I actually have never heard anybody say that Vin Baker is a bad guy. I feel sorry for him more than I feel angry at him.

Vin is broke

That said this is pretty comical. Lets be clear: If somebody promises to deliver good results, they get paid for the results, and then deliver poorly then they can be sued for misrepresentation. My favorite part is that he claims they made representations like “We have it handled.” and therefore it should have all been handled.

We should form a class action against him. Seattle fans want $30 each because his poor performance ultimately cost us our franchise.

They have done a seriously good job in Sacramento.

The mayor has pulled out all the stops. HereWeStay is a great organization, and thinkbigsacramento.org is exactly what I would have envisioned putting together had we had the resources here. Everything perfect.

Except they don’t have the money.

Their plan right now, put forward by City Manager John Dangberg who is a heck of a guy and really gets the value of NBA basketball calls for them to privatize city parking garages.

Essentially they own parking garages that currently provide $9M/year for the general fund, schools and police. That is money the collect this year. It will go up with increases and inflation. They would sell the rights to manage that parking for 50 year for roughly $200M cash up front to pay for the arena.

Lets assume the parking revenue goes up by roughtly 1% a year, simple math increasing $1M in revenue each decade. For the first 10 years they collect $90M. Second 10 years $100M, $110M, $120M, $130M.

Thats $550M of revenue they trade fo $200M cash.

Big problem also that they sell the rights for 50 years and wind up with a facility good for 15-20 years. We had a huge issue with the KeyArena being build with a 20 year lease on 25 year bonds. That was only a 5 year difference. This 50 year lease of parking is pretty insane.

I am a huge arena fan. I don’t see any way that a city could justify $9M out of its general fund right now. VERY tough sell.

[edited headline on 1/15,2012 due to source changing its headline: fromSeattle Times: Council irked that McGinn didn’t reveal hiring of arena consultant, to:
Council expresses concern over mayor’s arena contract]

Well, they going to have to start engaging the public sometime, even if forced to by the Seattle Times.

Seattle City Council members said Friday they are troubled that Mayor Mike McGinn would hire a consultant to advise the city on the development of a new, state-of-the-art sports facility that could draw an NBA team back to Seattle — without conferring with them.

“I understand vague rumors are one thing. But if they [the Mayor’s Office] felt this was important enough to enter into a contract, I think it would have been appropriate to notify the council at that point,” said Councilmember Richard Conlin.
. . .
McGinn agreed to a $19,500-per-month contract in July with a nationally prominent sports-facilities consultant, Carl Hirsh.
. . .
“I understand the challenges of KeyArena and the economics of the NBA and NHL,” Hirsh said Friday.

Hirsh, managing partner of Stafford Sports in New Jersey, has advised the San Antonio Spurs through construction of their new arena, the AT&T Center. He worked with the city of Orlando to negotiate an agreement with the Orlando Magic for a new downtown arena and with senior management planning a new Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Hirsh estimated it would cost $400 million to build a new arena, although the NBA’s New Jersey Nets will spend $800 million on one in Brooklyn. A large portion of that was the cost of land, Hirsh said.

He said an arena could be built on as little as 7 to 8 acres, which is about the size of the parcel the Hansen investment group has shown an interest in acquiring. A limited liability corporation headed by Hansen recently purchased 3 acres on the east side of Occidental Avenue South between South Massachusetts and South Holgate streets.
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Time for a new thread.

State Rep. Mike Hope (R, Lake Stevens) is trying a different approach. The idea is to charge NBA basketball and NHL hockey a license fee each time a team plays in the potential new arena. The money would be used as collateral to sell $62 million worth of bonds to help pay for a new arena in the Seattle area.

Anything that helps cut the handwringing elitist anti-sports idiots out of the discussion from the get-go is wise. Not using any form of public money therefore eliminates any need to appeal to them, try to reason with them, or pay attention to what they have to say. Good luck Rep. Hope.

In my own conversations on this topic I’ve noticed that people do not seem to understand that a new facility must be BOTH NBA and NHL-ready or it won’t happen. You won’t get just hockey or hoops out of this building; if built, it will be built to facilitate both. As it should be.

Key Arena will join The Forum, The Alamodome, and The Pyramid as Biggest Places In America To Hold Your High School Reunion, Company Picnic Or Wedding Reception. Scoreboard included.

Lets talk hoops.

Earlier this week one of my friends here in the Philippines asked me who my favorite team was. It actually stumped me.
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(warning: Long personal therapy session below) Read the rest of this entry »

ArenaSolution Statement regarding Sodo Arena Proposal:

Like many other members of our community ArenaSolution.org has been following the news regarding an investment group for a Sodo area arena very closely. We applaud the efforts of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn to work cooperatively with private industry leaders to create a valuable public asset.

In this time of economic hardship efforts to work creatively and cooperatively with private investors provide a great opportunity to expand and our local infrastructure and maintain the quality of life in our region. These efforts will result in a large number of needed construction jobs at a time when they are critically needed and are essential for the economic growth of the community

We would like to clarify that ArenaSolution.org is not affiliated with, nor is competing with any group or municipality in their efforts to build a world class arena and event center. Our independent coalition of supportive business and community leaders strongly encourages these types of efforts and applauds the efforts of local business leaders and government officials.