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Originally Posted by browna
To a point its the same. However, Seattle more or less publiclly finananced the new baseball stadium in the early 2000's, and new football stadium a couple years after. The downtown arena a few years after that was bad timing.
The arena was no better then the old American Airlines (I think) arena in Phoeni, where the Suns and Coyotes played, but new arenas were on the way, plus Phoenix had ownership tight with the NBA office.
Suprised Sacramento lasted as long as they have. I was in that arena in the mid 1990's and its far too small (similar to the AA Arena in PHX) for an NBA team and no room for renos, and on top of that the city itself doesn't have the market to draw from.
I think this guy will be going after NBA team hard, with an NHL team as a consolation prize...but lets see his arena plan first and if its one like Katz....the "I'll put up 1/2 the funds for the arena, buy the NBA franchise with local investors, but the rest needs to come from somewhere else and then we'll have an NBA team, for a fraction it would've cost the taxpayers to have kept the Sonics back when" sell job.
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My understanding is Hansen is all about the NBA with another group (Bellevue?) that is interested in the NHL franchise. Their combining forces for a new arena.
I do think Phoenix is going to Quebec which is more ready at this point. As for the NBA, it could be a couple/three teams moving back.