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Tipped Off
03-06-2006, 12:36 PM
High rent, poor seating may push Thunderbirds out of city

By ANGELA GALLOWAY
P-I REPORTER

It wasn't long ago that the Mariners and the Seahawks each demanded -- and got -- new playfields after threatening to leave Seattle. Now, the Sonics are warning they might leave unless taxpayers subsidize an overhaul of their 11-year-old venue.

Who's next, the Thunderbirds?

Maybe.

"The KeyArena doesn't really (work) for us now anyway, because it's so expensive to play in," said Russ Farwell, the team's general manager. If the T-Birds don't get a break on rent soon, he said, "we'd either have to find another place in this area or we'd have to relocate."

And the Thunderbirds worry what the $200 million renovation the Sonics seek could mean for them.

"Where we fit in at the end of that -- we don't know," said team Vice President Colin Campbell.

"We don't have a lot of leverage -- we understand that," Farwell added. "It's going to be decided strictly on the Sonics' issues."

City Council President Nick Licata said the team is valued by officials. "They're very family oriented and their family prices are reasonable and they are not (demanding) major remodeling," he said.

But the team has not been given any concrete reassurances.


"We've only been (privy) to what you (newspaper) people have reported," Farwell said.

The Thunderbirds have played in the Seattle Center for nearly 30 years. These days, the minor league hockey team operates in the red and has struggled to cover its rent since the arena opened on the site of the former Coliseum in late 1995, said team officials who declined to say how much money the team is losing.

John Scannell, a longtime fan who used to drive the team's Zamboni machine, said that renovations of a decade ago were designed to cripple the Thunderbirds. During the work, some of the best hockey-watching seats, behind the goal area, were removed.

"It's just a monument to stupidity as far as I'm concerned," said Scannell, a lawyer. "It would have been a very simple fix then and it would be fairly simple fix now."

Hockey needs a longer arena than basketball, Scannell said. All KeyArena needs to accommodate that, he said, is to replace the permanent seats on either end with risers that run on mechanical sliders like other hockey venues have.

During hockey games, "they come out half as far -- it's that simple," he said.

Locally, there are no alternative venues appropriate for the Thunderbirds, a Western Hockey League team that draws about 4,300 spectators per game, Farwell said. Its lease at KeyArena expires in June 2007.

The team has held informal talks about a move with Western Washington cities including Tacoma, Renton, Kent, Bellevue and Woodinville -- in hopes one of them would be willing to help pay to build a hockey and general-purpose venue with 6,000 to 8,000 seats.

"We've talked to pretty much every city in the (Puget Sound) area," Campbell said. "We do believe that the market could bear another facility" like the event center in Everett.

In addition to lower rent, the Thunderbirds would like to find an arena located in an area more amenable to its family-oriented fan base, especially in terms of parking, Farwell said.

"KeyArena and Seattle Center has become harder and harder to get to for weeknights and Friday night games," Farwell said. "Anywhere where you could drive right up and park and get to the building, you would be probably better off."

Minor league hockey fans typically go home after work and pick up the kids -- not leaving much time before games to circle lower Queen Anne endlessly looking for a parking spot, he said. Also, since the renovations, the Thunderbirds are no longer given a piece of the profits from concession and advertising sales, Campbell said. And KeyBank stopped sponsoring individual events after it purchased the right to name the arena, he said.

Today, "we pay three times what other minor league teams pay for rent," Campbell said. "It's been a tough go." If the T-birds leave, Scannell said, it would be bad for Seattle's culture and bottom line. Seattle has been home to a hockey team since the Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup back in 1917, he said.

"When one (KeyArena) client like the Sonics has off years, you can make up for it by your other clients that are hot (during) those years," Scannell said. A few years back when the Sonics were struggling to win, "they could have been getting a boost from the (winning) Thunderbirds." "But the Thunderbirds' (attendance has) been kept artificially low," by the setup, Scannell said. "It just makes better sense from the city's standpoint not to have all your eggs in one basket."

P-I reporter Angela Galloway can be reached at 206-621-5314 or angelagalloway@seattlepi.com.

'Canes11
03-08-2006, 05:08 PM
I'm not entirely familiar with the situation in Seattle, however I do understand that the T-birds are a family/community orented team. This possibility may have already been considered and has both negative and positive sides... could a raise in ticket prices help or hinder the T-brids. Being a family oriented person my self I do understand that a night at a hockey game may be a little too expensive however if the pro's out wheigh the con's I think it may be a sutible part of a solution

Redwic
03-08-2006, 10:58 PM
$20 for almost the entire Lower Level seating. The Upper Level is only opened for games on very rare occasions. And this does not even take into consideration the higher costs of concessions, parking, merchandise at Key Arena than anywhere else. And it's not like the Thunderbirds get a cut of those profits...

And Key Bank certainly is not going to give them any more of the pie than they already have. From experience on the business end of things, Key Bank is the WORST loaner for businesses & projects. They are like stubborn vultures, with no give at all. Even if you have very little of the 'pie', they still try to squeeze what's left out of your venture.

The solution is that Thunderbirds either need to find a way to re-establish themselves in the Mercer Arena (which would still cost lots of $$$), or just move elsewhere.

nelson951
03-09-2006, 01:17 AM
I believe Mercer arena was gutted