There has been some concerns raised about KeyArena becoming a music only venue that would essentially lock out the Sonics and the NHL. The concern appeared to originate from a Wall Street Journal article that was quoted and magnified by a local article.
The Oak View Group’s Lance Lopes addressed some concerns raised by the WSJ article:
“Our long term vision includes music, professional sports, and special events,” Lance Lopes, director of special projects for the Oak View Group, who is leading local efforts on the bid, said Friday in response to the article. “The new arena at Seattle Center will accommodate and seek out a wide variety of entertainment rich experiences. Music though is the programming we can count on when we open the doors to the new arena at Seattle Center.”
There still seems to be a little fear by a small percent of fans that worry this could be a ruse to be a music only venue, but I figured I would address it.
The RFP
First of all, the KeyArena RFP calls out NBA and NHL in the first sentence of the 
introduction and called out on the first objective of the list of City’s Arena Objectives. so clearly the city is making that a priority when seeking proposals. The RFP also calls for “Confirmation that the proposed conceptual design(s) are intended to comply with NBA and NHL requirements for potential future tenancy.” It seems counterproductive to think that Seattle Partners and OVG would go to great lengths (and cost) to be NBA and NHL compliant, with the intent to never housing teams from those leagues.
introduction and called out on the first objective of the list of City’s Arena Objectives. so clearly the city is making that a priority when seeking proposals. The RFP also calls for “Confirmation that the proposed conceptual design(s) are intended to comply with NBA and NHL requirements for potential future tenancy.” It seems counterproductive to think that Seattle Partners and OVG would go to great lengths (and cost) to be NBA and NHL compliant, with the intent to never housing teams from those leagues.Expectations from the leagues
As much as we would love to have the leagues come out and say “If you build it, we will come”, we all know that will never happen. In fact, both leagues are probably tired of answering questions about Seattle. It’s noise that takes away from their product. They want fans and journalists talking about the Stanley Cup Playoffs and NBA playoffs; not franchises that don’t exist and might never exist, if we don’t get an arena. It is crystal clear that the leagues will expand when they are ready and without a built (or half-built) arena we don’t stand a chance of getting a team. Although we have not seen anything directly, we have heard that the bidders (Seattle Partners & OVG) have been in regular contact with both leagues to make sure they are meeting the league requirements in the RFP. It might be wishful thinking, but my hope is that both bidders have validation of compliance with league requirements with a letter from both the NBA and NHL.
The top grossing concert venues.
According to this article from Billboard Magazine in 2015 of the list of the world’s 10 Top-Grossing Concert Venues, 4 of the 6 North American properties on the list have both NBA and NHL franchise.
I am not an expert in Arena economics but I think it is fair to say that having only a few tenants (NHL, Sonics & Storm) that book half the calendar is a good thing and the list of top grossing concert venues supports that claim.
Leave a Reply