And that's the thing. When you get right down to it, Nellams is right on one thing - if Bellevue builds the new arena, Key Arena is toast. Why?
1. It would be built to meet the needs of major concert acts, which more often than not don't go to the Key because it doesn't meet those needs now, and
2. It would be closer to the majority of the ticket-buyers.
So for Nellams and the Center people, the deal Hansen seems to be giving them is a heckuva lot better than the alternative. The Center, sad to say, is dying, I think, a slow death because there's really nothing over there worth going to do on a regular basis. I mean, who goes to EMP every time - and pay through the gills for admission -a new exhibit pops up in there or who's going to want to go see the same pieces of Chihuly glass art every weekend at his museum? And Memorial Stadium, well, it's a dump, and that's being nice. Top it off that the parking there is next to awful and they took most of it out when they built the Gates Foundation campus across the street.
The Council must recognize this, because they have plenty of skin in that game, too, because the revenues they generate are city $$.
Nellams needs to keep beating this drum to the council and to guys like Steinbrueck and the idiots at the Port. And here's another thing. Perhaps someone on the pro-arena side should use the "why the hell do we have two different Ports in this region anyway, perhaps they should merge to save taxpayers money?" card. Just a thought.
. Thoughts? Discuss.
