SEATTLE
(AP) -- The
city of Seattle has been working behind the scenes the past eight months with a hedge-fund manager to bring an
NBA team back to town - possibly as early as next fall if the
Sacramento Kings fail to get a satisfactory deal for a new arena, newly released documents show.
The city turned over the documents to The Seattle Times on Friday under a public records request. The documents included the agenda for a meeting between the parties on Dec. 13, with topics including "Review of Basic Deal Structure," "City Debt Capacity" and "Financing Issues."
A Seattle native who now lives in San Francisco, 44-year-old hedge-fund manager Christopher Hansen, approached the city about his desire to buy an NBA team and build an arena south of Safeco Field, the documents show. Hansen told city officials an arena could be built with minimal impact on taxpayers.
"I really appreciate it and look forward to making this happen in Seattle. I genuinely mean that and am confident that with a little effort and creativity we can find a solution that meets our needs and
the City's/State's desire to get a team back to Seattle without a large public outlay," Hansen wrote in a June 16 email to Julie McCoy, chief of staff to Seattle Mayor
Mike McGinn, and Ethan Raup, the mayor's director of policy and operations.
Seattle hasn't had an NBA team since 2008, when owner
Clay Bennett moved the Sonics to
Oklahoma City and renamed them the Thunder.
Hansen, who heads Valiant Capital Management LLC, offered to provide information on recent arena deals that have been put together.
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