During the year and a half in which Seattle first debated building a new Sonics arena in Sodo, and then was captivated by the sudden prospect of quickly stealing away the Sacramento Kings, professional hockey was always an afterthought. The proposed arena is being designed to National Hockey League standards, because why not? But the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Chris Hansen's billionaire-heavy ownership group doesn't even kick in until an NBA franchise is acquired.

But in less than two weeks, with little effort and presumably zero taxpayer subsidy, an NHL team might just fall into our laps. Makes all the Sturm und Drang over luring the NBA back seem almost silly in retrospect.

By all accounts, the Glendale, Arizona city council has until July 2 to agree to provide the Phoenix Coyotes a substantial taxpayer subsidy or else the league will sell the team to investors intent on moving the Coyotes to Seattle's KeyArena in time for the 2013-2014 season. That's right, KeyArena—an outdated arena with notoriously bad ice and only 11,000 unobstructed hockey seats. How this makes better business sense than a partially subsidized lease in an NHL-class arena in a city with an established fan base, I don't know. But it's certainly no long term solution.

With its relatively tiny broadcast contracts, no major league sport relies more on ticket sales than the NHL, so it's hard to see even sellout crowds penciling out at KeyArena. If we get the Coyotes—and want to keep them—we're going to have to build them a new arena. And that means, unless an NBA team unexpectedly falls into our lap soon, we're going to need to revise the MOU.

"The question is not basketball or hockey, the question is the level of risk," King County Executive Dow Constantine answered yesterday when asked at our SECB interview if he would support revising the MOU to accommodate this possible new reality. "I think we struck a really good deal," says Constantine, "and if people can show us a proposal that keeps the risk as low as it is, we'd be open to considering it."

Through the existing MOU, Hansen's ArenaCo guarantees revenue sufficient to cover the city and county's annual bond payments, but it's not clear if he would be willing to provide similar assurances to build an arena for a hockey team he wouldn't own. It could make sense in that having a new arena at the ready could improve Seattle's prospects of securing an NBA team. But that's a pretty big leap.

In any case, it's an issue that could soon be thrust upon us. Already one of Glendale's seven city council members is on the record saying she will vote against the proposed lease, and other council members have also voiced their skepticism. If a majority of the council follows suit, the Coyotes could soon be our team. And our problem.