Chris Hansen has put a reported $55M into land related to the SoDo Arena project expected to bring the SuperSonics basketball team back to Seattle. Even with all that spending, Hansen still seems to have enough to purchase the most critical thing he needs in order to fill that arena...an NBA franchise.
Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the investment group led by Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer are in final negotiations to purchase the Sacramento Kings from the Maloof Brothers.
If the sale goes through, it means that Hansen can officially begin the process of building his $490 million arena in SoDo. He still needs to complete the design review process and an environmental review as well as combat the lawsuit by the Port of Seattle. Good luck trying to get public opinion in your favor fighting the return of the Sonics.
The deadline for asking the NBA to relocate in time for next season is March 1, though even if that happened, the team would have to play in Key Arena until the new arena was completed, which might not be until the 2015 season. We'll have updates as we learn of them.
· Report says Sacramento Kings finalizing sale to Seattle [MyNorthwest]
· All SoDo Arena coverage [Curbed Seattle]