As we reported yesterday, Mayor Mike McGinn has announced a proposal to bring a new, half-billion-dollar “self-funded” NBA/NHL arena to SoDo. One thing that wasn’t clear from yesterday’s (unusually packed, and festive) press conference: What impact would the construction of a new arena, which would host not only sports but concerts and other events, have on KeyArena? Although many predicted that Seattle Center’s KeyArena would lose money after the Sonics left Seattle in 2008, the opposite turned out to be true, and last year, KeyArena actually turned a profit.
The plans for the new stadium stipulate that “the City and ArenaCo [the new arena company] will consider potential options for long-term management of KeyArena.” However, at least one city council member—Nick Licata, who opposed a 2006 proposal that would have spent city dollars to renovate KeyArena for the Sonics—sounds skeptical.
“KeyArena is dependent on concerts, and if a new arena goes up, it would cut into the revenue stream from concerts and could push KeyArena into the red,” Licata says. “If that happens, we have a problem, because what do we do if we have a property that’s draining money from the general fund every year?”
Seattle Center spokeswoman Deborah Daoust says she expects concerts and other events, like the Rat City Roller Girls’ roller-derby bouts, to continue even if the new arena is built. “When the NBA was here at KeyArena, it was really challenging for us, because we wouldn’t get the schedule until a few months in advance,” making it hard to schedule other events, Daoust says. Additionally, she says, a combined NBA-NFL arena would likely be full most of the time, leaving KeyArena’s regular event schedule mostly intact.
