There Are Better Uses For Tax Dollars Not Worth It There Are Limits To What We Should Do To Keep Two Teams.

Let ‘em go.

The Seahawks. The Mariners. Just let ‘em go.

After more than a year of contortions and extortion to keep the two teams in Seattle, owners of both organizations are acting like spoiled brats who - when they don’t get their own way - threaten to take their ball and find a new home.

I say we’d be better off without them.

First, consider the Chicken Hawks - the only team more frustrating than the Cougars. Paul Allen, the Hawks’ owner-in-waiting, insists the team needs a new $400 million stadium to make a profit. Other options, like renovating the “aging” Kingdome (merely 20 years old) or updating Husky Stadium to make better use of a multi-million dollar facility that’s used less than a dozen times a year, have been dismissed by Allen as unworkable. He wants a new playpen, or he moves.

All this for a team that broke into the playoffs only 4 times in its 21 seasons.

That leads us to the Mariners - a team that’s shown in the last three years it has the players and the management (if not the pitchers) to get to the World Series. This team, if any, is worth an investment.

Despite the fact that I love baseball and live for Mariners games, deep down I know there are limits to what the state or the city of Seattle can and should do to keep them. Armed with two incredible seasons and superstars like Ken Griffey, Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Randy Johnson, the Mariners can demand just about anything.

Some Seattle officials seem willing to give the team’s owners everything they ask for in the design, location and contract for a $384.5 million stadium. But a few had the audacity to try to slow things down a bit, make sure everything was legal. Minor stuff like that. The Mariners cried foul.

It took the attention and smooth promises of a U.S. senator to bring the owners back to the table after they put the team up for sale last week.

In the end, will Seattle shell out millions to keep millionaire football and baseball players playing in their town? It’s simply not worth it. The money spent appeasing sports interests would go much further in improving the city’s quality of life if it went for education, parks or infrastructure.

Now that would be a game everyone would win.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: Pro sports teams important to area

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