Mariners VP Paul Isaki said the team's owners will invest
another $70M to keep the team in Seattle until 1999 if the sales
tax increase to build a new ballpark passes on September 19. But
if the team does not get a decision in September, the team would
"leave Seattle rather than risk playing the 1999 season in the
Kingdome." Debate begins today in a "divided" Metro King County
Council whether or not to increase the sales tax by .1% to build
a ballpark and upgrade the Kingdome. Isaki: "We'll go two years
(of more losses) to get this thing built, but we won't go any
longer than that." If a vote fails, Mariners owners "will barely
have enough time to sell the team before they have to start
underwriting a lame-duck '96 baseball season" (Rebecca Boren,
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 7/14).
SEAHAWKS' RISKY STRATEGY? Columnist Art Thiel writes on the
Seahawks' threat to leave without a better lease and $150M in
improvements to the Kingdome. The "security" of the team's first
18 years was "undercut" by two events in the last 12 months --
"The Kingdome broke. The cities of Oakland and St. Louis went
for broke and probably will be broke." Thiel says the team's
strategy "runs the risk that collective voter rage will tell both
teams to drop dead" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 7/14).
