Case Study Seattle Sonics Not Sodo Squeeze

December 2, 2012 Seattle Sonics, Not Sodo Squeeze Last June thousands of fans dug deep into their closet to find old Sonics jerseys, hats, sweatshirts and anything else that was green and gold. As they piled into Pioneer Square to hear Chris Hansen speak about his new arena proposal, each shared their personal memories of the Sonics with excitement and joy in their hearts as shown in Figure 1. Very few can admit that the Sonics coming back to Seattle is not good news. Chris Hansen’s proposal is unbeatable; he aims to build a new stadium with over half of the costs privately funded. There is one significant problem with this business venture
Figure 1: Sonic Fans Rejoice the Return of the Sonics

though. The proposed location sits on a small plot of land in the middle of Sodo’s Port of Seattle area. Sodo is the wrong location for this arena because of the devastating losses the Port of Seattle would suffer, the increase in traffic, and the inability to facilitate the movement of pedestrians.
On June 14, 2012, Sonic fans gathered in Pioneer Square to support the fight to bring the Sonics back to Seattle. (komonews.com, ‘Bring Back the Seattle Sonic’)

Chris Hansen bought this land back in 2007 without notifying anybody until 2012 what he intended to do with the land. (Dave Gering, MIC, Personal Interview) Since the beginning, Chris has presented this offer as an ultimatum. In other words “It has to be here or
It would likely bring with it new jobs and of course happy fans. The location in Sodo on the other hand could also be detrimental to a 3 billion dollar business. The Port of Seattle has annual revenues of 3 billion dollars. Within the last 10 years the Port has grown by 40% offering 30% more jobs while the suffering economy left Seattle with 44,000 less jobs than in 2000.
Figure 2: The Port of