News of the return deserves enthusiasm

From the beginning of when we saw possible hope with the return of the Sonics to Seattle, The Seattle Times has been there to shoot down any enthusiasm about the idea [“Sonics return, new arena far from a done deal,” Opinion, Jan. 23].

I understand we should be cautiously optimistic about the success of this venture by Chris Hansen and the rest of his investment team, but let’s look at the facts. The arena deal has been accepted by King County and the city of Seattle and Chris Hansen has the land and money to build the new arena.

Opponents to the idea say it will hurt the environment and it will cause issues with traffic infringing on the Port of Seattle’s productivity. Let me pose it this way. Do you really think a state-of-the-art arena, added restaurants and community gathering areas will be worse than industrial factories in the Sodo area?

The NBA season barely overlaps with the MLB and MLS seasons, and the Seahawks play on Sundays, for the most part. The idea that this will negatively impact the environment and add to traffic on game day (which is already something that Sodo deals with daily) is absurd. Try to enjoy the moment a little.

--Michael Stanton, Sammamish