King County Group Will Hear Stadium Cost Alternatives

King County faces a dilemma. Without a new football stadium, it risks losing the Seahawks. Without a renovated Kingdome, it loses any chance of playing future host to the NCAA Final Four.

Today, the Kingdome Renovation Task Force will learn the cost difference between renovating the 20-year-old domed stadium and building the open-air football stadium that prospective Seahawks owner Paul Allen would prefer. But in considering its options, the county will have to consider factors that have nothing to do with the NFL.

Razing the gray concrete Kingdome and building an open-air stadium in its place would cost the county not only any part of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in the future but also truck and tractor pulls and motocross races.

The task force is scheduled to hear cost estimates for four possible ways to keep the Seahawks - renovate the Kingdome, build an open-air stadium on the Kingdome site or build an open-air stadium on either of two sites in Kent.