If you build it they will come.
Maybe. That seems to be Seattle’s plan for a new arena to house an NBA team. Although it hasn’t worked yet in Kansas City, which has the sweet Sprint Center sitting there with nothing but Disney on Ice and some concerts to fill the space. No NBA or even and NHL team there. Yet.
In Seattle if there is not a new arena to replace the Key it’s moot to discuss another team coming to town. So plans toward a new arena are moving forward and they could go for a first key vote next week, reports the Associated Press.
This vote by the council on this memorandum of understanding is the first of many steps. This is a $490 million project that needs $200 million in cheap government revenue bonds (which are paid off by money generated by the arena) that later need to be approved and sold. There is an environmental report and a host of other steps before a shovel can go into the ground. And, of course, there needs to be a team willing to move and fill it.
But you have to take a firs step, and that may happen next week.