Stern In '04 And '06 Supported Similar KeyArena Upgrade Plans

Stern Says KeyArena Not An Adequate Arena Going Forward

Seattle Center Dir Robert Nellams said that in ’04 and ’06 NBA Commissioner David Stern “journeyed to Olympia" on behalf of the Sonics' previous ownership group led by Starbucks Chair & CEO Howard Schultz to help lobby the Washington state Legislature for a similar KeyArena upgrade funding proposal approved recently by a group of Seattle businessmen led by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, according to Greg Johns of the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER. Stern Tuesday in Oklahoma City said KeyArena is not an “adequate arena going forward.” Nellams: "Two separate ownership groups, a previous one and a potential one, have said it's adequate for them. I believe David Stern even said that in support of the Schultz package." Stern also said that KeyArena's "'footprint' was not big enough." However, Seattle developer Matt Griffin, part of Ballmer's prospective ownership group, said Stern's comments "haven't changed any of our action. I don't know if his comments were about the existing arena or a renovated arena. But clearly with renovation we'd expect to sit down with the NBA and make the changes necessary to make it successful." The current KeyArena "makeup of 370,000 square feet makes it about half the size of most modern NBA" arenas, but Nellams notes that that size "would be doubled by the proposed $300[M] restructuring." Nellams: "KeyArena is adequate. ... When the building is full and electric ... it's adequate." But Griffin added that "until a funding package is in place, he doesn't expect the league to respond" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 3/27).