On July 30 the Metropolitan King County Council voted 6-3 to approve an amended proposal from investor Chris Hansen on the SoDo arena that could bring NBA and NHL teams to Seattle, but not without a voice of dissention from West Seattle.

Dave Montoure, Chairman of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce and owner of West 5 Lounge, spoke at a press conference near the King County Courthouse on July 30, flanked by maritime and labor groups who are concerned the arena and its traffic could negatively affect the flow of business.

A press release from that group stated Montoure and the Chamber’s concern is that “West Seattle would be among the most impacted neighborhoods from a SoDo arena. Worsening traffic in SoDo could mean the loss of jobs for small businesses.”

“If you are in West Seattle and you want to leave and you don’t have a boat, you have to go south or you have to go through SoDo,” Montoure said via the press release.

“(Local business owners) have to get all our goods into West Seattle either through SoDo or from warehouses in SoDo. For my business, I count 11 unique addresses in SoDo that I have to get to on a regular basis. Congestion prevents me from doing this,” he added.

Councilmember Joe McDermott, representing West Seattle and chair of the Council’s Budget and Fiscal Management Committee, voted in favor of the arena proposal and said in a press release, “I’m excited by the prospect of bringing back our beloved Seattle Supersonics. But we can’t legislate on that alone. That’s why we undertook a thorough and careful review of the arena proposal. Our region’s experts in finance, economics, and transportation …helped us better understand the benefits and risks of this legislation. Our work convinced me this proposal has sufficient protections for the County’s General Fund and taxpayers. So I was happy to vote in favor today.”

Part of the county’s stipulation for helping finance the arena states their contribution caps out “at $80 million if the facility is home to both an NBA and NHL franchise. If only an NBA franchise is located in the arena, the County’s financial contribution tops out at $5 million,” according to their press release.

Additional amendments the Council placed on the proposal include the requirement of an “independent economic impact analysis” to look at employment, pros and cons of economic activity at the arena and for surrounding industry, and tax revenue. The study will be paid for by the developers, ArenaCo.

The Council also stated in their revised memorandum of understanding (MOU) that “ArenaCo must make its best efforts to ensure the NBA franchise that plays in the facility will be named the ‘Seattle Supersonics,’” among other requests.

The proposal is now in the hands of the Seattle City Council, which must also adopt a MOU for the project to move forward. Eight out of nine city councilmembers sent a letter to Hansen saying certain changes must be made before they will sign off, according to the Associated Press.

“The City Council wants to ensure that a portion of tax revenues generated by a new arena would help pay for local transportation improvements,” according to that report. “Currently, the proposal calls for those taxes to be used to pay off the $200 million in city and county bonds for the $490 million arena.”

To read more on controversy surrounding the arena proposal, please check out the Herald article, "Sonics arena not a slam dunk; Port sees problems."