Two weeks ago someone
within the NBA, an unnamed source, let it slip that once the upcoming NBA
collective bargaining agreement is completed that the NBA would begin to look at
possible locations for expansion and that during the discussion of expansion it
came up that the #1 location on the table is Seattle. The source even went on
to say that “An hour after Seattle approves their arena, they’d have an offer
in hand” in regards of an expansion team.
Chris Hansen, a hedge
fund manager, has been trying to work deals with the City of Seattle, King
County and Washington State to get an arena built that would bring an NBA team
back to the Emerald City as well as a possible NHL team. Hansen has said before that his intention is to make any new arena an NBA/NHL ready arena.
When the rumor came out
about the possible Seattle expansion Hansen went in to overdrive to get
something together but to no avail the City Council voted 5-4 against an arena
being paid for using a bond measure. Not to be dissuaded Chris went to look at
other options and yesterday announced that he will privately fund the arena. In
his Memorandum of Understanding to the city and NBA is that he will use private
funds from a group of investors to fund the $200 million to build an arena with
the agreement that the city vacate a section of city owned property near Safeco Field (Mariners) and CenturyLink Field (Seahawks) for the arena and that
the NBA will commit to a team for the city by November 2017. Additionally, he
has offered private money to upgrade the local streets in anticipation of higher traffic connected to the Sonics games.
The offer now goes to
the Seattle City Council for another vote and then obviously the waiting game
for the NBA to make a decision on expansion.
This is amazing news for
Seattle fans and if things do work out I would expect the NHL to turn to
Seattle with an expansion team. With the NHL’s expansion in Las Vegas the NHL will
be at 31 teams in 2017 with an unbalanced Western Conference. Adding a team in
Seattle for 2018 or 2019 would even out the conferences and with a move of the
Las Vegas franchise from Pacific Division to Central Division a Seattle franchise
could slide right in to the Pacific Division giving each Division 8 teams.
Just imagine, a rebirth of both the Seattle Supersonics and Seattle Metropolitans.
I'm hoping it happens. More teams are better for the sport and I always liked the green and yellow theme of the Sonics.
ReplyDeleteSeattle needs more professional sports. Would love to see them get the NBA and NHL there.
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