Seattle’s bid for an NBA team just got a little more enticing, as billionaire investor Chris Hansen has offered to build the potential team’s arena using solely private funding. This would, of course, mean that the government would not have to pay for the arena. This is no small amount of money; NBA stadiums are expensive. The Sacramento Kings’ recent stadium wound up costing over $556 million. From Hansen’s letter to the city:
Our goal has always been to return the NBA to Seattle and to build a new arena to make that possible. Our partnership with the City and County started ?ve years ago and was based on a recognition that private ?nancing of a new arena in the prevailing economic conditions was not economically feasible. The goal of this partnership was to build the Arena and bring an NBA team to Seattle. Public ?nancing was simply a mechanism that made that possible at the time.
We have concluded that a changed economic climate makes possible the private ?nancing of the arena. For that reason, and to address concerns expressed by city council members, we would consider revising the street vacation petition to eliminate public ?nancing of the arena. In such a case the MOU (Memorium of Understanding) would be terminated and the rights and obligations of the parties under the MOU would end. The City and the County would recoup the $200 million in debt capacity and tax revenue streams generated by the arena would cease to be encumbered for arena debt service.”
The letter was signed by Hansen and his investment team consisting of Wally Walker and Erik and Pete Nordstrom. In the letter, Hansen and his team’s objective is to ask the city to approve the street vacation. In return, Hansen & co. will cover the arena costs.
