Hurdles abound in effort to bring NBA back to Seattle
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SEATTLE -- There are two big hurdles that have to be cleared before NBA basketball can return to Seattle -- getting a team to move here, and the completion of an environmental impact study about the proposed arena in SoDo.
That puts basketball in the hands of the bureaucrats.
Thursday night began months of meetings, studies and discussion about site evaluations, traffic mitigation and more. It is the core of the EIS.
"It's going to be a very thorough process," said John Shaw of the city's Planning and Development department.
Green and gold faithful in attendance lack patience.
"Us Sonics fans, we've been going through this process for a year. It felt really long," said Joseph Chong.
Environmental attorney Peter Goldman has plenty of patience to spare them. Goldman represents the longshoreman's union ILWU, Local 19, now suing over the EIS. He says the year-long process is actually too fast.
"This is light speed in my world. I've never seen anything move so quickly," Goldman said.
Goldman and the longshoreman are upset the requirements to review a Seattle Center site in addition to SoDo will be given lip service. He said there is precedent that the project could be jammed through, based on Problem Solvers investigations into the deal's secret no-bid contracts.
"Can a project like this be kind of cooked and hatched behind closed doors and then rolled out with a promise that we're still going to keep an open mind?" Goldman asked.
There may be a larger problem: Virginia Beach.
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper cited sources that say city officials and even the state's governor are involved in wooing the Sacramento kings out east. Cable giant Comcast is already connected to the deal and those deep pockets could be attractive. That arena deal doesn't have the same environmental hurdles and legal challenges either.
In a statement, Kings spokesperson Troy Hanson said:
"We have been contacted over the years by several cities and parties interested in the Kings organization. However, we are not going to comment on rumors regarding relocation of the franchise. Our sole focus over the last several months has been to improve the team, and coming off a thrilling victory before a sold out crowd in the home opener, provides a glimpse into what we feel will be a very exciting 2012-13 NBA season. The future of the Kings franchise is very bright as ownership has made a strong financial investment in the organization by adding nearly $135 million in potential future player payroll over the past two off-seasons." - Troy Hanson, Sacramento Kings Vice President of Basketball Media Relations.
That puts basketball in the hands of the bureaucrats.
Thursday night began months of meetings, studies and discussion about site evaluations, traffic mitigation and more. It is the core of the EIS.
"It's going to be a very thorough process," said John Shaw of the city's Planning and Development department.
Green and gold faithful in attendance lack patience.
"Us Sonics fans, we've been going through this process for a year. It felt really long," said Joseph Chong.
Environmental attorney Peter Goldman has plenty of patience to spare them. Goldman represents the longshoreman's union ILWU, Local 19, now suing over the EIS. He says the year-long process is actually too fast.
"This is light speed in my world. I've never seen anything move so quickly," Goldman said.
Goldman and the longshoreman are upset the requirements to review a Seattle Center site in addition to SoDo will be given lip service. He said there is precedent that the project could be jammed through, based on Problem Solvers investigations into the deal's secret no-bid contracts.
"Can a project like this be kind of cooked and hatched behind closed doors and then rolled out with a promise that we're still going to keep an open mind?" Goldman asked.
There may be a larger problem: Virginia Beach.
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper cited sources that say city officials and even the state's governor are involved in wooing the Sacramento kings out east. Cable giant Comcast is already connected to the deal and those deep pockets could be attractive. That arena deal doesn't have the same environmental hurdles and legal challenges either.
In a statement, Kings spokesperson Troy Hanson said:
"We have been contacted over the years by several cities and parties interested in the Kings organization. However, we are not going to comment on rumors regarding relocation of the franchise. Our sole focus over the last several months has been to improve the team, and coming off a thrilling victory before a sold out crowd in the home opener, provides a glimpse into what we feel will be a very exciting 2012-13 NBA season. The future of the Kings franchise is very bright as ownership has made a strong financial investment in the organization by adding nearly $135 million in potential future player payroll over the past two off-seasons." - Troy Hanson, Sacramento Kings Vice President of Basketball Media Relations.
Forgive my ignorance about franchises, can the NBA create another team or do we need to buy a team from another city? What is the likelihood another city would be willing to sell their franchise? What happens if we build an expensive Arena and no team materializes?
Oh the poor ILWU Local 19. what a bunch of baby's! they will never get over the fact that Tacoma has the best port in Washington and that's why they lose contracts left and right to Tacoma. Local 19 is just a big pile of POOP! you will never win this fight and you are just going to spend the seattle longshoreman's union dues to fight it!
"This is light speed in my world. I've never seen anything move so quickly," Goldman said. Spoken like a typical lawyer. Ive never seen a lawyer try to speed anything up to reign in Billable hours. this whole arena process is going to do nothing but make a bunch of Lawyers rich , as as one item is settle , they will throw up their hands and say Wait a minute, this is not legal then start the billable hours clock again.
Why do we have to be in such a darned hurry to build this arena when there are so many things to consider first? If we are not going to have a sports team here, and we will have no possibilities in the future, which seems possible, let's just save the taxpayers some money, unless the wealthy who want it so bad are willing to foot the whole bill! Think about this a while. There is no rush - there are no teams coming here. Even if we built it, it seems unlikely any team will be coming here. Use your brain and wait; that is certainly the least expensive route.
 @Common-Tater Use your brain and understand the MOU, no team = no arena, get it!
Bureaucracy & hurdles...........the cost of doing business here in the Great Soviet of WA!!!!
NBA come here.
We have no state income tax.
I'm a huge Sonics fan myself and I want the team back as soon as possible. Â Having said that, I know that this process is going to take time and to be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised at how far into the process we are now given where we were just a couple of years ago. Â I mean, did anyone realistically think at the time that the Sonics were stolen that we'd even be talking about the possibility of getting them back this soon? Â I knew that there was going to be some resistance to the whole thing, even if it was 100% privately funded, but we're a hell of a lot closer to getting the Sonics back than we were at this time last year, so I'll be patient.
I think the headline should have read "More hoops to go through".
 @Magic 8 Ball It should say, more PITA (pain in the a..) lawyers to deal with.
 @Magic 8 Ball Yeah, more like half court shots.