Seattle NBA Arena Proposal Back From the Dead—But This Time it's Privately Funded

Art Thiel reports: "Chris Hansen agreed [recently] to do what liberal Seattle has wanted him to do for five years: agree to fund privately his $500 million proposed basketball/hockey arena in Sodo, which he hopes will return the NBA, eight years gone, to his hometown." Hansen made that new official when he sent a letter to Mayor Ed Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine asking for a re-hearing of the project, which originally came with a $200 million request for public money.

This time, however, Hansen, a San Francisco-based hedge fund manager, promised to drop that request and even potentially "kick in perhaps as much as $20 million to the proposed Lander Street Bridge project, long sought by the Port of Seattle, the arena’s principal opponent."

Plans for an NBA arena last crossed the national planning newswire in May 2015, when the Seattle City Council rejected a plan to give part of Occidental Avenue South, in the neighborhood of Sodo, to Hansen for the proposed arena. Samantha Bee even noticed the uncivil nature of the debate over the previous proposal.

The proposal now hinges largely on whether the city has expect to attract an expansion team to the city—relocation is unlikely with all NBA teams currently making money in their current homes.