Saturday, October 1

Arena Gets Political Backing

Natasha Ryan of KING reports that Rep. Mike Hope (and isn't that an aptly named man if there ever was one) has drafted legislation that would fund a prospective arena for Seattle to replace KeyArena, and, possibly, bring the NBA back to the Emerald City.


Rep. Hope would bring $150 million to the table by introducing a new tax on athletes who play at the arena, one which he says is similar to those used in other arenas around the country, as well as a specialty license plate for Sonic fans, which he hopes will raise upwards of $10 million.


There is also talk of the arena being able to hold an NHL team as well, but, obviously, this is all veeeery premature. Stay tuned.


(via KING5)

7 comments:

Heather said...

Awesome, I truly can't wait to get our team back! GO SONICS!!!!

ryan said...

Here's Hope on Q13 talking about his plan:

http://tinyurl.com/3l9za82

Sure nice to see a rep. who is willing to fight for the Sonics.

Anonymous said...

Great - someone with a plan! Bring back our Sups!

jason said...

Looks like Rep. Hope has some other things to worry about other than the Sonics:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110928/NEWS01/709289859

The thing I don't get is that if he's running for Snohomish County Executive, and wins, then who takes the baton from him when he's no longer a rep? I know Sonic fans don't have a lot of options when it comes to helpful politicians, but he seems like an odd guy to which to tie your hopes. Oh, well, beggars can't be choosers, I guess.

Peter said...

there was a task force to build an arena with 8 legislators on it that came up with that idea. david frockt, pettigrew, hunter, and some others were on it. this isn't just something hope came up with out of nothing.

Peter said...

http://blog.supersonicsoul.com/2011/07/sonics-taskforce-meets.html

link here.

PN said...

Beat me to it, Peter. Nice name, by the way. Like anything in politics, any time something shows up in print/TV, you can rest assured people spent 1,000s of hours working on it before you even heard about it.