Bigger game: the hunt for Sonics, viaduct and NASCAR

OLYMPIA — There is a story among hunters that the twilight of the day reveals the most detail of the track, that the flat planes of light give the sense of the ground most distinctly.

If so, in Olympia, Thursday's twilight showed a lot about the track ahead, even to the indentations of the ground made by the bigger game — the viaduct, the Sonics and NASCAR. When taken as a gutful, the state, and especially the Puget Sound region, has too much on its plate. That may account for the feeling that Seattle and Olympia are glassing each other across a wide valley. In just three days, we heard from proponents and opponents of huge public-works projects that would have lasting impacts on the region, without any clear guidance about what voters should do.

First, Gov. Christine Gregoire stood before a group of editors and publishers in the governor's 100-year-old mansion and said as clear as possible, "No Seattle waterfront tunnel, no way."

Gregoire said she was initially intrigued by the six-lane tunnel idea and the vision it brought to the city, but once that was removed by the city, the partial-shoulder, reduced tunnel became a safety issue she would not subject riders of Highway 99 to test.

In the late afternoon, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen described his unusual request for a bill to support a NASCAR racetrack somewhere in Western Washington. A racetrack would cost "nothing," Owen said, and would pull in so much money from other states the benefits to Washington would be in the millions. Only occasionally does the lieutenant governor request a bill, but Owen looks like a man who found the spoor of very big game and wants to bag it.

NASCAR, unlike the Sonics, has agreed to put up $180 million off the bat, but would like some help from the state for things like highways, ramps and other amenities.

The other big game in town last week was Clay Bennett, who came before The Times' Editorial Board and gave us, at best, "a 50-50" chance of success that the Sonics and Storm would remain in the region. Bennett, somber and careful in his answers, admitted it is difficult to do business in Washington, "something like Aspen, Colo.," he said. Asked what broke the camel's back over the city and KeyArena, Bennett said the city simply had no interest in talking.

"I look at Seattle Center and say to myself, this is a wonderful space and so much more could be done with it. Like the great Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle has some fabulous opportunities with available space," he said.

But not for him. Bennett said KeyArena might be good for another seven years or so, but then its viable life will be over.

Same for the Highway 520 floating bridge, which also has a gray beard of age on it and which seems such an echo of the small-arms-fire skirmishing over the viaduct.

In Olympia, the whole urban campground gets a roll of the eyes. On the Sonics, Gregoire said that nothing — nada — will go from the state's general fund to help the Sonics relocate to Renton. "That's up to King County," she said, "if residents there want to extend the current arena taxes into the future."

One way to look at this is to say people want to come here, for their business, their vision, their attraction to the Emerald Northwest. Bennett talked about the NBA's next logical interest, which is to bridge to China, with Seattle as the footing. Owen understands NASCAR, America's fastest-growing sport — or activity, I don't know which it is — also wants to enter these forests, dense with people and prosperity.

In the next few days, there'll be another bear in the woods. Perhaps a new viaduct design will emerge that will be pleasing to the eye, if not to the mayor. The vote is less than a month away; the resolution of each of these large, furry issues that have entered our region years away and maybe never.

James F. Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: jvesely@seattletimes.com