A `Give' On Parking -- It's Time To Close Ackerley Arena Deal
SEATTLE SuperSonics owner Barry Ackerley, a man with a knack for taking his best shots at the buzzer, has made a fresh concession to the city. It's a ``give'' that should make the City Council comfortable about approving the Ackerley arena deal.
Yesterday, just as final language was being put into the proposed agreement for the $100 million sports/entertainment center, Ackerley conceded that he would be willing to pay the full cost of an 1,800-car parking garage.
Previously he said he'd pay only for a 1,000-car garage, with the city sharing the cost for the additional 800 spaces.
It was a familiar play. Weeks ago there was hot debate over an original Ackerley insistence that, if he built a new arena, the city should agree to downsize the Seattle Center Coliseum. At the last moment - literally minutes before the council got its first glimpse of the proposal - Ackerley dropped that demand.
In the final form of the package, the biggest concession now given by the city would be the rebate of admissions taxes over 30 years. Through all the turbulence the arena negotiations have caused in and around City Hall, one consideration towers over all: It's ultimately a good deal for the city. Seattle will have the benefit of a new, 18,000-seat facility that it truly needs, paid for by private dollars.
Even with the apparent new plan for an Ackerley-funded 1,800-stall garage at the arena, a significant parking/traffic problem
exists around the Kingdome today. And, notes Mayor Norm Rice, it will worsen in the future, regardless of the new arena.
Despite the new Ackerley offer, the need remains for a joint city and county effort - with state involvement, also - to develop a comprehensive traffic-flow and parking plan for the decades ahead in that part of Seattle.
In the meantime, the City Council now should be able to quickly close the agreement on the Ackerley arena, then move on to other city priorities, including an action plan for the Seattle Center.