Saying goodbye to Seattle’s KeyArena

NBA preseason game tonight the final event before remodelling for potential NHL franchise

SEATTLE — He was a kid at the time, all of 19 years old, about to conclude his first NBA season. He stood on the court in green and gold, waving his arms up and down, asking for more noise from the home crowd and begging for another chance to see the home team play. That was more than 10 years ago. Kevin Durant was that kid. The Seattle SuperSonics were his team. “Just that culture of the Sonics was really, really deep and so many people all around the world or all around the country enjoyed the Sonics,” Durant said recently. “It was pretty crazy, man, now that I think about it, the time we spent there, the little time we spent there and how much we could have impacted the city if we stayed.”

A decade later, Durant will be back in that same building tonight, again likely to be waving his arms toward what is expected to be a sold-out sea of green and gold. KeyArena, the former home of the Sonics, will host its final event tonight when Durant’s Golden State Warriors meet the Sacramento Kings in an NBA preseason game. KeyArena will then be shuttered and remodeled from top to bottom.

There could be no more appropriate way to see the building sent off in its current state than to have the NBA under its roof one more time.

It will be the first NBA game here since that April night in 2008 when Durant was on the floor as the Sonics played their home finale amid chants of “Save Our Sonics” before moving to Oklahoma City. He spent only his rookie season in the Emerald City.

KeyArena has been the home of junior hockey, indoor soccer and roller derby. It hosted the final indoor concert performed by the Beatles in 1966 and seemingly every major artist since.

It’s seen two WNBA title banners raised to its rafters and will have a third added when the new building opens. The Storm won a third title this past season.

Investors are about to pour $700 million into the facility. If all goes to plan, the building will become a construction site sometime in the next 60 days, beginning a two-year transformation that will remodel and modernize the building.

It will be reborn as the expected home of an expansion NHL franchise to begin play in either the 2020 or 2021 season.

The Associated Press KeyArena, which hosts sports and entertainment events, is seen from the air in Seattle. KeyArena is getting an appropriate send-off tonight with an NBA game being played once again under its roof as the former home of the SuperSonics will see the Golden State Warriors meet the Sacramento Kings in preseason action. Afterward, the building will be shuttered and remodeled, with the potential to become home to an NHL team.