The city of Seattle has been working behind the scenes for the past eight months with a wealthy hedge-fund manager to bring an NBA team back to town – possibly as early as next fall if the Sacramento Kings fail to get a satisfactory deal for a new arena, newly released documents show.
The city turned over the documents to The Seattle Times on Friday under a public records request.
The documents included the agenda for a meeting between the parties on Dec. 13, with topics including “Review of Basic Deal Structure,” “City Debt Capacity” and “Financing Issues.”
Hedge-fund manager Christopher Hansen, a Seattle native who lives in San Francisco, approached the city about his desire to buy an NBA team and build an arena on land he owns south of Safeco Field, the documents show.
Hansen, 44, told city officials in one email that an arena could be built with minimal impact on taxpayers.
“Thanks for spending the time today guys,” Hansen wrote in a June 16 email to Julie McCoy, chief of staff to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, and Ethan Raup, the mayor’s director of policy and operations.
“I really appreciate it and look forward to making this happen in Seattle. I genuinely mean that and am confident that with a little effort and creativity we can find a solution that meets our needs and the City’s/State’s desire to get a team back to Seattle without a large public outlay.”
Seattle hasn’t had an NBA team since 2008, when owner Clay Bennett moved the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City and renamed them the Thunder.
Hansen, who heads Valiant Capital Management LLC, offered to provide information on “recent municipal arena deals that have been put together and some of the direct and indirect contributions that the city can make that don’t require incremental taxes or direct public funding.”
The Dec. 13 meeting was attended by McCoy and Raup and set up by Carl Hirsh, a New Jersey arena consultant hired by the city in July. It was held at the law offices of Foster Pepper, one of Seattle’s most prominent law firms. An attorney with the firm, Hugh Spitzer, had been hired by the city in September to provide advice on selling construction bonds.
The agenda included discussion of KeyArena, where the Sonics played, and which could be used as a temporary home for a new team with the permission of the NBA. Before the Sonics departed, the league considered KeyArena an unsuitable permanent venue.
The documents don’t mention how Seattle would obtain a team, but the Times reported that they show the city has been following developments in Sacramento, which is under a March 1 deadline to come up with a viable proposal to build an arena for the Sacramento Kings.
In September, Hirsh emailed a copy of an Associated Press story to Raup that outlined the Sacramento situation.
In addition, National Hockey League dommissioner Gary Bettman has expressed a strong interest in placing a team in Seattle, leading to widespread speculation that the financially struggling Phoenix Coyotes could be moved there and possibly share an arena with a basketball team.
McGinn said Saturday he is taking the proposal seriously, but doesn’t want the city to be left “holding the bag.”
“It’s a pretty substantial commitment that would have to be made by the investors,” McGinn said, emphasizing that the city budget can’t be tapped to fund an arena.
Any offer also must honor the will of Seattle’s voters, who in 2006 overwhelmingly approved an initiative that says the city must make a profit on any investment it makes in a sports arena, McGinn noted.
Hansen, a 1986 graduate of Roosevelt High School with deep roots in the city, has not publicly spoken about his plans.
The documents don’t provide a breakdown of how the partnership would work, but the public end could include admission taxes and increased tax collections tied to a boost in area property values.
Some fiscal-analysis materials were withheld from The Times by the city as confidential.
Hansen has acquired property south of Safeco Field’s parking garage, between South Massachusetts and South Holgate streets east of First Avenue South, records show.
McGinn has said that once the city receives a firm proposal, it will open discussions with the city council.
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