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Mayor Murray recently met with NBA, NHL commissioners in New York

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Seattle mayor Ed Murray released a statement today,revealing that recently spoke with the commissioners of both the NBA and the NHL about bringing teams from both leagues to the Emerald City. Here is his statement:

"On Monday in New York City, on my way to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, I met for the first time with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver regarding the status of an NBA team returning to Seattle.

"While Commissioner Silver said Seattle remains a very attractive city for an NBA franchise with our NBA championship heritage and enthusiastic fan base, the league has no plans to expand at this time. The city will continue to do our part to bring NBA basketball back to Seattle.

"While in New York, I also met with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman about the future of NHL hockey in Seattle. We are very keen on bringing an NHL team here, and the commissioner recognizes the value we would bring as a home to a future franchise. We will continue to work toward that shared vision."

Chris Daniels also revealed that while Murray did not originally pitch Chris Hansen's Seattle Arena plan, he is now on board with the project.

Murray expressed displeasure with the latest FEIS delay, and demanded more transparency from the DPD and URS, the company handling the process. With this latest statement, it would seem that Murray is intent on getting this done. This can only be seen as good news for us. Even if the NBA has no plans to expand right now, and the NHL-first scenario is still not being looked at, we still need to do everything we can to get our house in order for when company arrives. Murray is a good person to have in our corner for that purpose.