SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle Mariners have sent a letter to the city of Seattle and King County officials saying as of now they do not support the idea of a new NBA/NHL arena in the same neighborhood as the Mariners home of Safeco Field.
The letter was sent from the team on Tuesday and signed by Mariners chairman Howard Lincoln. In the letter, Lincoln says the franchise supports the idea of the NBA returning to Seattle, but that an exhaustive examination of various sites for a new arena in the greater Seattle area needs to be conducted.
The Mariners say the current location for a new arena, on land owned by San Francisco businessman Christopher Hansen, “simply does not work.”
Hansen, a Seattle native, has offered $290 million in private investment toward the construction of a new arena that would cost between $450 and $500 million.
