RIP New Sonics Arena, XXXX-2016

In case you didn't hear, yesterday the Seattle City Council voted No on a proposed street vacation (clearing a road of traffic) that is needed to build a new basketball stadium south of downtown Seattle. It's not quite the death knell for the proposed arena but it does undo most of the work hopeful new owner Chris Hansen has put into moving a NBA team back to Seattle.

Overall the issue is pretty complicated and I don't want to write a dozen paragraphs about it, I just can't believe the Sonics have been gone for 8 years now and we're not even close to getting a team back. I remember when they left EVERY pundit they talked to on the radio was positive the Sonics would be back in a few years. Seattle was too big of a market, basketball was too popular here. This wasn't a Kansas City Kings scenario or anything, there's a team right around the corner!

Lies, all lies. I don't think anyone was being malicious just optimistic. The truth of the matter is moving a sports franchise is a big deal, it feels like it happens all the time but it really doesn't and when it does it because a city is DESPERATE for a team. When the Sonics moved to OKC they already had a stadium built, just sitting there waiting for someone. Seattle just isn't going to do that, politics around here are weird. Even if they weren't weird, how do you justify spending like $500 million of public funds to build a stadium for a team that doesn't exist? We need to save that money for when the new tunnel running under the waterfront eventually collapses.

I guess I'll just have to keep ignoring the NBA. I hear Dell Curry is having a really great year.