City Council gives Approval for Seattle Arena Deal -NHL Update
The city of Seattle might be getting a National Hockey League (NHL) franchise very soon as the city council of King County and city of Seattle gave their final approval to an agreement for the building of a $490 million basketball and hockey arena in the
area.
The decision reached finality on Monday, October 15, 2012, and termed it to be something the city would greatly benefit from.
"This is a very good financial plan here," said County Councilman Reagan Dunn, a Republican who earlier had concerns about the deal, according to ESPN.com. "It's been well thought-through."
Seattle had a National Basketball Association (NBA) team in the past but lost it due to financial woes, but now after Mayor Mike McGinn worked towards getting a new arena in the scene, he is hoping that the sport, and hopefully along with hockey, will be
in the city to flourish the sporting market once again.
It was the Seattle SuperSonics that had the city crazy for basketball, but had fans really disappointed once they were relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder back in 2008, which has been a successful move ever since. They also had a hockey franchise,
but it was back in 1924 when it became defunct and also won the Stanley Cup championship in 1917.
Out of the amount that has been approved, $200 million will be spent out of the public financing allotment.
Chris Hansen, who is leading the group and managing the hedge fund, has also vowed to give back the public money after generating revenue from sporting events that will take place in the arena when it is built. If he is not able to do so in the allotted
time period, Hansen has decided to take that responsibility onto himself to reimburse it to the city at all costs.
There are a number of issues that the deal still faces. The biggest being a threat of protests by Port of Seattle workers, who believe the rush will choke their businesses.
Updates and developments on the issue should be expected in the upcoming weeks and months.
Tags: