Another stadium hold-up? | Editorial

Published 2:27 pm Thursday, August 2, 2012

A majority of members of the Seattle City Council is now demanding that Chris Hansen, the man who wants to build a basketball stadium there, share some of the projected arena tax revenue with the city. Shocked, we tell you. Shocked.

Hansen wants to build a $490 million stadium in Seattle’s Sodo area with $200 million from Seattle and King County. Stadium proceeds would pay back the city and county.

However, the city is full of activists who don’t want public money involved at all. And some groups – the Port of Seattle, for one – say a stadium will hurt the area’s maritime business.

Here’s a solution: build the stadium in Bellevue.

Hansen and his backers, along with Don Levin, an owner of a minor league hockey team in Chicago who wants to bring a National Hockey League team to the area, have the millions to build a stadium on their own.

Sure, it would be more expensive than having county and city governments involved. But it also would mean they wouldn’t have to deal with the ongoing political drama in Seattle.

That alone would seem to make it a wise investment.

– Craig Groshart, Bellevue Reporter