Required listening for the Mayor and SCC

By Jeff - j1012 on 02.14.17 8:15am

In other words, something none of them will listen to.

By Drunk Viking on 02.16.17 11:09pm

Does anyone have

pics of AEG’s promo brochure they brought to the Uptown Alliance Meeting last night?

https://twitter.com/JoshShea40

By nowa95000 on 02.14.17 9:09am

Here is my reference

https://twitter.com/JoshShea40/status/831338356806017024/photo/1

By nowa95000 on 02.14.17 9:09am

I'll tweet the other 3 pages of the pamphlet here in a minute

Apologies in advance for the very bad photography.

By Mr. Shea on 02.14.17 9:19am

Thanks!

Did OVG have promotional materials? I hope that the pamphlet mentions nba/nhl….

By nowa95000 on 02.14.17 9:26am

Here you go

The only reference to nba/nhl is in their bio of the sports division as the owner of events that include those team types.

No OVG materials.

By Mr. Shea on 02.14.17 9:30am

But if the NBA opens up expansion before the end of the year

Takeaway from meeting: It’s already a done deal for AEG, and the Sonics aren’t coming back.

The city is going to say, if you don’t wait for us, forget about it?

By NWEastcoaster on 02.14.17 7:29pm

I'm pretty pessimistic

My expectation is that AEG’s Key Arena remodel plan is going to get pushed through by the politicians this summer regardless of how illogical it is, and that it will be remodeled as something (factoring in the surrounding area, traffic, lease structure, etc.) that no NBA/NHL team owner will accept. I also expect that the only way to prevent that result is to have new politicians by the end of 2017, and I don’t think there are going to be candidates that will have enough organized support to win.

So whoever is the Lady Gaga of 2025 will play in the renovated former Key Arena then instead of the Tacoma Dome. That’s the endgame.

By Mr. Shea on 02.15.17 8:11am

All things considered, it's pretty difficult to trust 5/9 of the city's leadership to do the right thing

as long as they’re so deeply entrenched in their own bullshit. Think about it. From the beginning, Hansen presents a sweet deal. That wasn’t good enough. They published a long laundry list of amendments — Hansen accommodated them. He goes through the whole tedious process of studies, gets the skullet all but laughed out of court, then is about to close the deal with the street vacation. Guess what? After all the sweeteners already added to the deal, the No-alition decides that’s still not good enough and adds yet another list of amendments — Hansen accommodated them again, and they still vote no. Now, he wants to fund the whole damn thing privately, and all of a sudden, the mayor is requesting bids for Key Arena.

See a pattern here?

If this deal gets any sweeter, we’ll all need insulin shots ffs.

It boggles the mind. How can the Council remain so obtuse when this would be a no-brainer for any other city in America. Yet if they despise Hansen so damn much, why does he keep upping the ante? Is he really that patient, or just really stubborn?

I don’t know what to think anymore.

By JetCityWoman2 on 02.15.17 1:01pm

Right now at 4:08 pm

I’m optimistic.

Let’s see how many hours it is before something damning happens.

By Mr. Shea on 02.16.17 4:10pm

Personally i stopped paying attention to the times

especially since they fired Pentz

By gstommylee on 02.16.17 4:29pm

Why not, they told the NBA it's ok to leave before.

The city proper isn’t sports friendly. Not really.

By sofa-king on 02.15.17 12:30pm

What would need to happen

for AEG and OVG to submit a bid to make Keyarena a music venue only. Could they submit this even though the RFP calls for nba and nhl standards?

By nowa95000 on 02.14.17 12:57pm

If they wanted to, sure.

If they submitted plans that were only music-only, they would likely be dismissed. With RFPs, you try to hit most if not all of the points requested and see where you stand. Usually, if big points like that aren’t addressed in the response, the response is tossed out.

But that’s up to how the city wants to deal with it.

By Matt Tucker on 02.14.17 2:21pm

I find it interesting

That the primary talking points against the SODO arena ia vehicular traffic, but that doesn’t seem to be addressed at all with the Key Arena proposals. I attend events at the Key often, and traffic is absolutely shitty.

By Payton's Rules on 02.14.17 5:16pm

interesting

By Jeff - j1012 on 02.15.17 7:06am

Much better answer than last time.

He’s at least upped his PR game.

