Potential Seattle NHL owners planning major practice facility
As noted in the above tweet, thanks razorray for that, KIRO led off its 6:00 news tonight with an interview their city government guy Graham Johnson did with Tod Leiweke today in which the Seattle NHL expansion group president touted their ideas for building a big new practice facility. What they're envisioning is a facility with THREE ice sheets. Not sure how many NHL teams have three rinks in their practice facility - the Vegas one which is described in the story (BB are they correct on this) is indicated to have two.
A couple of comments and Tommy, feel free to disagree if you'd like:
-There was no mention of where they'd locate it. That said, my guess is ideally they'll like to locate this on the Eastside, but such a large facility I'd expect would at minimum with the parking and what not need around 10 or so acres perhaps, maybe 15 tops. With land being especially pricey, that will be a big cost for them. As I just noted, my thinking is they'll want to build it on the Eastside, but the largest amount of available land in these type of acreages - and the cheapest I might add - is down in south King County, Auburn, Kent, Renton areas. So if the land costs take them down there, they'll be building it down there IMO. I do not see them building this in Seattle. Interbay might be a possibility, but it's more likely this type of facility might be better suited to SoDo, and you know where that will probably go......
-Such a building would most likely need to be built in industrial zoning because of the nature of the size of the thing. Would probably be hard to build in commercial zoning and it's sure as hell that you won't see it in a residential area.
-If there's an existing building that could be retrofitted to meet the specs, such as an old industrial facility (those of you who aren't familiar with the IKEA store here in Renton - that used to be an old Boeing factory before it was converted into the IKEA), that might be preferable. What Leiweke is looking to do is create an organizational culture similar to the one he created for the Seahawks that helps them draw top players and of course win as a result of that. Having a practice facility for an NHL team the caliber of the VMAC in Renton that the Seahawks practice at I think is his goal. And if you want to know what I mean, Google Virginia Mason Athletic Center and look at some photos of this, and you'll be stunned.
Have a look at the story and my comments and have at it everyone.