Industry News

AEG pulls out of KeyArena plans

Sports and entertainment giant AEG has withdrawn from a proposal to renovate the KeyArena venue in the US city of Seattle.

AEG had represented half of the Seattle Partners group alongside Hudson Pacific Properties. The group submitted a multi-million-dollar bid for the arena in April.

Oak View Group also submitted a bid and now appears to be the frontrunner following AEG’s withdrawal.

Seattle is currently without an NBA and NHL franchise and it is hoped a renovated KeyArena would serve as the home for a new sports team in the city.

In a statement reported by the Seattle Times newspaper, Seattle Partners said: “We fear the city is driving toward an unrealistic financing structure, and we believe the city has failed to conduct a sufficiently thorough, objective and transparent process to properly evaluate the respective strengths and weaknesses of the two proposals and, most significantly, to identify the proposal best positioned to deliver a project consistent with the community’s interests.”

NBA team the SuperSonics, which played home games at KeyArena, relocated to Oklahoma in 2008 and rebranded itself as the Thunder. The arena currently serves as the home of women’s NBA team the Seattle Storm, and also hosts games played by the Redhawks, Seattle University’s men’s basketball outfit.

Image: Dlz28

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