Key question: If an arena is built, will NHL, NBA call Seattle home?

SEATTLE — For more than half this decade, the debate around building a new arena in Seattle has gone nowhere. The talk of a new home that could someday house the NBA and NHL has been filled with roadblocks, detractors, rising hopes and emotional outbursts from fans. Still, there has been no answer.

Could there finally be an end to the lingering question of if and when Seattle might get another professional team?

Seattle is in the midst of an arena showdown involving three groups and two sites. It’s an intricate dance weaving interests of private investment, public facilities, political pressures and passionate fans. A decision expected by the end of June will shape how Seattle moves forward.

“This is a once in a generational opportunity, and we have three, potentially three, investor groups willing to invest upward to half a billion dollars each,” said Brian Surratt, the director of the Office of Economic Development for the city of Seattle. “So let’s understand all of our options.”

The three groups are talking of privately financed arenas that ask for no public investment, but none has an upfront promise of an NBA or NHL franchise as an anchor tenant to call that building home.

Seattle — the No. 14 media market in the United States — is the only market in the top 25 nationally that does not have an NBA or NHL team. It’s the outlier in the winter sports marketplace. But the debate still hinges on whether to create an arena first, or lure a team first and let the arena follow.

“We build an arena that can accommodate NHL and NBA, investors will be here,” Surratt said. “Teams will want to be in this market, and what’s been clear to me this entire process is we need to solve the arena equation and the investments will come, because right now we don’t have a plan.”

Nearly six years after he started, investor Chris Hansen is still trying to get an arena constructed on land he owns near Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field. New to the conversation is talk of revitalizing KeyArena, former home of the SuperSonics that was deemed outdated and a catalyst for the team bolting to Oklahoma City in 2008.