Allen Posturing For New Kingdome Lease

Billionaire Paul Allen, who has an option to buy the Seattle Seahawks, wants a written guarantee that King County will renegotiate the team’s Kingdome lease, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Saturday.

Allen is seeking more concessions and luxury suite revenue, advertising income and a shortened lease that would allow him to move the team to a new home in King County, the newspaper said, citing unnamed county sources.

Kevin Raymond, county Executive Gary Locke’s chief of staff, and Bob Whitsitt, Allen’s representative, downplayed the situation. After a two-hour meeting Friday, they said that the result might, or might not, be a written commitment from Locke.

“We haven’t asked for anything yet,” Whitsitt said. “We’ve talked about a lot of things.”

Raymond said the county is generally amenable to helping Allen out - as long as the money does not flow to current team owner Ken Behring.

Allen holds an exclusive option to buy the franchise from Behring before July 1997.

“We would be prepared to talk about more favorable lease terms for a local owner,” Raymond said. “We’re not prepared to discuss a new lease arrangement that could benefit the current ownership.”