Huard Brings Allen’s Campaign Here Former Husky Quarterback Makes His Pitch For Stadium Proposal

Damon Huard may be finished as a passer but the former University of Washington quarterback has kicked off a new career, carrying the ball for billionaire Paul Allen.

Huard is in Spokane to rally support for a new stadium for the Seattle Seahawks.

A proposed 72,000-seat, open-air stadium, exhibition center and 2,000-space parking garage on the present Kingdome site - across the street from the recently approved Mariners baseball facility - would cost an estimated $402 million.

Speaking to the downtown Kiwanis Club Tuesday, Huard outlined how private and public money could be combined to keep the Seahawks in Seattle.

Should a funding plan be OK’d by the state Legislature, it would be presented to Washington voters for approval in June. Allen has agreed to pick up the estimated $3 million tab for a special election, Huard said.

Huard, 23, a three-year starter at Washington and a former Academic All-America, works for Football Northwest, owned by Allen, who has an option to buy the Seahawks from Ken Behring.

Behring wants to move the Seahawks to Cleveland or Anaheim.

“The bottom-line reason for the existence of Football Northwest is to find out if the Seahawks can be a viable business in Seattle,” said Huard, who signed with the Cincinnati Bengals last year but was cut late in training camp. “Paul Allen wants to know if keeping the Seahawks in the Great Northwest is of interest to you.

“You’ll recall last February when the moving vans were packed and the team was off to Los Angeles. Players were going through their winter-spring drills in the old L.A. Rams training facility. It was a time of chaos.

“At that time, community leaders came to Paul Allen.”

Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, owns the Portland Trail Blazers and the Rose Garden, the 17,000-seat building the NBA team plays in.

That facility was built on time, under budget and is meeting all projections, Huard said.

Allen would put up $200 million to buy the Seahawks and $100 million to help build the stadium. He has also agreed to pay for any cost overruns, Huard said.

As outlined by stadium proponents, the rest of the money would come from a statewide 10 percent wholesale tax on licensed sports items, additional scratch lottery games, a sales tax break and a possible tax on car rentals.

Huard urged the audience to contact their legislators to “at least get it out to a vote of the people.”

A new stadium would also enable Seattle to attract a major league soccer franchise and bid for soccer’s World Cup, said Huard, who today meets with the Hillyard Rotary at noon.

A new stadium is important to an NFL club because although 90 percent of revenue is shared, the 10 percent that is not shared is stadium-generated money from luxury boxes, parking and concessions.

Playing in the Kingdome, built in 1975 at a cost of $60 million, the Seahawks realized $1.7 million in stadium revenue last year, Huard said, a trifling amount compared with the $40 million the Dallas Cowboys took from Texas Stadium.

That money is used as signing bonuses to attract the game’s top players, he said.

The Kingdome could be renovated for $36 million less than the cost of a new stadium, Huard said.

“But is that a long-term solution? The Mariners are off and running into a new facility in 1999. If Paul Allen doesn’t buy the Seahawks, they go back to Ken Behring (and are gone).

“That would leave the Kingdome without its two biggest clients, the Mariners and the Seahawks,” Huard said. “That’s 90 dates. If the Kingdome doesn’t make up those 90 dates but continues to maintain and operate the facility for trade shows, home shows and what-not, it’s going to cost the general fund $180 million over the next 15 years.”

A revenue-generating new stadium could retire some of the $130 million Kingdome debt and “only cost the general fund about $22 million” over 15 years, he said.

, DataTimes