Shopless in Seattle

We cruised through Seattle on our way to Alaska last year (not sure how the 5 hour layover on the way back counts as cruising through), it seemed like a nice city. And as everyone knows, it is the home of...Jones Soda, correct!

But I don't think I'd ever move there, or at least not buy a car anywhere near Seattle.

Here's why...

Typical Sports Team Story.
Starbucks guy sells the Seattle basketball team for $350 million.
Some guy buys it hopefully doing his homework to see if it was a smart deal.
Now the new owner demands the city build him a new $500 million arena so he can charge more for tickets and make more money off of the people of Seattle.
The city of Seattle using their brain power (very high density of PHD's, I hear) says no way will we use tax payers money to build you an arena so we can pay you more for tickets.
Owner does the adult version of "then I'm taking my toys and going home" by saying he will have to move the team to Kansas City to find a free arena.
New owner goes crying to his mommy (David Stern) who tells Seattle if the team is "forced" to move, Seattle will not get a new team anytime soon.

This happens in most cities (see Cincinnati in 2000) usually the city caves and we get a tax hike. But this is crazy for Seattle. We bought some things in the airport, while paying I was shocked at how much the sales tax cost (8.9%!)
I asked why it was so high and the guy said they had to pay for a light rail system and 2 new stadiums (Football and Baseball).

How much higher will it need to go to pay another $500 million for basketball?

It will be interesting to see what happens. But it brings up a good question. Fans all assume a team moving away is like losing a puppy, but is that really the case these days? With all of the sports packages you can be anywhere (even Ohio) and still follow your team (without paying for the stadiums).

Good Luck Seattle.