Seahawks Majority Owner Ken Behring said he does not want to
move his team, but needs a guarantee from King County that money
from a possible tax increase will be available for Kingdome
renovations. On Wednesday, the Seahawks called for $150M in
Kingdome renovations in return for their support of the .01%
sales tax hike to build the Mariners a new ballpark. The county
has told the Seahawks they will receive funds left over from the
tax increase after the $240M for a new baseball stadium and last
year's Kingdome repairs are paid off. But Behring "questions how
much money will be left for the Seahawks." Behring: "We've heard
figures from $10 million to $150 million." Behring also revealed
that his team, once one of the more profitable NFL franchises,
lost around $5M last season (John Clayton, TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE,
7/15). The King County council has scheduled public hearings on
Tuesday and Wednesday for the proposed ballot measure. The first
organized opposition to the tax has formed: "Citizens for More
Important Things" (Farnsworth & Foster, SEATTLE POST-
INTELLIGENCER, 7/15). In Tacoma, columnist Bart Wright writes
that any proposal for a new Mariners stadium should also help the
Seahawks. Wright: "The truth is that there's a much greater
likelihood for a return on the investment with the Seahawks than
on the Mariners" (TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE, 7/16). However, Art Thiel
bashes the Behrings for running the team into red ink: "What has
crippled this team is bad management, not a bad building"
(SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 7/16).
SOUTHWARD BEHRINGS? Behring said the team is keeping all
options open, but were told at the last NFL meetings that the
open L.A. market is "an NFL program." Behring: "The NFL is going
to take care of that problem in their own way. They are not
going to permit other teams to go down there. That's the one
market the NFL wants to oversee and control" (John Clayton,
TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE, 7/15).
