SEATTLE — Days after Seattle City Councilmembers supported the plan to build a new arena backed by hedge fund manager Chris Hansen, new allegations are surfacing that city leaders might be acting illegally in approving the SoDo arena.
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Chris Francis spoke with supporters and critics of the new deal.
Lawyer Pete Goldman told KIRO 7 that he wants the City Council to hold off on Thursday’s vote and said the agreement is in violation of state law.
“It pays lip service to the state environmental policy act, but doesn’t comply with the spirit or letter of the law,” Goldman said.
Goldman and the coalition he represents, including several maritime unions and the Seattle Mariners, believe the city is caving to Hansen’s demand that the arena be built in SoDo. He also added that the year-long environmental impact study in the agreement is a sham.
“The MOU purports not to select a site and says we’re creating a process, then goes ahead and selects a site,” Goldman said. “It tried to be everything to everybody, but it is a colossal failure. It does not basically require a credible, an objective analysis of other sites. Are we ready to say Mr. Hansen gets to decide where the facility should be?”
Goldman said the vote Thursday might be a foregone conclusion, but the group that opposes the arena he represents won’t stop voicing its opposition.
On Tuesday, Hansen announced on his website that he will buy supporters a beer at FX McCrory's on Thursday in celebration of the City Council's agreement and to thank people for their support.
FX McCrory’s owner, Mick McHugh, said that Hansen may have gotten a little carried away in buying a beer for fan, but he was ready for the crowd.
“I’ve been dialing the phone, I’ve been on the phone since we first heard, and so we got all the kegs lined up,” said McHugh.
Hansen plans to be at the event to pass out one-beer tickets with one per customer.
McHugh said that he is expecting triple the restaurant’s capacity of 400 people.
“We’ll have a few crowd control, I’m sure the Liquor Board will be here monitoring and probably the fire marshal, to boot,” McHugh said.