SuperSonics want Renton
OLYMPIA — The Seattle SuperSonics have chosen the Seattle suburb of Renton as the site for a proposed new $500 million multipurpose arena. Sonics owner Clay Bennett and King County Executive Ron Sims announced the choice Tuesday to state lawmakers.
“At this time the city of Renton is the most viable location for this new facility,” Bennett told a Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing on proposed bills that would authorize the use of King County taxes.
Committee chairwoman Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, beamed.
The taxes proposed to be used already exist and are paying for new Seattle stadiums for baseball’s Seattle Mariners and the NFL Seattle Seahawks, as well as for remaining debt on the now-demolished Kingdome.
Bennett said the decision on Renton, south of Seattle, was made late Monday night after review of an initial list of 29 sites.
He cited Renton’s potential for economic growth, and said the 21-acre site is larger, more available and less expensive than a proposed site along “auto row” in Bellevue, east of Seattle.
“This is not about building a building for the Sonics and (WNBA) Storm. It’s about building an asset for the region,” Bennett declared, adding the cost of the project could change as the team begins refining the plan.
“That is certainly a moving number,” Bennett said, causing some in the room to snicker and chuckle.
“Let’s do it right and let’s do it big,” he said, ” … but in a thoughtful process and value-oriented manner.”
The NBA team’s new ownership, led by Bennett, is seeking a new home to replace the aging KeyArena in Seattle. If Bennett doesn’t get an agreement for a new arena in the Seattle area by Oct. 31, his $350 million purchase agreement allows him to move the team to Oklahoma, where he is a prominent businessman.
Committee members asked Bennett just one question after his testimony – are the Sonics going to win an NBA title soon?
“We need to make money so we can invest in the team, have the best payroll possible … ” Bennett replied, adding, “We intend to win an NBA title.”
The Sonics won the NBA championship once – in 1979.
Sims announced the Renton choice 10 minutes before Bennett’s turn to testify before 16 lawmakers and a roomful of media and curious onlookers.
“We in King County support this bill … and are looking forward to working with the city of Renton,” Sims said at the end of his testimony.
“I don’t want to see the Sonics or the Storm leave this community. They are very valuable to this community,” Sims said. “These are quality-of-life investments.”
The Renton site is across from a residential and entertainment development known as “The Landing” near the south end of Lake Washington. The land is owned by Boeing Co. Bennett and Scott Carson, the president and CEO of Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division, met once last fall to discuss the land, and representatives have met since then to discuss issues surrounding the land, but there haven’t been any formal negotiations, Boeing spokesman Peter Conte said.
The fact that the site had just one owner – as opposed to four parcels with four different owners at a potential Bellevue site – was perhaps a factor in the selection.
Last month, Bennett told The Associated Press that the team believes the Renton site will require remodeled traffic patterns to and from nearby Interstate 405. And the Sonics also believe new parking structures will need to be built. Jim Kneeland, Bennett’s spokesman, has said that could add as much as $150 million to the project’s cost.