SoDo Arena Timeline & NHL First

I am about to jump on a flight to Boston but wanted to share some news that broke this afternoon on the SoDo Arena.

True to his word on driving more transparency on the SoDo Arena process, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray revealed the current Arena Timeline in this post. It is a great post that gives a little more insight in the process involved in a project this massive.

This is roughly the same timeline we heard a couple months ago but lays out the detail of each milestone with dates. This also lines up with the NHL Board of Governors meeting before the NHL draft but I wouldn’t expect much from the NHL directly. I more likely scenario is that the final EIS report will trigger some public and private dialogue with a potential NHL owner, specifically, Victor Coleman with the City, County and Chris Hansen. This is a huge project that only gets done with collaboration on all sides.

In a separate but related bit of news. King5’s Chris Daniels, revealed that the Mayor is open to an NHL first scenario.

“Should folks in the NHL or potential owners come to us with a different financial plan that pencils out for the city and for our partners at the county, I would be willing to go back to the council and ask them to open that process,” said Murray in an interview at City Hall. “I believe there could be an adjustment for an NHL team first if there if a financial plan that pencils out for the city.”

There you have it folks, transparency and specifically addressing the possibility of an NHL first scenario.