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.”
Hedge-fund manager Christopher Hansen, a Seattle native who lives in San Francisco, approached the city about his desire to buy an NBA team and build an arena on land he owns south of Safeco Field, the documents show.
Hansen, 44, told city officials in one email that an arena could be built with minimal impact on taxpayers.
“Thanks for spending the time today guys,” 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.
“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.”
Seattle hasn’t had an NBA team since 2008, when owner Clay Bennett moved the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City and renamed them the Thunder.
Hansen, who heads Valiant Capital Management LLC, offered to provide information on “recent municipal arena deals that have been put together and some of the direct and indirect contributions that the city can make that don’t require incremental taxes or direct public funding.”
The Dec. 13 meeting was attended by McCoy and Raup and set up by Carl Hirsh, a New Jersey arena consultant hired by the city in July.
The agenda included discussion of KeyArena, where the Sonics played, and which could be used as a temporary home for a new team with the permission of the NBA. Before the Sonics departed, the league considered KeyArena an unsuitable permanent venue.
The documents don’t mention how Seattle would obtain a team, but the Times reported that they show the city has been following developments in Sacramento, which is under a March 1 deadline to come up with a viable proposal to build an arena for the Sacramento Kings.
McGinn said Saturday he is taking the proposal seriously, but doesn’t want the city to be left “holding the bag.”
McGinn has said that once the city receives a firm proposal, it will open discussions with the city council.
