<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Muckleshoot's Offer Free Land</p> <span style="font-style: italic">Sep 18</span> - The Muckleshoot Indian Tribe said Monday it is willing to donate land next to the Emerald Downs horse racing track in Auburn to build an arena for the Sonics and Storm. </p> </p> But an 18,500-seat arena would cost more than $450 million to build, and there is no plan yet about how to pay for it, the tribe's consultants said Monday. </p> </p> The Muckleshoots released a study from the arena-planning firm Brailsford & Dunlavey that said the Auburn site -- about 25 miles south of Seattle -- is close enough to the Sonics' fan base to work. -- Seattle Times </p> </p>[*]The Muckleshoot Tribe announced its willingness Monday to donate a 26.5-acre parcel of land to any group that wants to build an NBA arena in Auburn. But is Sonics owner Clay Bennett interested? </p>[*] Bennett and Gov. Chris Gregoire received copies of a now-complete feasibility study showing the property adjacent to Emerald Downs racetrack as a viable site for a multi-purpose arena, as well as the tribe's offer of free use of their land and parking for the project. </p>[*] </p>[*] Bennett responded to the Muckleshoots by e-mail, offering his thanks and an indication he'd get back to the tribe. But a Bennett spokesman said the team's majority owner was choosing not to comment on Monday. -- Seattle Post-Intelligencer </p></div>
I really don't want the added traffic to my town of Auburn but if it means keeping the Sonics in the Northwest then i'm all for it.
A while ago, a tribe that owns a casino here in Oregon offered to build a baseball stadium in Portland if they could be allowed to build a casino inside Portland. They were turned down. Could this be the same thing? If that were part of the deal, would that change your opinion?
i don't see this as a bad move. </p> i think OKC deserves a pro basketball team, but i'd rather have the sonics stay in Seattle.</p>
This is further proof that a solution exists in the NW, as long as people really care to search for it. Still, I doubt that Clay Bennett will give this the consideration it deserves until it is forced upon him. I'm from Charlotte originally, and was around when the Hornets moved away, so I definitely sympathize with Sonics fans. Bennett has his heart set upon moving, and has been planting the seeds of discord in order to create more rationale for leaving, a la Ray Woolridge and George Shinn. </p> I think that the league needs to take a more active role in dissuading Mr. Bennett by laying down the law, even if it means forcing him to sell the team to an ownership group committed to staying in the Pacific NW. </p> This raises the question of expansion, however. If Seattle does all that is possible to come to a settlement(as Charlotte did), and I don't mean bending over backwards and dancing to Bennett's tune, and the team is allowed to move(and this would probably come down to a vote by the owners: despite the fact that more money can be made in Seattle than OKC, owners are more willing to settle forless money if it means promoting owners rights, including the right to move the team if 'adversity' strikes), wouldn't the league feel obligated, even motivated, to place an expansion franchise in Seattle?</p> If so, why even risk the enmity of Seattle fans by taking a team and then later giving them a new one which they have to adjust too? Why not place expansion franchises in two(in order to maintain an even number) cities that most exhibit the ability to support an NBA franchise? I'm guessing that OKC and Vegas would be among the top contenders, but I know that St. Louis, Louisville, Norfolk/VA Beach, Kansas City and others would want to vie for a team as well, making the process competitive. Then guys like Bennett would have no reason whatsoever to move a franchise that until recently was doing fine. In Charlotte, for example, we led the league in attendance for 7 or 8 straight years, and it only dropped significantly when Shinn and Woolridge launched a campaign of evil against their own fan base. And attendance hasn't picked up as much as people hoped for the Bobcats because the league essentially replaced a perennial playoff team and conference contender with a bottom of the heap expansion team, which still isn't as good as the team we lost 5+ years ago.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (psheehy)</div><div class='quotemain'>They don't need a casino in the city limits. They do fine where they are and the land is cheaper.</div> Yeah the Muckleshoots already have a huge casino on their land, and they own the horse racing track here as well as other stuff. I think that the Muckleshoots would benefit greatly if this happens though, it would kind of silence alot of negative stereotypes and attract more people to their amenities.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (psheehy)</div><div class='quotemain'>They don't actually own the track...just the land that it is on.</div> </p> Potato, potahto.</p> </p>
