Allen Wins Court Battle On Ballot Wording Stadium Measure Will Mention Soccer But Won’t Mention $300 Million Public Cost Or Kingdome Demolition
Prospective Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen isn’t hiding the public’s $300 million share of his proposed football stadium, but so far he’s not going out of his way to highlight the bottom line either.
Allen’s team of football boosters won a key court battle Monday, defeating an effort by stadium foes to rewrite the ballot question that will be put to Washington state voters on June 17.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Paula Casey agreed with Allen that it won’t be necessary to mention the $300 million in the 25-word question.
Allen also didn’t mention the public’s total investment in the $425 million project in a full-page advertisement that ran Monday in newspapers across the state.
Critics accused the Microsoft billionaire, who plans to buy the team if voters agree to build a new stadium, of manipulating the state to get what he wants.
“I think they would like to control the flow of information for this ballot referendum,” said state Rep. Tim Sheldon, D-Hoodsport, a leading critic of the stadium plan. “I think it’s pretty deceptive in the way they’ve written this.”
But Allen’s top campaign strategist said no effort is being made to hide anything, saying the ad simply marks the opening salvo in a comprehensive media blitz which will include radio spots this week and television ads next week.
“We’re just trying to get information out so people know what it is,” Seattle campaign consultant Bob Gogerty said. “It wasn’t meant to be anything more than an ad that says, ‘Here we go, here are the basic elements and here’s how you get involved.”’
Monday’s brief court fight over the ballot question was crucial because the ballot wording is the last information voters see about the content of a proposal before voting.
The group Citizens for Leaders with Ethics and Accountability Now! said the ballot question drafted by the state attorney general’s office was inadequate because it failed to mention the public’s $300 million cost and that plans call for the Kingdome to be demolished.
But the judge said the Kingdome’s demolition is not a critical element of the legislation approved last month by the Legislature. She acknowledged that the public’s total investment is important but said other factors deserve greater weight in a ballot question that’s limited by law to 25 words.
Instead, Casey agreed to a minor change proposed by Football Northwest, the group formed by Allen to manage his bid to buy the team, that mentions the stadium’s potential use as a soccer site, too.
The revised title says: “Shall a public stadium authority be authorized to build and operate a football/soccer stadium and exhibition center financed by tax revenues and private contributions?”
Casey also agreed to make several largely technical changes to the explanatory statement that accompanies the ballot question.
The court case coincided with Football Northwest’s full-page newspaper ad with this statement in bold type: “The more you know, the better it looks.”
The ad includes two drawings showing views inside and outside the proposed stadium, a list of funding sources, a comparison between the new stadium and the Kingdome and an argument for why the Kingdome should be replaced.
But several key items either weren’t mentioned or got scant attention.
In a section titled “Bottom line,” the ad noted that the public’s share of the project would come from lottery games, sales tax credits and deferrals, an extension of the King County hotel/motel tax and stadium admission and parking fees. However, it didn’t mention the public’s bottom line: $300 million.
There also was no urgent “save the Seahawks” message, even though that’s the reason Allen got involved in the first place.
In fact, the Seahawks, who haven’t had a winning season since 1990, were mentioned only once, and that was in a section about the team’s lease in the new stadium.
Instead, the ad appealed to soccer fans with a drawing depicting a World Cup soccer match inside the new stadium.
Gogerty said the soccer picture was used to demonstrate Allen’s commitment to building a stadium that will offer more uses than the Kingdome does.
xxxx THE WORDING Here is the question that Washington voters will be asked to decide June 17: “Shall a public stadium authority be authorized to build and operate a football/soccer stadium and exhibition center financed by tax revenues and private contributions?”