Clay Bennett Looking Into NHL Team For Proposed New Arena

Luring an NHL franchise to the Seattle area “is a key component” in Sonics Owner Clay Bennett’s proposed arena in Renton, according to Percy Allen of the SEATTLE TIMES. Bennett: “We are beginning to work on an analysis for the NHL in the market, understanding first and foremost, is the product viable and then at the same time model the NHL in the building relative to revenue sharing, expense sharing with an NBA team.” The Sonics have hired an independent research firm “to determine if the Puget Sound market could support” an NHL team. Bennett said that he “hasn’t been in contact with either” the Penguins or Predators “but insinuated he’s had recent talks with the NHL” (SEATTLE TIMES, 2/15).

Sonics Owner Says Finances Could Force Team To Leave Arena Before Lease Expires

LEAVING EARLY? Bennett, in a meeting with SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER editors, said that “economic conditions could force the team to leave KeyArena before a lease expires in 2010 if the Legislature doesn’t provide funding for a new arena.” He said the team would lose “north of $20[M]” this season, and added that operating losses “would continue to increase” without a new arena. When asked if the team would stay in KeyArena “for the next few years if a new arena plan didn’t go his way,” Bennett said, “Perhaps.” But Jim Kneeland, a local PR liaison for the Sonics, later said that the team “has no intention of breaking the lease.” Kneeland: “There is no plan to do it. He has said he would honor the lease” (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 2/15).

SIZING UP THE FIGHT: King County Council member Bob Ferguson, one of five Democrats on the council who sent a letter to Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire demanding a referendum on public financing for the arena, said, “With no public vote, it’s dead on arrival.” State Sen. Margarita Prentice, who is sponsoring an arena bill, said, “I’m not sure what their motive is. Why have a public vote on a tax the people are already ... paying quite willingly? (SEATTLE TIMES, 2/15). State House Speaker Frank Chopp, who has “broad power to determine the House’s agenda,” said that he “wasn’t declaring the plan dead, but took great pains to denounce it as a grab by wealthy businessmen” (AP, 2/15). A SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER editorial states, “Bennett deserves credit for sincerity in his efforts to work out a deal that keeps the team in the Seattle area. ... [But] the Sonics still don’t seem to appreciate the depth of feeling about a public vote on any tax for a new facility. Right or wrong, a vote is probably necessary” (SEATTLE P-I, 2/15).