A new KeyArena is coming to Seattle Center.
After years of negotiations, the city is now in the final stages of approving Oak View Group’s (OVG) $700 million renovation of the historic venue. If all goes according to plan, the Los Angeles company will spend the next two years excavating millions of pounds of concrete from under KeyArena’s historic roof and then building a gleaming new arena underneath it. By 2020, a professional hockey team will likely be skating in Seattle Center. And if you listen to city leaders, the Seattle SuperSonics will hopefully be returning shortly thereafter.
This is the kind of deal that cities supposedly dream of. Last year, city council member Debora Juarez said Seattle will score “a world-class arena at little or no cost to the taxpayers.” Everyone from Mayor Jenny Durkan to OVG’s executives have consistently connected the dots between KeyArena’s redevelopment and the Sonics’ eventual return home. Eight years after we lost our NBA team because we wouldn’t build them a new facility, we now have a private company paying to bring a team back.
