Seattle city officials yesterday said that they are "on target for completing a draft agreement to renovate KeyArena for NBA and NHL use by Sept. 12, and they hope a final deal is achieved before year’s end," according to Geoff Baker of the SEATTLE TIMES. Seattle Office of Economic Development Dir Brian Surratt told a city council arena committee meeting at City Hall that "language on a Memorandum of Understanding is already being drafted." Surratt said that city negotiators have "held three all-day sessions" with L.A.-based Oak View Group on "finer points" of their proposed $564M renovation. Some council members "expressed concern about being able to meet such a time frame." The council has "engaged its own consultant to review the city’s draft MOU with OVG after Sept. 12, but that bumps up against the start of a two-month period typically used by staffers to help finalize the city’s budget." The council will also "consider a proposal by entrepreneur Chris Hansen to build an all-private arena in the city’s Sodo District." Hansen "still has a five-year MOU in effect" from '12 that would provide him up to $200M in "public-bond funds for an arena if he can land an NBA team first." The revised, all-private Hansen proposal in Sodo is "still winding its way through the department of transportation and also could reach the council by early fall." However, the Mariners, Seahawks and Sounders have "complained that Hansen’s group has yet to negotiate a binding event scheduling deal with them" (SEATTLE TIMES, 8/15).
