Olympia Time

History, politics, people of Oly WA

Category: Seattle (Page 2 of 2)

No MLS Cup on KOMO

November 16, 2007 / / 0 Comments

We buy 3,000 season tickets since Tuesday, but no MLS Cup on KOMO this Sunday:

Kaylor, Doreen
to Emmett O’Connell
date Nov 15, 2007 4:54 PM
subject RE: MLS Cup this Sunday?

KOMO will not be airing the MLS Cup on Sunday. The FCC regulations on Children’s programming are extremely strict. Part of the requirements for retaining a broadcast license is that stations must air a specific amount of children’s programming each week during a specific window of time. ABC booked so many hours of sports programming this weekend that it was necessary for us to pre-empt some of the sports programming and air FCC children’s programming.

Unfortunately ESPN was not able to find another home in the Seattle market to air the soccer match – either on cable or broadcast television.

What about other options regarding basketball in Seattle?

November 6, 2007 / / 0 Comments

From the PI:

We’re Seattle — we have options. We could pursue the Golden Baseball League model and form an independent basketball league, or, better yet, a league of smaller basketball teams. There are other sports to consider, like, say, hockey. It doesn’t have to be a National Hockey League team — how about supporting the existing Western Hockey League? If this is about keeping arena seats filled and giving people who love sports something to enjoy, then we could do worse.

The problem with the hockey thing, especially the WHL Thunderbirds, is that they’re already leaving Seattle. Not to say we couldn’t draw another minor league hockey team to Key Arena and have a great local derby between Everett/Seattle/Kent, but that’s going off in another direction.

I love this idea of a competing winter basketball league. Unlike baseball, and to some extent hockey, there is no organization top-to-bottom in basketball. All of the independent basketball leagues in the United States operate independently from the NBA.

List of minor league basketball leagues

Since the ABA merged with the NBA in the 70s, there has been little competition with top flight basketball in the United States. Taking the opportunity now to compete, I could see putting into play a handful of things that would strike at the heart of sports over here.

A new basketball league (or rather system) could involved promotion/relegation where good teams go up and bad teams down. In this way, you could invite teams from existing leagues to compete.

Community ownership could also play a role. The NHL supposedly played with this idea a few years ago, but outside of the Green Bay Packers and some other minor league teams, it is untried. Ask any fan if they’d buy stock in their team though.

Also, is it totally necessary to have a t.v. contract? This doomed the ABA… so, for now, despite internet and all that, I guess it does.

Is King County going to fund a rebuild on the Sonics Arena (and build a stadium for a new MLS team?)

October 31, 2007 / / 0 Comments

I came across this last night:

There have definitely been closed-door meetings involving Seattle city officials about a new basket ball arena in Seattle Center. The idea of also having Memorial Stadium (the ugly thing in the above picture), remodeled, renovated or rebuilt, is a possibility. A Seattle MLS team playing there is one option, and there’s been a rumor that Bob Whitsitt would be interested in putting a lacrosse team there as well.

But, no matter how many closed door sessions the city has, it can’t actually do what by law it is prevented to do: Seattle can’t spend money on Key Arena if it helps the Sonics.

But, King County can. And who recently presented a “vision for Seattle Center?” Ron Sims, the county executive. Yeah, it got the official cold shoulder from the city, but if there are closed door meetings, there might also be closed door reactions.

Sims even put the funding portion of his idea onto paper:

Sims floated legislation in Olympia that would have allowed the county to use hotel-motel and other taxes for a new Sonics arena, plus a redevelopment of Seattle Center and any other “civic amenities” deemed worthy by the county. The legislation would have raised $1 billion for those purposes over 25 years.

In terms of the popularity of sports team subsidies in King County vs. Seattle, remember that the Qwest Field initiative never would have passed without King County. It also might be easier to squeeze through a rebuild of Key Arena to a county-wide electorate if its wrapped around a broader revamping of Seattle Center.

Save Our Sounders (Saints)

October 22, 2007 / / 0 Comments

The arrival of a top-flight mens’ soccer side to Seattle should not be at the expense of a top-flight women’s side.

Adrian Hanauer, the current owner of the USL-1 Sounders and one of the three investors in the all but official MLS Soccer franchise, has (or did he?) pulled out of the ownership of the W-League Sounders Saints, the womens soccer team in these parts. Without in an influx of revenue, the team that finished in third place nationally this year might not exist in 2008.

Lacking a similar top-flight league as the MLS since the failure of the WUSA, the top womens’ soccer league in the United States has been the semi-pro W-League.

The Seattle Women’s Soccer Initiative is raising funds for the team:

The Seattle Women’s Soccer Initiative is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and developing top level women’s Soccer in Seattle by raising grass roots financial support for the semi-pro USL W-League program and development of an amateur feeder program that will provide the best players in the area to face the highest levels of competition available.

Go here to donate.

Although it is sad that investors (Hanauer?) have walked away, it would be great if this effort evolved into a European type Supporters Trust, a fan owned team.

Sonics impacting Major League Soccer in Seattle talk?

October 9, 2007 / / 0 Comments

A post in which I paste a comment I put on another fine blog.

Jeff and others over at Center Holds It are wondering about Seattle, the Major League Soccer… uh… league, Paul Allen and Qwest Field.

I say this:

Also, I think that the “not a new stadium right now” talk has a lot more to do with our current situation with the Sonics than anyone is really willing to admit. No one wants to make getting an MLS team depend on a funding package for an new stadium while Clay Bennett is in town jerking our chains.

A little bit down the road maybe? The legislature put $30 million towards a new hockey arena just south of Seattle, which is closer in cost to an SSS than a new basketball arena.

So, I think we’ll eventually get a soccer specific stadium here, its just down the road a bit. Especially if it can be packaged with a regional soccer complex like the Home Depot Center, we’ll have a winner.

“World class cities,” he said, implying Seattle, “don’t build concrete highways over their waterfronts”

February 16, 2007 / / 0 Comments

(or: Fred Moody, where are you when we need you most?)

Of course, some do build the wooden kind, but that’s beside the point.

This argument is the silliest of all the viaduct silliness because it implies that Seattle is a world class city. Or, that it won’t be a world class city until it tears down the viaduct, and maybe builds a tunnel. The point, though, is to tear down the viaduct.

For everyone who thinks this way, that Seattle needs to freshen itself up for its world class status, I suggest: Seattle and the Demons of Ambition: A Love Story.

Seattle, beware the devil on your shoulder.

It almost seems like we’re repeating some of the history that Moody writes about in “Demons of Ambition.” The football team is getting close, but not finishing the deal. Our basketball team is threatening to jump ship, and the city itself rejects them, but forces behind the scene are lining up in support.

And, the viaduct is seen as a wall that prevents the city from being “world class.” Now, that is something that has gotten the city into trouble before:

What had been envisioned as yet another showcase for Seattle as an emerging world-class city has turned into an epic disaster. The WTO convention was shut down, and Seattle was being exposed to the world as an overreaching dunce.

I wouldn’t compare the WTO directly with removing the viaduct, but I think they’re a symptom of the same disease.

And in regards to Andrew’s picture from the above post, I give you, FDR Drive in New York:

Interstate 5 in Portland OR, which probably isn’t very world class:

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