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We had a good week

John Barr

Going into the week our biggest worry was appeals to the Final Environmental Impact Statement. An appeal could have put the already aggressive timeline to hit the 2020-21 season for an NHL franchise at risk. The deadline was Thursday, September 13th at 5pm. Aside from the occasional distraction, let’s just say I was on Twitter nonstop to checking if there were any appeals. Fortunately, Chris Daniels was on the case to confirm that no appeals were filed at the Seattle Office of Hearing Examiner.

— Chris Daniels (@ChrisDaniels5) September 14, 2018

With Thursday behind us, the next key milestone was Friday morning where the Seattle City Council Committee on Civic Arenas would meet to discuss and vote on the Lease Agreement, Development Agreement, and Seattle Center Integration Agreement. It was somewhat expected to pass from committee, but until the votes happen, it shouldn’t be taken for granted. There were quite a number of hockey supporters in the committee meeting, including representatives from GSHL, SnoKing Hockey, UW Club Hockey and, the stealers of the show, the Washington Wild. After some amendments and discussion, the ordinance passed unanimously (7 – 0) with only Councilmembers Sawant and O’Brien absent from the committee meeting. In closing remarks, Councilmember Mosqueda acknowledged that she would not be at the full City Council vote on September 24th. Assuming the other 6 councilmembers from the committee vote are present and don’t change their mind between now and September 24th, we have 6 yes votes before we even get to Sawant and O’Brien. We only need 5. I would say we are looking good for September 24th. But again, until the votes happen, don’t take it for granted, but I’m feeling optimistic.

Let’s review the timeline shall we:

Conditions of the Starting Construction

There was a surprising statement that came out of the Council Committee meeting last week (September 7th) when a city representative mentioned that one of the conditions of starting construction would be that the NHL would need to be awarded a team first. This was the first time we have heard of such condition in a public forum. I was hoping to get a bit more clarity on that clause, but there has been no comment from either NHL Seattle, OVG, or the City of Seattle. If that is the case, it would appear the earliest we could get the NHL franchise approval is at the NHL Board of Governors meeting in December. The targeted groundbreaking date was October/November. Waiting for the official awarding of a franchise in December would be a delay that puts the already aggressive schedule at risk. According to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, OVG can still hit the October 2020 opening day deadline, if they start in December.

It is not clear how this will play out, but here are a few scenarios.

  1. The full NHL Board of Governors vote in favor of a Seattle franchise before the December meeting. (Possible)
  2. OVG requests a waiver of that clause based on a (currently assuming) successful NHL Executive Board of Governors meeting on October 2nd. (Likely)
  3. The clause stands and OVG starts construction in December sometime. (Most Likely)

 

The one thing to note is the condition of NHL approval was not a surprise to OVG. It wasn’t just slipped in there at the last second. All parties want this thing to get done and the sooner they start construction the better it is for everyone (the City, OVG, NHL Seattle, the Neighborhoods etc). OVG’s outreach efforts have been outstanding and they’ve already hit aggressive timelines to get to this point. I trust the City and OVG in working through this. And according to the Seattle Time, OVG can still hit the October 2020 season opening date with a December construction start date. But just in case, after doing NHL to Seattle for over 8 years, I think I can wait one more year to start in 2021.

 

John Barr
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