You’ve probably noticed by now that I’m no fan of the Sonics. This isn’t because I don’t like basketball (I don’t but that’s not the point). It’s because I really don’t like the idea of any professional sporting organization holding taxpayers hostage with threats to leave if they can’t have public funding.

I didn’t like it when the Mariners threatened to leave if they didn’t get their own stadium. When the opportunity to vote on the funding package came up I, like many other voters, voted against it. I was outraged when the state legislature decided that they were going to fund the stadium anyway, over the voters objections. When they tacked on an emergency clause to force the extra taxes on us I was livid.

I didn’t like it when the Seahawks pulled the same stunt. I voted against funding a new stadium for the Seahawks too. This time, the people narrowly decided they wanted the Seahawks enough to tax themselves, so the legislature didn’t have to step in. I was able to accept that, since it was the people that voted on it, but I still didn’t like it. I thought it was a really bad day when the Kingdome was imploded even though it hadn’t been fully paid for.

I’ve argued against public funding for a NASCAR track anywhere in Washington. NASCAR is making money hand-over-fist and I don’t see the need for them to have a public funding package to hold one or two major races a year in the state. I really don’t think the boost to the economy from those one or two major races a year would justify the cost of the funding package, and I think it would hurt other racetracks that are already operating in the area and raising their prices.

I’ve also said that it’s time for the Sonics to go. They’ve made the threat just as the Mariners and the Seahawks did. Seattle told them not a penny of public funds to grant them a new stadium or arena, so they decided to make a play for Renton at 150% of the original asking price.

Danny Westneat has a solution… sort of.

Forget Renton. Forget building the world’s most expensive arena out in the ‘burbs.

It’s time for the Sonics to come home. Now that state lawmakers have sensibly ignored the bloated fantasy of a $500 million Sonics and Storm palace in Renton, the burning question is: What next?

Are the teams as good as gone to Oklahoma?

Is Seattle stuck with a debt-ridden KeyArena?

Is this broken relationship irreconcilable?

Without a big shift, the answers are yes, yes and yes.

But the 40-year marriage of team and city doesn’t have to end like this. Compromise is a lost art, but there is one right under our noses that could save the Sonics without exorbitant public subsidies.

It would build a modern arena with double the space of the tiny Key. It would eliminate the debt that’s crippling Seattle Center. It would involve no state money and no sales taxes.

The idea is simple. Sonics owners say they’re willing to spend “more than $100 million” on the Renton arena that the state just shunned. What if they put that $100 million-plus into KeyArena instead?

A year ago, the team, under different owners, was pushing a $220 million rehab of KeyArena that would create, the team said, a “first-rate multipurpose facility.”

Trouble was, then-owner Howard Schultz had lost a lot of money and wasn’t willing to pony up much more. But the new owners say they are. With Renton all but dead, why not meet back at the Key?

The Sonics and the public could go 50-50 on the cost of renovating KeyArena. Say the price is up to $250 million. That’s $125 million each.

The Sonics were going to spend at least that much in Renton, anyway. For the public, it’s a quarter-of-a-billion dollars less than Renton.

It would leave us with just one basketball arena — happily, the one we’ve already got. We could drop the sales tax on restaurants. Imagine: a tax canceled! There would be zero state money needed. The entire public share could be paid for by extending local hotel/motel and car-rental taxes.

This solution is a whole lot more palatable to me than anything the Sonics have proposed. Maybe if the Sonics would pony up the majority of the cost I’d change my mind.

I still don’t like the idea of using public funds to pay for professional sports. Mr. Westneat might actually be on to something this time though. But, as he says at the end of his article, “I don’t suppose I’ll hold my breath”.

Cross posted at Perri Nelson’s Website.