Is the dream dead? What we know, and don’t know, about Seattle area arena projects

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything of note relating to any of the arena plans relating to the return of the Seattle Supersonics. Let’s look at where things stand.

The last statement we heard from Chris Hansen was May 4, almost four months ago now. That statement related to the various reports of mysoginystic emails and comments sent to the City Council members who voted against the street vacation of Occidental Avenue. Two days earlier, Hansen had released a statement where he announced his team’s plan to “step back and evaluate our options, better understand the council’s concerns and find a path forward.” Since then, we have heard very little (read: nothing) about what that path may be. Behind closed doors, we’ve heard that Hansen is still committed to the project, but that’s about it. We don’t know what he intends to do to try and change the mind of at least one Council member in order to get the street vacation.

We’ve also heard that Ray Bartoszek is still committed to his arena plan in Tukwila but, again, we don’t know much more than that. We know he is still in search of a new lead investor and we know he was recently in town attending a Seattle Sounders game. Other than that... not much (read: again, nothing). The website set up by the city of Tukwila for arena updates was last updated June 29. Of last year. As far we know, the EIS is still in process, although it seems to be taking longer than scheduled. Whether it’s actually on hold we don’t know because, again, the website hasn’t been updated in over a year.

What about Bellevue? Well, if you find out what’s going on over there, please let us know because we’re as in the dark there as everyone else. We know there’s a project there but that’s about it. Where it might be, or who might be behind it, or if they ever plan to go public with their intentions are all mysteries at this point.

Sorry, we wish we had more to offer. We’d love to give you constant updates but the fact is they just aren’t there. We don’t have any news we’re sitting on or any stories we can’t share. There’s just nothing right now. Everyone is either too busy with other projects or they are locked in a dark room toiling away on a new plan. Once we know more, we’ll be sure to pass it along but for now we do the one thing we’ve gotten really good over the past 8 years and that’s wait.