NHL FIRST UP BUT NBA COULD FOLLOW
Pro hockey’s return to Seattle should serve as good test case for basketball league
Walk around the old KeyArena in downtown Seattle and you would assume the building is under construction.
An eight-foot security fence, replete with warning signs that hard hats must be worn at all times, surrounds the perimeter of the now-abandoned arena.
Dump trucks and cranes are parked in the now-abandoned lot. But as of today, not a single worker can be found on the site.
That will change Tuesday, when the NHL’s board of governors votes on whether to approve a $650-million expansion into Seattle. Once ownership gets the green light, shovels will literally break ground on an ambitious arena project expected to last until the puck drops in 2020
— or at worst 2021.
“There’s a lot of work to be done even before demolition starts,” said former NHL head coach Dave Tippett, who was hired as a senior hockey advisor for the Seattle ownership group.
“They’ve had crews in there, but the first day when work can officially start is on Tuesday. That was part of the agreement with the city.”
This much is certain: the refurbished Seattle Center Arena will be a hockey-first facility. But if all goes well, the yet-to-be-named NHL franchise won’t be its only tenant.
It’s been 10 years since the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City, and though the NBA has no intention of adding an expansion team, having an arena and solid ownership could make the city a prime destination for the next team that decides to relocate.
“Our biggest obstacle was getting the building done, so bringing the NHL gets the building done and solves the biggest obstacle,” said Brian Robinson, a basketball writer for Sonics Rising on SB Nation who is on the mayor’s commission on civic arenas. “At the same time, it does create some pressure for the NBA to look and say, ‘Is this a market that we want to risk giving away?’ ”
For now, the arena is being designed with hockey as its primary focus.
That wasn’t the case when the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds played in the former home of the Supersonics. Originally opened in 1962, the arena technically could house as many as 20,000.
But that number was significantly less when the unique arena, which features a sloped roof, was outfitted with ice.
“They let (former Supersonics owner Barry) Ackerley have the final say on the design and he designed it so that hockey wouldn’t work,” said Thunderbirds GM Russ Farwell.
“He did a good job. It was a terrible hockey rink.
“There were 12,000 hockey seats. But all the seats are positioned to point at centre court for basketball, so you were kind of turned halfway. We couldn’t sell certain sections because of the slope of the roof. Even if you had a good crowd, you were looking at a big, gaping hole.”
The roof of the building is the most iconic feature of the arena.
But it is also the most challenging part of putting hockey back in Seattle.
It would be easier to just tear down KeyArena and start from scratch.
But because the roof received landmark status, the Oak View Group’s $700-million building proposal had to include keeping the roof intact by extending it and then digging 15 feet down to lower the arena’s bowl.
Still, Farwell is skeptical how it will all come together.
“I still have to see it to believe it that they can get a state-ofthe-art arena under that roof,” he said. “They’re taking everything out and just keeping the roof. The roof limits the concourse and money-producing areas. They’re going to have to compensate for that. It’s going to be a tremendous feat.”
If ownership can get it done — and if Seattle is as initially successful as Vegas’ recent NHL expansion team — then you can bet it’s only a matter of time before the NBA looks at a potential return to Seattle. All that’s needed is a team to relocate, although attendance issues in New Orleans and Charlotte suggest it’s only a matter of time.
After all, this is a different market than it was 10 years ago. The city is booming, with tech giants Amazon, Microsoft and others building their headquarters in the downtown area. As Robinson said, “Seattle is ripe for not one, but two teams coming here.
“The development of Amazon around Southlake Union has really changed that neighbourhood,” said Robinson.
“Even before, it was a really interesting place to see a game, because it was in a neighbourhood. Every fan had their own secret parking spot and their own favourite bar.”
And while hockey is still considered a niche sport, the fact that it took only 12 minutes to sell 10,000 deposits for season tickets is a sign that this is a market hungering for a winter sport.
“I know the NBA was paying attention to that,” said Robinson.
“They saw the market and they saw the demand. This will only increase their awareness to that. I think that the NHL is a huge contributor to the NBA coming back, primarily because it solves the arena issue.
“The NBA is going to be watching the success of the NHL and saying, ‘that could be our audience.’ ”
At the same time, it does create some pressure for the NBA to look and say, ‘Is this a market that we want to risk giving away?’