Why Fred Brown's mega-arena is not fantasy

The whole city is chuckling about the no-financing-yet proposal for a $1 billion sports-and-entertainment complex floated yesterday by ex Sonic Fred Brown and public relations guy Dave Bean. But wait. There may be some last laughs in this story. For starters, it's likely that there is plenty of financial potential in such an idea, since complexes like this are being built in other cities. Groups like Phil Anschutz's AEG in Los Angeles (and also creating venues in Seattle) need big rock palaces for their music business. Examples of their megaplexes are Staples Center and Home Depot Center. If you really want to see what AEG can do, look at The O2 project, converting the Millennium Dome near London: The O2 is a large entertainment district including an indoor arena, a music club, a cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas and bars and restaurants, built within a large dome-shaped building (formerly the Millennium Dome), on the Greenwich peninsula in south-east London, England. So before you laugh off the Brown-Bean proposal, keep in mind which way the winds are blowing in Seattle. The region is going to want a basketball and hockey team. It's going to be fully commercialized, privately built. It probably won't be able to survive the resistance (both political and the famous Seattle process) in Seattle and so will be somewhere like Tukwila. The money will be out-of-state. And it will cannibalize Seattle Center in the process. No laughing matter.