Studious

I wanted to put together a thorough look at the feasibility study presented by the Muckleshoot’s consultants, but time constraints prevent me from wasting, err, spending too much time on that, so here’s a quick look at what I found from reading the document.

- A great deal of the article looks at the relative financial health of this market as opposed to seven similar NBA markets. The conclusion drawn is that 1) Seattle is strong relative to those markets and 2) Seattle is strong relative to the rest of the NBA, especially in regard to EBI (effective buying income) and population size, and even moreso when one looks at how the future may go. For example, Seattle stands at 112% of the national average in EBI (these numbers are from here, not from the consultants). Oklahoma City? Try 83%. According to the consultants, by 2011, Seattle’s EBI will rank 9th or 10th in the league. Care to hazard a guess where OKC would fit in? It just further convinces me that the NBA would be unbelievably foolish to move a team from the Greater Puget Sound and give it to Oklahoma City. The only rational reason for doing so would be to augment the blackmailing tactics the league will use/uses in other cities, because it would be financial suicide for the NBA to trade Seattle for OKC, and that’s not even considering the impact on television ratings.

- Along those same lines, here is the consultant’s summary of Seattle’s economic picture in relation to the NBA: “Seattle’s significant wealth and comparatively small average household size allow for higher levels of entertainment spending and present an attractive events center market.” In other words, not only is Seattle’s population much larger than OKC’s, but it’s percentage of population with higher incomes is among the highest in the NBA (top 4), and it’s percentage of income spent on entertainment ranks 5th in the NBA.

- The figure put forth to get this project done is $415 million. I looked at the numbers they used to get to $415, and it got me to thinking: How much would it cost to renovate KeyArena to an acceptable level for the NBA? Would it cost ½ as much? 2/3 as much? I’m not an economist or a project manager by any means, but the figure would have to be considerably lower, and bear in mind that the $415 million doesn’t include transportation improvements, which will absolutely be necessary to finish this deal. If you think otherwise, take a look at this picture included in the report, which is a view of the proposed site. Think 18,500 people would be able to use that road for a Sonic playoff game?