By Doug Taylor, A Man Who Enjoys Sports on 02.15.17 10:33am

Still doesn't add up

m’s made a scheduling agreement with ArenaCo last year to ensure events wouldn’t overlap. Oh, and also THEY DON’T PLAY AT THE SAME TIME! Basketball season and baseball season overlap by like 3 weeks! Jeez.

By 206er on 02.15.17 12:25pm

This isn't about event scheduling

This is about access to the parking garage, at least in Stanton’s response. If the arena group makes the back alley available for Mariners games, that addresses the concern.

By Matt Tucker on 02.15.17 3:42pm

and maybe M's fans using Hansen's parking structure, instead?

By Jeff - j1012 on 02.15.17 3:44pm

I think that would depend

on if they could come to a parking agreement. The M’s weren’t so forward with working out an agreement to offer their parking garage for arena users.

By Matt Tucker on 02.15.17 3:54pm

Jeff - two things with that logic...

1. I believe that the people who park in the Safeco Field garage are largely season ticket holders and many of them have club tix and/or suites. The sky-bridge makes getting into the stadium the utmost convenience for those purchasing expensive tickets. I mean, you can litterally be in your suite within 2 minutes of parking in that garage. It’s built for convenience. If the M’s would have used access to the parking garage as their biggest complain all along, I would have a lot more sympathy for them. That concern makes sense. The last thing you want to do is inconvenience those that are paying the most for your tickets. Now, as Matt said – the back alley should help alleviate much of that issue.

1) The M’s own their own garage and want the $$$ from it. Hansen adding parking will dramatically increase the parking supply in the area, thus (likely) driving down parking prices. Now, i think a forward thinker would view lower parking costs as something that can increase ticket sales (or ticket prices) as the total cost of attending games becomes more affordable. AND, the Mariners garage would be a prime location for Arena event goers. So I cannot see the added parking being anything less than a net benefit.

By ksmith1984 on 02.15.17 8:36pm

You nailed it with parking $$

ksmith1984 you are right on I think. The M’s don’t want Hansen’s garage (which will be totally empty during baseball season) to add to the parking inventory in SODO. As usual, they don’t care about the added convenience and safety for their fans that Hansen’s clean, well-lit garage would provide. They might lose the chance to squeeze a few more bucks out of folks, even before they get into Safeco and buy their dippin’ dots.

By Extreme Caution on 02.16.17 7:43am

Yes, but...

The 2nd point in my post should effectively debunk that concern. The M’s garage would be prime territory for any arena goer. Hansen & co will have their own garages, but the Safeco Field garage provides the absolute best direct access in and out from the freeway. So yes, the Mariners would lose parking revenue during baseball season but they would pick-up parking revenue on ~ 82 Hockey/NBA games plus concerts. That easily could add 120 near days a year of significant parking revenue. Add MLB and NFL and you are looking at a minimum ~ 210 days a year where that garage is generated income. Stanton is a smart guy and I guarantee the M’s have crunched the numbers. That’s why I think issue #1 for the M’s is not inconveniencing the fans who buy expensive tickets and want to exclusively use the Safeco Field garage

Now, I think issue #2 might be the M’s being worried that adding year-around entertainment in the area will decrease concession revenue in the stadium. That’s probably a real concern, but not something they want to publicly complain about. And hey, I get it. I go to ~ 8-10 M’s games a year and often will eat/drink inside of the stadium because the parameter restaurants are just too packed full for my preference. If you have year-around entertainment, that entire area will below-up with restaurants and bars catering to sports fans. There is little doubt in my mind that more people would choose to arrive early and/or stay late and would decrease their concession spending at Safeco.

But, for every negative there is a positive. Having a vibrant and fun stadium district could create a destination location that drives up ticket sales for the M’s. Furthermore, the M’s have creatively found a way to profit big on Seahawk game days by opening up the bullpen area as the largest bar in the area. The M’s could easily do something like that for the NBA/NHL/Arena Concerts by opening up the Pen, Diamond Club or even open up the club section of Safeco – as a separate business catering to pregame crowds.

I’m rambling a bit but what I get down to is simply this. From my perspective as a fan – the revenue issue seems like a net positive as long as you operate as a smart business. Despite the M’s lack of baseball success and their PR blunders, I frankly think they operate a pretty smart and savvy from a business operations perspective. So, that leaves the biggest issue of whether or not the arena location will cause harm to their own customers trying to get into the Safeco Field garage. And if the back alley is utilized, that should solve the last issues, right?

By ksmith1984 on 02.16.17 8:53am