Wednesday, September 12, 2012

'We got it all' in arena deal, council member says | Local News | The Seattle Times

Just who "we" are has yet to be seen. Of the city council that are on the Government Performance and Finance Committee at the press conference yesterday the only one absent was Nick Licata.
Chair: Tim Burgess
Vice-Chair: Nick Licata
Member: Sally J. Clark
Alternate: Mike O'Brien

It will be interesting to see what he has to say about the revised proposal. I anticipate that he will vote in favor, but Nick can't help but stay as close to both sides of this (and many) proposals. What will be the qualifiers used when he casts his vote? Remember, a portion of Licata's supporters are the "no, no matter what" folks.

Some people really hate professional sports. So, it was unlikely that Licata would want to be seen as a cheerleader. But at the end of the day, if the city benefits, Licata will vote in favor of the proposal.

Nick Licata will be fine, Richard Conlin, not so much.
Councilman Conlin took the "no" position early, too early. There may be no political value in voting "yes" no matter how good the proposal is now.

This is an unusually public process, and people will not forget, even if they are being encouraged to just move on.

Burgess said after the news conference that he was skeptical of the deal when it was presented to the City Council in May, and grew more skeptical as he delved into it.
But eventually, he said, he realized "there's hidden opportunity here. Chris Hansen becomes the catalyst to do other things," like make transportation improvements in Sodo.
He said he's convinced there will be an arena built somewhere in the region soon, and it's better to get a direct benefit and be able to have some control over how it affects the Sodo neighborhood and KeyArena.
Asked whether there was anything the city wanted, but didn't get from Hansen, Burgess said, "Nothing. We got it all."
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019123410_arena12m.html


Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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