Taking care of the "Key" to Seattle Center's future

Seattle Center is not just one of this region's most popular gathering places, it's one of the nation's most popular gathering places. An astonishing 10 million people visit each year. More than 5,000 free events are staged there. Major arts organizations, including Seattle Repertory Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Children's Theatre, call Seattle Center home.

Tens of thousands of people go to Seattle Center each year for no other reason than just to be out-of-doors — to stroll the grounds, have a picnic, or let their kids play in the International Fountain.

As former mayors, we are proud of the investments that were made during — and since — our administrations to make Seattle Center the magnet that it is today for residents of Seattle and the Greater Puget Sound region, and for visitors from around the world.

Seattle Center is not just a popular attraction, it's also vital to the region's economy. Thousands of full- and part-time workers are employed there. Overall, the annual economic benefit is hundreds of millions of dollars.

But underlying all that success is a festering problem that threatens Seattle Center's future viability. It's KeyArena. The building's design limitations, even though some improvements were made 10 years ago, make it less competitive with newer venues for sporting events, concerts and shows. And while the city's financial plan to pay the building's debt made sense 10 years ago, it no longer is working. It is impossible now, and will be in the future, to operate the building profitably under the current financial plan.

It's a huge problem for Seattle Center. KeyArena is important to the viability of Seattle Center. Events there draw hundreds of thousands of people who then partake in other activities, including spending money at the Pacific Science Center, the Children's Museum, the food court in Seattle Center House, and dozens of other venues.

KeyArena is also the closest thing the region has to a civic auditorium — typically hosting more than 140 events a year ranging from the Issaquah High School graduation ceremony this spring to family ice shows at Christmas to company meetings.

The Sonics and the WNBA world champion Storm are the anchor tenants of KeyArena. Even though their use produces two-thirds of the building's revenues, the Sonics and Storm together account for fewer than half of the events that are staged there. Basically, the Sonics pay rent to the city and they make the city's mortgage payment on the building.

KeyArena is not a Sonics problem. The Sonics have five years remaining on their lease to use KeyArena. The issue is what is going to be done to ensure that the Sonics will be willing to sign a new lease. Because the alternative — having no anchor tenant after 2010 — would be a catastrophe for KeyArena and Seattle Center.

Without an anchor tenant, the city would still have some $30 million of KeyArena debt and no source of revenue — other than general tax funds — to pay it. And there would be negative repercussions throughout Seattle Center and the Lower Queen Anne business district. KeyArena would likely have to be shut down, other Seattle Center venues would see an attendance drop, and city taxpayers would have to make up the increasing difference between the center's revenues and costs.

To their credit, the Sonics' ownership group — comprised of more than 50 local civic and business leaders — say they prefer to stay at KeyArena if it can be made a viable venue.

So what needs to be done?

We don't have all the answers — fortunately for us, that is the challenge of current elected officials. But we do think the effort should begin with two assumptions:

• The Sonics organization is the engine that drives KeyArena, and KeyArena is the engine that drives Seattle Center. So it's crucial that a solution be found that ensures the Sonics are part of KeyArena's future.

• Seattle Center shouldn't be just a city of Seattle problem. The campus is enjoyed by millions of people from throughout the Puget Sound region and beyond. Other local officials, and state officials, should support a solution that keeps Seattle Center vibrant.

Hundreds of millions of private and public dollars — from city, county, state and federal sources — have been invested over the past 25 years to make Seattle Center a world-class family attraction and venue for arts, culture and entertainment. The question now is whether it will still be a place where the next generation of Seattle children play in the fountain, have their faces painted and attend their first concert. Or will the campus, hamstrung by debt, fall into disrepair and become a place people no longer want to visit?

Seattle Center is a great place, one of the best public gathering spots in the country. Let's make keeping it a great place a priority.

Norm Rice, Charles Royer, Paul Schell and Wes Uhlman are former mayors of Seattle.