Just Say “Hell No!” to a New Seattle Arena

Posted on Feb 16, 2012 | 6 comments

Key Arena at Seattle Center

2:00pm today.

This is when Seattleites are going to learn about a new proposed stadium designed to lure an NBA team and/or NHL team back to Seattle.

While we’re not privy to all of the details yet, preliminary reports are that the new stadium will be built in SoDo, not far from Seahawks Stadium, and that taxpayer money will be used to match private contributions.

This being the case, I would like to be one of the first people on record to state my firm opposition to this new planned arena.

Why?

Well, first of all, we already have an arena. It’s called Key Arena, and it’s just fine. Hell, it’s better than fine. It’s fantastic.

Madison Square Garden sits in a city of 8 million people, and it holds 19,000 spectators. Key Arena sits in a city if 600,000 people, and it holds 17,000 people.

What does this mean?

It means that we have roughly 12 times more professional basketball seats per capita than does the largest city in the USA.

And we need a new arena?

Nonsense.

The other primary reason that I will never, ever, ever support this new arena, is because it will require taxpayer money.

What does this mean?

It means that the people who will spend the largest percentage of their income on the arena, will be the least able to see games in the new arena.

Currently, Washington leads the nation in taxing the poor, where our low-income people pay a 6.7x higher taxation rate than do the wealthiest of our residents.

Thus, when the ultra-wealthy want a new toy, such as a group of ball-bouncing minstrels, to keep them entertained, the money required to make that happen impacts the working class and the poor far more than it affects the elite who will park themselves front-and-center as the working stiff maybe … maybe scores a seat in the nosebleeds.

Well, folks, I say fuck them.

And, if I may be so bold … fuck McGinn for even considering it. Way to be the people’s champion, Mike.

If Key Arena is not good enough for them, and they need a brand-spanking-new arena for their games, then let them pay for it. All of it. And throw in the money for the road improvements too. This is certainly no time for corporate welfare. We’ve already had far too much of that in this country.

We’re not curing cancer, here. We’re not saving lives, and benefit-less, minimum-wage jobs scraping jizz off of luxury box walls 26 times per year isn’t going to keep anyone out of foreclosure.

Fuck them, indeed.

That’s all I have to say about that.

For now.

6 comments

Ninjahawk / February 16, 2012

The details that have leaked are that it will NOT cost tax payers. $285 million in private money to start with. Then the city would allow the first $200 million in new taxes that would be generated by the stadium (ticket fees, etc.) be used to pay off the roughly $200 in additional building cost. After that the stadium will generate a ton of new tax dollars for Seattle. It’s a win/win.

- Seattle Rex / February 16, 2012
  
  Well, King 5 states that “some” debt would be backed by King County and the City of Seattle, and of course any public obligation will be played way, way down at this point, but we’ll have to see. If it’s completely,100% private, then I would, of course, drop my personal opposition to the project. If they can pay for it 100% like every other business owner, without asking the people for a thin dime, and they can pay for the required road improvements, then I’ll be all for it.
  
  Sort of.
  
  I didn’t mention my third point of opposition to the arena in the interest of time, but as a (I assume) Seattleite, would you really agree to put another dollar in David Stern’s pocket?
  
  Do you think that league deserves the support of Seattle?
  
- Seattle Rex / February 16, 2012
  
  By the way, this is an old article, but it’s probably still relevant today.
  
  It may be worth a read if you have some time:
  
  http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-20312983/benefits-presence-professional-sports.html
  
  Excerpt:
  
  As both the number of publicly subsidized (sports) facilities and the scale of public-sector expenditures have increased, policy analysts have evaluated the expected economic benefits. Such analysis has shown projected economic returns to be greatly exaggerated, overly optimistic, or simply incorrect.
  
  For example, many economists note that most of the expenditures by fans are merely a transfer of their discretionary recreational dollars from other activities.
  
  Baade’s work suggests that expenditures for sports facilities are not associated with regional growth, and Rosentraub’s studies illustrate the small scale of the returns to cities and downtown areas from investments in sports facilities.
  
  Although the building of many new facilities in downtown areas has attracted millions of visitors to areas previously avoided by most residents, there is no evidence that these facilities have significantly changed employment or residential location patterns.
  
  Employers still seek more suburban locations for their businesses, and their employees still prefer outlying areas to inner-city locations for their residences.
  
  This is not to suggest that growth and development do not occur in downtown areas. Rather, more growth occurs elsewhere, and the overall distribution of jobs and residences has been virtually unaffected by the presence of sports facilities.
  
trentmc / February 16, 2012

I’m for it but what happens to Key Arena?

- Tom McKeegan / February 16, 2012
  
  Key Arena is OK for basketball but sucks for hockey. The Tacoma Dome too has the same issue as the Key. You need fairly steep seating to have good views over the boards for hockey. Neither facility has that. Hockey is a bigger long shot to come to Seattle anyway.
  
  As much as I would like to see the NHL here (really don’t care about the NBA)there shouldn’t be any public money spent on a stadium in Seattle. I am not sure if we have paid off the Kingdome yet!!
  
Jason A / February 16, 2012

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/

Field of schemes is a good source to keep track of which cities are about to be fleeced by billionaires to pay for their capital expenditures.

Obese welfare queens.