager talks like that? The board of directors of any company getting involved with such a person should immediately throw him out of the window. We have heard a great deal in the last few days about the quantifiable possible benefits of the stadium deal to the city of Seattle. Why are we not hearing about the benefits to Hansen and his investment team? I agree with @48 above that our local press is sucking down pint after pint of delicious spin -- when does the investigative journalism start?

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