Professional basketball may be on its way back to Seattle.
The city of Seattle, King County and investor Chris Hansen have reached an agreement to build an arena in Emerald City. The deal now must be approved by the City Council and King County Council.
The new agreement eliminates the need for two professional sports teams to play at the arena, as the previous deal stated. Instead, now only an NBA team is required to begin construction as long as the team signs a non-relocation agreement. Originally the plans called for both an NBA and NHL team, which is still a possibility.
The proposed arena would seat 18,500 guests and cost approximately $500 million. It would be paid for both publicly and privately. The financial investment of the city and council will not exceed $200 million if both an NBA and NHL team move to Seattle or $120 million if only an NBA team is acquired.
The city previously was home to the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA. After failing to acquire public funding for a new arena, the owners moved the team to Oklahoma City before the 2008-2009 season. The team agreed to pay the city of Seattle $45 million to pay off the remaining years of its existing lease at KeyArena, where the team played before their departure.
After being one of the worst teams in the league at the time of their move, the SuperSonics (now the Thunder) are in the running for the NBA Championship. They are currently in the Western Conference semi-finals.
