Seattle City Council Approves Key Arena Remodel

The Seattle City Council, often accused of being anti business, anti sports and anti mainstream, has unanimously approved a remodel Seattle's Key Arena in a principally privately financed deal.  The new arena will be home to the Seattle Storm, who just won it's third championship, and hopefully an NHL expansion team.
The long range goal will be to bring an NBA franchise back to the area.
The last scheduled event in the Key in it's present form is an October 5th NBA game between the Golden State Warriors , featuring ex Sonic Kevin Durant and the Sacramento Kings, who at one time had been thought to have been ready to move to this area.

Chris Hansen-Seattle City Council Reach Agreement

The Seattle Times reports that the Seattle City Council has come to an agreement with Chris Hansen to build a basketball-hockey arena in the Soda area in hopes of bringing the NBA back to Seattle. According to the Times, the terms of the deal will be announced today.   It did say that the deal calls for Hansen to help fund road improvements to ease possible overcrowded streets, a concern of the Port Of Seattle.   The Hansen group also hopes the arena would allow an NHL team to relocate here.

Proposed Arena Clears First Hurdle

The King County Council, in a 6-3 vote, has approved a binding "memorandum of understanding" to a proposal by Bay area financier Chris Hansen to build an indoor facility in the event that an NBA team be available to move in.   The proposal will now go to the Seattle City Council which will undoubtedly be a much harder sell. The Seattle PI reports that the City Council would like more taxpayer protection as well as request that Hansen's group relinquish some of their profits to help build more roads to ease congestion around the area.

James Donaldson May Run For City Council

The Columbia Tower and the Space Needle may not be the only tall things on the Seattle skyline. Former Super Sonic Center James Donaldson is talking about running for Seattle City Council in 2009. The former Coug appeared at the annual Magnuson Awards Dinner at the Westin tonight where Democratic Chair Dwight Pelz introduced him as a candidate. There is no doubt that should he make it, his council colleagues will look up to him, Donaldson is over 7 feet tall.

Trump Eyes Seattle Properties

Look out Seattle, the king of build now, ask questions later, Donald Trump is looking toward building high rise condo's in the area. In a story in this week's Puget Sound Business Journal, Trump's Real Estate company is attracted by the "lucrative market" here. The thought of Trump building in Seattle has got to send shivers to the City Council, already weary from dealing with Oklahoma City based Seattle Super Sonic owner Clay Bennett.

The Seattle Times ran a story this morning, where they spoke to Trump's daughter Ivanka.