New plan for NBA/NHL arena in Seattle forming in state legislature

Washington state lawmakers are working on a new proposal to bring NBA basketball and the National Hockey League to Seattle, and are optimistic a new approach could work.

When the Sonics were up for grabs for years ago, lawmakers refused to even vote on committing taxpayer money to help pay for a new arena.

Now, state Rep. Mike Hope (R, Lake Stevens) is trying a different approach. The idea is to charge NBA basketball and NHL hockey a license fee each time a team plays in the potential new arena. The money would be used as collateral to sell $62 million worth of bonds to help pay for a new arena in the Seattle area.

Rep. Hope said he believes the proposal will get bipartisan support because no taxpayer money is involved.

"When you're looking at this, it's not going to affect a single person in Washington state," Hope said. "The people who are going to pay for this are the athletes themselves."

He said the plan is similar to what other states like Tennessee and Ohio have done to help finance new arenas. He's drafting legislation now and believes there will be a hearing in the next few weeks.

"I think it falls in line with the sentiment we were getting, the feedback we were getting, from our members here -- 'Hey, let the athletes and the owners pay for it,'" Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D, Seattle) said. "This is in line with that, so I'm hoping we'll have a lot more support for something like that."

The $62 million the plan is expected to raise is just a fraction of what a new arena would cost, but for supporters, every bit helps.