Even Paul Allen Lacks Some Interest In New Stadium

Billionaire Paul Allen is striking the pose of the reluctant suitor in the Capitol - interested in buying the Seahawks and building a new stadium, but not all that interested.

Then again, Allen has hired some of the priciest lobbying talent in Olympia to push the stadium deal. And he kicked off a $200,000 statewide TV ad campaign this week to help sell the public on the $402 million plan.

That doesn’t seem so reluctant.

But so far in Olympia, it’s not clear who, if anyone, is really pushing to make the deal come off.

Leaders of both houses of the Legislature sniff that they are too busy to bother with the stadium.

“We have 1,000 other issues the people elected us to do,” said Sen. Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, the Senate majority leader.

House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-Wenatchee, looked on, smiling as McDonald added, “Clyde and I are not going to spend our time on this.”

The folks at Football Northwest, the company formed by Allen to buy the Seahawks, know they are facing a tough fight in Olympia.

In 1994, King County taxpayers got stuck with a $70 million roof repair bill for the Kingdome. In 1995, the Mariners talked the Legislature into buying them a $325 million stadium. The price has ballooned to more than $400 million and construction hasn’t even started.

Then in December 1996, the ballclub threatened to leave town anyway. Now Allen wants to blow up the Kingdome before the roof repair is even paid for, and build a new football stadium, too.

After having so much fun with baseball, lawmakers are less than fresh and eager to tackle football.

“It’s the worst timing in the world. Are you kidding me? After baseball?” said Bob Whitsitt, a key Allen aide and president of the Portland Trail Blazers. “It’s stadium overload.”

But Football Northwest’s company line is that it’s all the same to Allen if the deal doesn’t come off.

“If it doesn’t work from our standpoint, we say we did our best, Paul did his best,” Whitsitt said. “It’s not an ulcer deal. Not a mandate.

“He was pulled into this. Do you think we enjoy spending our life with politicians? Absolutely not.”

Said Harry Hutt, another Allen aide: “He’s kind of doing this for the state of Washington and Seattle…. It’s not like he’s Mr. Pigskin.”

Chasing the train

Just a few weeks ago GOP leaders, who control both houses of the Legislature, were hugging the new guv and promising a cooperative relationship as the legislative session got under way.

Instead, leaders in the House and Senate have been rushing to pass Locke on the right. Within a month of opening day, they adopted two property tax bills worth $220 million in tax cuts.

That’s too much, Locke says. He keeps urging lawmakers to slow down and work out a compromise he can live with.

“We’ve been put in the position of reacting to all these major tax plans and barely have time to plan a long-term strategy for the session,” said Marty Brown, Locke’s liaison to the Legislature.

“Nobody even wants to talk. There is no meaningful dialogue. It’s, ‘Here’s what we are going to do governor and if you don’t want to do it, we’ll send it to referendum.”’

Lawmakers already have sent one bill to the ballot, and may send more shortly, to avoid Locke’s veto pen.

Meanwhile, Locke has yet to roll out his own agenda for the session. He’s not driving the legislative train so much as he is chasing it. Short honeymoon.

How about hot air tax?

Late in the afternoon on a drizzly work day a guy in the second row of a packed, airless committee hearing room is nodding off, his head drooping under an avalanche of rhetoric.

Gas tax increase? Department of Transportation types don’t call it that as they make their pitch to a Senate committee for more money.

Instead, they insist, it’s an “inflation adjusted user fee.”

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