Do It Yo' Damn Self

Mayor Nickels sent a letter to Olympia asking if state officials would endorse a $220 million expansion of Key Arena to appease the Sonics/Storm ownership. The letter was treated the same way Jannine Koewler reacted to our note asking her to prom in the twelfth grade--with scorn and rejection. Is this any way to treat a man who was photographed by Vanity Fair?

The mayor was looking for "full support" from the governor and Democratic legislative leaders, and well, to say the reception was well-received would be like saying that quantum mechanics assigns definite values to observables.

Governor Gregoire said, "I have no interest in committing what amounts to a blank check for this project until the city and the Sonics agree on what we may or may not be buying."

Union-busting House Speaker Frank Chopp told the Times, "I don't know what they're trying to put on our doorstep. We don't meet until January....The city should figure out what it's proposing, and then we'll take a look at it."

The state may be wary of getting involved after the city was cool to a similar plan discussed in the legislature way back in March.

The city must now negotiate with the Sonics/Storm, who sweetened their deal last week by offering to pay for $18 million of the $220 million project, plus any cost overruns. In exchange, they would get all of the profits from the building. It's a plan that only seems perfectly fair to this guy.

On Wednesday the city council's Parks, Education, Libraries, and Labor Committee will look into the issue.