Monday, January 12, 2004
GUESS WHO WANTS A NEW ARENA?
Your Seattle SuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuperSonics!
That's right, the Sonic brass has concluded that the revenue-generating capabilites of KeyArena are not sufficient. Of course, they know they won't get an arena built right away (team is looking up but still mediocre, and the community won't warm up too easily since they've been busy paying for two stadiums), but they have some people looking at new arenas around the country and whatnot.
The article brings up the disparities between the Key and some other arenas...
The footprint of KeyArena - which was renovated in 1994-95 at a cost of $74 million - is about 360,000 square feet, and there is nowhere to expand at Seattle Center. The footprints of buildings such as Conseco Fieldhouse and SBC Center are 750,000 square feet. For the Rose Garden in Portland and the United Center in Chicago, the figure is almost 1 million square feet. In addition, those buildings have at least some form of on-site parking, which KeyArena does not and never could have.
It was always a bitch to park at KeyArena. I remember a couple times when I did security for CSC (the yellow shirt guys), me and my bro-in-law had to find some place to park around the arena for either Bumbershoot or a Sonic game (can't remember which) and I think we managed to park too far away AND park in a space where I had doubts that it was legal to park, but I wasn't sure because some of the stuff around there wasn't clearly marked.
In a related story, a couple years ago, Jeremy, and friends Steve and DT went down to Portland to see the Timberwolves and TrailBlazers at the Rose Garden. The parking lot was huge. The area right outside the arena was pretty cool, with the sidewalks and a couple of sculptures and whatnot. Memorial Coliseum (the hailed Glass Palace...remember how you could see the windows and the light from outside when guys shot free throws in that place during the national NBC playoff telecasts?) also isn't far away. Also, kudos to Paul Allen and the Blazer brass for picking OUR ROW in the UPPER DECK a few rows from the roof (and not some rich three-rows-from-courtside guys in suits) for the free Papa John's breadsticks. We had dinner on Paul Allen's tab. Felt great. Tasted even better. And it should have because we had to go to some creepy Papa John's in NE Portland to redeem the coupons.
Where Portland gets screwed in parking is if they want to see the Portland Beavers at PGE Park. The parking lots are blocks away. But the convenient thing is that the Beaver ticket stub doubles as a free day pass on the Tri-Met buses (or light rails if you come in from that far). You gotta love Seattle, though, because the town is way too cool for light rail and meaningful public transportation.
Also, KeyArena's seats are not for the big and tall. There isn't a lot of legroom, which also doubles as "room to walk between the seats of one row and the backs of the seats of the row below." The result is a lot of shin-banging.
Anyway, if that new arena gets built, one can only hope that if Schultz isn't too much of a bastard, the NHL could come to Seattle. Of course, they'd have to drum up some public support for hockey. The other sick thing would be this -- with how unknowledgable a good portion of the Mariner fans are, I could only imagine how brainless a bunch of hockey newbies would be. Yikes. Why not Seattle though? Frigging Columbus, Ohio has a team.
That's right, the Sonic brass has concluded that the revenue-generating capabilites of KeyArena are not sufficient. Of course, they know they won't get an arena built right away (team is looking up but still mediocre, and the community won't warm up too easily since they've been busy paying for two stadiums), but they have some people looking at new arenas around the country and whatnot.
The article brings up the disparities between the Key and some other arenas...
The footprint of KeyArena - which was renovated in 1994-95 at a cost of $74 million - is about 360,000 square feet, and there is nowhere to expand at Seattle Center. The footprints of buildings such as Conseco Fieldhouse and SBC Center are 750,000 square feet. For the Rose Garden in Portland and the United Center in Chicago, the figure is almost 1 million square feet. In addition, those buildings have at least some form of on-site parking, which KeyArena does not and never could have.
It was always a bitch to park at KeyArena. I remember a couple times when I did security for CSC (the yellow shirt guys), me and my bro-in-law had to find some place to park around the arena for either Bumbershoot or a Sonic game (can't remember which) and I think we managed to park too far away AND park in a space where I had doubts that it was legal to park, but I wasn't sure because some of the stuff around there wasn't clearly marked.
In a related story, a couple years ago, Jeremy, and friends Steve and DT went down to Portland to see the Timberwolves and TrailBlazers at the Rose Garden. The parking lot was huge. The area right outside the arena was pretty cool, with the sidewalks and a couple of sculptures and whatnot. Memorial Coliseum (the hailed Glass Palace...remember how you could see the windows and the light from outside when guys shot free throws in that place during the national NBC playoff telecasts?) also isn't far away. Also, kudos to Paul Allen and the Blazer brass for picking OUR ROW in the UPPER DECK a few rows from the roof (and not some rich three-rows-from-courtside guys in suits) for the free Papa John's breadsticks. We had dinner on Paul Allen's tab. Felt great. Tasted even better. And it should have because we had to go to some creepy Papa John's in NE Portland to redeem the coupons.
Where Portland gets screwed in parking is if they want to see the Portland Beavers at PGE Park. The parking lots are blocks away. But the convenient thing is that the Beaver ticket stub doubles as a free day pass on the Tri-Met buses (or light rails if you come in from that far). You gotta love Seattle, though, because the town is way too cool for light rail and meaningful public transportation.
Also, KeyArena's seats are not for the big and tall. There isn't a lot of legroom, which also doubles as "room to walk between the seats of one row and the backs of the seats of the row below." The result is a lot of shin-banging.
Anyway, if that new arena gets built, one can only hope that if Schultz isn't too much of a bastard, the NHL could come to Seattle. Of course, they'd have to drum up some public support for hockey. The other sick thing would be this -- with how unknowledgable a good portion of the Mariner fans are, I could only imagine how brainless a bunch of hockey newbies would be. Yikes. Why not Seattle though? Frigging Columbus, Ohio has a team.
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