The city of Seattle may be moving closer and closer to getting a brand new arena to potentially lure a professional NBA and/or NHL team, but it is unclear at this point if any teams would be willing to make the move to the northwestern corner of the country. There have been rumors -- everyone from the NBA Kings to NHL Coyotes have been mentioned -- but nothing has been concrete as of yet.
The Seattle Times has the latest update on the team situation:
An NBA league spokesman said Thursday there would be no comment from the commissioner or league officials on the situation in Seattle. Oklahoma City owner Clay Bennett, who just so happens to be the head of the league's seven-owner relocation committee, was not available for an interview.
As for the NHL?
"There's probably good potential for Seattle as a hockey market," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Thursday, "but we are not looking to relocate and we're not looking to expand."
There are a lot of moving parts when relocating a team and the months of March and April are typically the deadlines for an application, but the leagues, especially the NBA, will typically be flexible should there be a strong match. The city of Seattle is undoubtably ready for new teams, but this will take a lot more than just a few crowd rallies to get anything done.
For years, Seattle had an NBA team waiting and hoping for a new arena. Now, the plans for that arena will have to wait for two teams to be secured.
That's much easier said than done, I'm afraid, but this latest update certainly does not mean anything imminent for the arena and relocation projects.