The King County Council and the Seattle City Council gave their final approval Monday to an agreement to build a $490-million basketball and hockey arena in the city, despite the threat of a lawsuit from longshore workers.
The county council approved it unanimously, while the city council voted 7-2. Both bodies had previously OK'd different versions of the deal.
"This is a very good financial plan here," said county councilman Reagan Dunn, a Republican who earlier had concerns about the deal. "It's been well thought-through."
Mayor Mike McGinn called the votes important steps toward bringing professional men's basketball back to Seattle. He and King County executive Dow Constantine were scheduled to sign the deal today.
Hedge fund manager Chris Hansen is leading a group that wants to build the $490-million arena near the existing Mariners and Seahawks stadiums with $200 million in public financing. The public investment would be paid back with rent money and admissions taxes from the arena, and if that money falls short, Hansen would be responsible for making up the rest. Other investors include Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and two members of the Nordstrom department store clan.
Seattle's old NBA team, the SuperSonics, moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 and became the Thunder, devastating its fans here. It's been quite a bit longer since Seattle had major-league hockey: The Metropolitans, who won the Stanley Cup in 1917, disbanded in 1924.
Under the deal, the arena proposal will undergo an environmental review that could take a year. The review will also look at whether other sites, including Seattle Center, where KeyArena is, should be considered. But that's not good enough, members of two International Longshore and Warehouse Union locals said Monday. The agreement between Hansen and the city goes too far by presuming the arena will be built in the neighbourhood south of downtown, where increased traffic could choke freight shipments at the Port of Seattle, they said.
By essentially picking the site before an environ-mental review is done, the deal reverses the steps required by the State Environmental Policy Act, the unions said. They threatened to sue to block the deal once it's signed by McGinn and Constantine.
"The cart's been thrown before the horse here," said Max Vekich, a member of ILWU Local 52 and co-chairman of Save Our SoDo Jobs. Using a football metaphor, he added: "We want to throw a red flag here and ask for instant review."
