Seattle area: NBA/NHL arena

[Sounder]

Lawmaker drafts plan to bring NBA, NHL to new Seattle arena

"The proposed legislation would require local and visiting professional athletes in the NBA, NFL and MLB to pay a fee for every game they play in Seattle. He says a lot of other cities already have similar laws built into their tax revenue. Hope says it would levy $140 million towards a new sports arena. He's also proposing specialty license plates for Sonics fans, generating another $10 million for bonds."

Tennessee, another state without an income tax has something like this already in place. It charges NHL/NBA players a $2,500 fee for every game, up to a maximum of $7,500 a year so the home team doesn't get gouged.

When Ballmer/Sinegal were potentially involved a few years back, the public only needed $150,000,000 and the group would cover the rest. I wonder if this means Ballmer and company are still involved?

[LCIII]

I wonder where they would put it! I hope in the stadium district...fingers crossed! Thanks for posting

[CrazyAboutCities]

Agreed. Stadium District makes more sense for future sport arena location. I heard rumors that they're looking at Bellevue for possible sport arena location.

[Sounder]

Originally Posted by LCIII

I wonder where they would put it! I hope in the stadium district...fingers crossed! Thanks for posting

Ballmer/Sinegal are very pro Seattle Center, which would mean either the Key Arena or Memorial Stadium site.

My $ is still on the former Safeway facility in Bellevue now owned by Wright-Runstad.

[mhays]

Stadium District would be an odd location. They'd have to avoid baseball and football dates. Big problem.

[LCIII]

Other cities have successful co-located sports arenas/stadiums. Why can't Seattle? Sure some infrastructure adjustments would be key and obviously a major parking plan would be important but it's certainly not impossible.

[mhays]

I'm not sure what places have four or five major sports in close proximity. But I suspect that they mostly have way more parking (Cleveland, Phoenix, Philly), and try very hard to avoid scheduling things at the same time.

[M'sFan]

I think charging anyone $2,500 to do their job in a city borders on criminal. I am all for trying to find a way to pay for a new arena.

[Sounder]

Originally Posted by M'sFan

I think charging anyone $2,500 to do their job in a city borders on criminal. I am all for trying to find a way to pay for a new arena.

The players have seen their salaries greatly increase with the advent of taxpayer funded mega palaces. Assuming a $375,000,000 venue, the owners/developers will have to pay roughly 60% of the costs, players 37% of the costs, and fans about 3% of the costs. The general public pays nothing.

[Somnifor]

Originally Posted by M'sFan

I think charging anyone $2,500 to do their job in a city borders on criminal. I am all for trying to find a way to pay for a new arena.

If you were a minor league hockey player called up to play a couple of games in the NHL you would do everything you could to avoid playing in a city with this sort of tax. The NHL minimum salary is around $6,400 per game so if you only played two or three games and they were all in Seattle it would be a pretty significant hit.

[AzChristopher]

Originally Posted by Somnifor

If you were a minor league hockey player called up to play a couple of games in the NHL you would do everything you could to avoid playing in a city with this sort of tax. The NHL minimum salary is around $6,400 per game so if you only played two or three games and they were all in Seattle it would be a pretty significant hit.

It would still be way more than what they made playing minor league hockey and way more than the average person makes in a day of work.

[LCIII]

Originally Posted by mhays

I'm not sure what places have four or five major sports in close proximity. But I suspect that they mostly have way more parking (Cleveland, Phoenix, Philly), and try very hard to avoid scheduling things at the same time.

Some examples inside this thread:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1435214

And yes Philly is the example I was thinking of. Point is: it can be done. Yes they would have to address the parking issue, but I said that to begin with. They should really build a massive parking garage for the stadiums to share. Just bite the damn bullet and solve the problem once and for all. Lots of old short buildings in the area that could surely be purchased and flattened to make way for just such a project.

[pwalker]

I'm not sure if it is a great idea or not, but I do like the fact there are folks trying to make NBA/NHL happen. That rocks.

[SJM]

I'm all for it in the stadium district, ferry proximity is a plus in my book.

