With the city announcing an agreement today with investor Chris Hansen for a new arena in SODO — pending the acquisition of a NBA team — the mayor is considering what to do next with KeyArena here in Lower Queen Anne/Uptown. And it looks like Hansen is willing to play a role.
“We have important decisions to make about the future of KeyArena,” Mayor Mike McGinn wrote in a letter today (.pdf) to the city council. “This is true whether an arena gets built in Seattle or elsewhere in the region. It is true if no new arena gets built.”
McGinn said that’s because KeyArena only breaks even every year, and the city doesn’t have the funding to “properly maintain the facility, let alone invest in needed upgrade and improvements.” The mayor says several options are on the table: keep it as an arena, repurpose the facility into a theater or turn it into a two-story exhibition space.
Hansen is interested in the first option, proposing a series of upgrades “to make the arena viable for two years of NBA and NHL play,” he explains in a letter (.pdf) to the mayor. That would also ensure that the Seattle Storm and Seattle U would still play at the facility.
“Mr. Hansen has expressed a willingness to enter into a long-term agreement to operate KeyArena under the first of these options,” the mayor wrote to the city council. “There could be benefits to such an arrangement. These include coordination and joint booking of events between the new arena and KeyArena; an ability to preserve existing jobs by meeting labor needs at both facilities; and mitigation of ongoing financial risk to the city.”
What’s next? The Seattle Center Advisory Commission will consider the proposals — as well as other ideas — with the timetable to recommend a solution in 10 to 12 months.
“Fortunately, we do not need to make an immediate decision,” the mayor explains. “A new arena will not be completed for several years.”
What do you think? What should the city do with KeyArena?