With growing doubt over the economic development potential for major league teams, Seattle is the latest city to reject public financing for a professional sports venue.
"Empowered by a wave of venture capital, a hiring boom and pride in its homegrown billionaires, this city has decided it no longer needs a mediocre professional basketball team to feel good about itself."
"Antistadium sentiment was also reflected in Sacramento, where voters rejected a sales tax increase to pay for a new arena for the Kings, the basketball team there."
"Public sentiment turned against the Sonics last winter when Mr. Schultz, the Starbucks chairman, demanded that the state provide $200 million to refurbish the city-owned arena. The team would have contributed $18 million."
Read the full story: As Sonics Pack to Leave Town, Seattle Shrugs
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
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Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax survives legal challenge
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Seattle passes record-breaking transit services expansion
Proposition 1 will double the city’s transit tax to add 95,000 more bus trips and preserve 180,000 bus trips annually.
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Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
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