Tagged: basketball

Nothing but net? No problem for one sporty sea otter at the Oregon Zoo.

Eddie the otter has been trained to dunk a basketball through a small plastic hoop. It's an exercise a veterinarian recommended for his arthritic elbows.

If the backers of a plan to build a new sports arena in Seattle's SoDo area are successful, they'll be looking to attract both a professional hockey club and a professional basketball team as marquis tenants.

Seattle and King County lawmakers are poring over the proposal's details. In the coming weeks they'll cast votes on the arena plan, its call for up to $200 million in public bonds (to be paired with $300 million in private funds), a plan championed by investor Chris Hansen.

Kids, coeds and pros. This past weekend more than 250,000 people turned out to the city of Spokane for the twenty-third annual Hoopfest weekend.

More than 7,000 teams took to 458 courts stretching across 42 blocks in downtown Spokane.

"We had to turn away over 200 teams," said Hoopfest Chairman Terry Kelly. "The demand continues to grow each year and the numbers reflect that."

Could a new basketball and hockey arena hurt ticket sales for other teams in the city? That’s what some King County officials are worried about. The fear is that Seattle could end up with too many big-time sports teams and that there wouldn’t be enough entertainment dollars to go around.

How would taxpayers be protected if a new basketball arena gets built in Seattle? The details are in an agreement between the city, King County and the man who wants to bring an NBA team to town.

After three months of meetings and negotiations, there’s now a formal Memorandum of Understanding between investor Chris Hansen and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn along with County Executive Dow Constantine. In the fine print, it describes how Hansen will purchase the land south of Safeco Field, build a new basketball arena on it, and then sell it to the city.

President Barack Obama welcomed the Seattle Storm to the White House Rose Garden today. Obama said the 2010 WNBA champions set a good example for young girls with big dreams. The President is a basketball fan and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, also like to shoot hoops.