[pwalker]

I think it is important to remember that Seattle is the 13th largest media market in the U.S.

There are many important reasons to maintain major league sports in this market, namely the revenue that comes with such, but beyond that, the revenue that comes as a bonus from these franchises, as in added restaurant revenues, hotels, etc. This is important, and adds up. Bring on these future franchises, and bring on increased revenue for all.

Yes, city pride is important, but the financials can be good as well.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by LCIII

Some examples inside this thread:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1435214

And yes Philly is the example I was thinking of. Point is: it can be done. Yes they would have to address the parking issue, but I said that to begin with. They should really build a massive parking garage for the stadiums to share. Just bite the damn bullet and solve the problem once and for all. Lots of old short buildings in the area that could surely be purchased and flattened to make way for just such a project.

I prefer the setup we have now...a couple garages that together fill maybe 1/4 of the parking demand, plus use of the surrounding neighborhoods along with many of their garages.

I was starting to think of where a garage might go...as you say it would take tearing down buildings, and probably deleting a street too, to provide a block large enough. Fairly difficult politically, including the industrial land issue.

[LCIII]

Originally Posted by mhays

I prefer the setup we have now...a couple garages that together fill maybe 1/4 of the parking demand, plus use of the surrounding neighborhoods along with many of their garages.

I was starting to think of where a garage might go...as you say it would take tearing down buildings, and probably deleting a street too, to provide a block large enough. Fairly difficult politically, including the industrial land issue.

Yah they would really have to come up with a grand master plan and really sell it to the community but crazier things have been done. I wish they would though. Just one super garage that all the stadiums/arenas could share would be cool, I think. I also hope whatever/wherever the arena is that it'll be designed and built with the goal of stealing back concert supremacy from the Tacoma Dome. I hate it when acts tour to the Seattle area and end up at the T Dome because Seattle proper doesn't have a large enough venue.

[old_smithy]

Originally Posted by LCIII

Yes they would have to address the parking issue, but I said that to begin with. They should really build a massive parking garage for the stadiums to share. Just bite the damn bullet and solve the problem once and for all. Lots of old short buildings in the area that could surely be purchased and flattened to make way for just such a project.

That one got me laughing. I can't imagine professional sports teams sharing anything that produces an additional revenue stream for them. One of my beefs about the whole "replace one Kingdome with two separate stadiums" saga, was that the county lost all the parking revenue and both the Seahawks and the Mariners got new garages out of the deal. Now the teams collect the parking revenue. And this has become an important revenue stream for them.

In the last week there have been two media articles about stadium parking. The North Lot development at CLink Field fell into place because the developer had to "replace" the parking spaces that were on the site. The cost was over $10 million. First and Goal will be the owner of the replacement spaces.

Over at the Mariners parking garage, a clause was inserted into a recently passed bill that allows the Mariner's to charge a 12.5% parking tax and prevents the city of Seatle from collecting the 10% parking tax it has been collecting on those same spaces. At least one City councilmember claims to have been caught off gaurd by this.

The hockey folks may be different; but I can't see the football or baseball teams agreeing to any shared parking revenue scheme.

[M'sFan]

^to continue my thought...I am all for finding a way to finance it; But selectively charging someone that much, regardless of what you make, is pretty sleazy, imo. It reminds me of when I was in Bulgaria and they have the "American Price" for hotel rooms- 50% more. Should we now charge CEOs who come to do business with Boeing a $2,500 per day fee for a convention center upgrade?

[just4ivaylo]

Originally Posted by M'sFan

^to continue my thought...I am all for finding a way to finance it; But selectively charging someone that much, regardless of what you make, is pretty sleazy, imo. It reminds me of when I was in Bulgaria and they have the "American Price" for hotel rooms- 50% more. Should we now charge CEOs who come to do business with Boeing a $2,500 per day fee for a convention center upgrade?

I'm Bulgarian and I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the "American Price." The prices at most hotels are pretty clear. And yes, if they can get more money out of you, they will. Do you think that's not the case anywhere else?

Anyways, I do agree that the $2500 charge is ridiculous.