Pro Basketball in Bellevue? Bellevue Downtown Association Holds Forum

Would Bellevue be ready to host professional basketball and hockey? Arena Solution, a group that supports bringing a sports arena to the Puget Sound area, will be featured at the next Bellevue Downtown Association forum on Feb. 28 about how an area professional basketball and hockey team would affect Bellevue.

Talks is intensifying about the possibility of bringing an NBA team back to Seattle, in the Stadium District near Safeco and Century Link fields. Seattle has been basketball-free since the Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder.

The Bellevue Downtown Association forum speakers will address what an arena in Seattle might mean for Bellevue, and whether Bellevue could be a good place for an arena if the Seattle possibility doesn't come together.

The forum will feature Brian Robinson, president of ArenaSolution.org and Craig Kinzer, principal of Kinzer Real Estate Services and partner at Denny Hill Capital.

According to the Arena Solution's website, the group "supports regional efforts to bring a world class arena facility, premium concerts, and new professional sports teams to our region," and is organizing "a large and diverse coalition willing to publicly state their support of these efforts...."

The arena advocacy group includes former Seattle SuperSonic Shawn Kemp, Seattle Team Shop owner Jeff Scoma and local businessman John Besteman, on its board.

Seattle lost its NBA team, the Seattle SuperSonics in 2008, when new owner Clay Bennett moved the team to Oklahoma City, where it now is called the Thunder, according to HistoryLink. HistoryLink reports that the SuperSonics, which were in town for 41 years, are the area's first and only sports franchise to win a major sports championship in 1979. (Although, all respect to HistoryLink, the Seattle Storm, the WNBA team, actually has two championships to its name - 2004 and 2010.)

If you go

Place:

Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Time: 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

Tickets:

$30 BDA Members/Students
$40 Non-Members
$300 BDA Member Table

Registration website is here.

For more information about the forum or about the Bellevue Downtown Association, go to http://www.bellevuedowntown.org

RSVP by Thursday, Feb. 23