Chris Hansen became a martyr when he announced his plan to build a multi-million dollar arena in SoDo that would bring back the Seattle Supersonics and potentially spawn a National Hockey League franchise as well. There were rallies held featuring Seattle royalty and Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine were on board for the city. But, alas, here we are three years later with no arena in sight after the recent release of the final environmental impact statement which would put issuance of permits (if any) back until 2016 if there aren’t further delays. Now that the momentum of the partially publicly funded route has gone south (apparently it’s a shock to people that if you want to use public bonds instead of your own billions of dollars you must endure the glamorous process of bureaucracy we covet so much in our democracy), it’s looking that if an arena is going to be built, it’s going to have to be entirely privately funded. This is especially true since Steve Ballmer departed for Los Angeles to save the Clippers’ during their public relations nightmare.
Enter Jac Sperling: the longtime dealmaker of the NBA and NHL. The Florida-based investor has apparently been chatting with many an investor about bringing that privately-funded stadium to the opposite corner of the U.S., realizing the potential and how deeply missed an NBA team is and how full the ShoWare Center gets for Seattle Thunderbirds’ games.
And Sperling’s not the only one; New York investment banker Ray Bartoszek spent much of 2014 doing the same, allegedly courting investors to “lure an NHL team to a Tukwila site owned by Seattle real-estate magnate David Sabey,” according to Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times. You may remember Bartoszek as the gentleman who wanted to buy and relocate the Phoenix Coyotes to Seattle in 2013, and he apparently is close to announcing his group of both national and local investors.
Both investors reportedly admit that given the NBA’s reluctance refusal to create an expansion team in Seattle, they’re looking to introduce and NHL team and then eventually add an NBA team when able. A senior partner with IntraVest Development of Arizona in cooperation with Sperling, Mason Cave, confirmed talks to develop land in Bellevue that the company controls. These conversations were initiated by Cave in order to determine how his company can get the land up to NHL arena standards but “morphed into bringing an NHL team” to the Eastside. The two were initially introduced by none other than Tod Leiweke – yes that Tod Leiweke – former president and CEO of the Seahawks. Leiweke also apparently had Sperling out to his Mercer Island home the summer before last and introduced him to several prominent members of the Seattle sports world, including Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer (though he said he has no interest in joining any potential investor group).
However, Tukwila, not Bellevue is likely to be the future site if a deal goes through. The arena, which would cost around $500 million, could sit on roughly 66 acres of land to be further developed into a large entertainment district. Sabey, who previously expressed interest in an arena to keep the Sonics franchise in Seattle when Clay Bennett was getting ready to uproot the team to Oklahoma City, already established a lease with Unified Grocers for development of property that expires in 2017. Bartoszek has made no secret of his continued wish to bring a franchise to Seattle and plans to announce his group in March or April.
Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of fringe-limit stadiums: the team should play where the jersey says gosh darn it! Though, they do prove to bring in a lot of extra events and revenue (think Jerry World a.k.a. AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for example) and can divert an immense amount of traffic away from high-congestion areas, thereby lessening concerns over environmental impact. In this age of immense wealth disparity and extraordinary ticket prices, the people that have the money to privately finance these sorts of endeavors and want to do so should. They stand to profit enormously regardless, and the Seattle area will finally get back the teams it deserves.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
