By Alex Girda, Associate Editor<\/p>\n
Seattle\u2019s ambition to land major-league basketball and hockey franchises took a major step forward with the announcement of a $500 million plan to build an arena in the SoDo district. More than half the project\u2019s financing–$290 million\u2014would come from private funding secured by hedge fund manager Chris Hansen. Another $200 million would be publicly funded. \u00a0<\/p>\n
In order for the project to become a reality, however, Hansen and public officials must first attract National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams, which would cost an estimated $200 million. That may pose a challenge, as the NBA has previously turned down expansion proposals from major cities like Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Another potential hurdle is a six-year-old voter initiative that requires professional sports teams to provide \u201cfair value\u201d for property and facilities provided by the city. Hansen told the Puget Sound Business Journal<\/em> that an accelerated initial process would be required in order for a consistent proposal to be submitted at the April\u2019s NBA owners meeting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Alex Girda, Associate Editor
\nSeattle\u2019s ambition to land major-league basketball and hockey franchises took a major step forward with the announcement of a $500 million plan to build an arena in the SoDo district. More than half the project\u2019s financing–$290 million\u2014would come from private funding secured by hedge fund manager Chris Hansen. Another $200 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21742,1610],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004052240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest","category-seattle"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n