Social media lit up with news that the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings confirmed they would meet at KeyArena for a pre-season game in October . Chris Daniels from KING 5 News shared more about the announcement. He also provided an update about the Seattle Arena situation, saying the vote on the final Arena lease and development agreements in still on track for September 17th, and explained what this means for Seattle's NHL team, which is awaiting final approval from the league.<doc-sep>For the first time since the 2007-2008 season, the NBA will host a game in the city of Seattle. The league announced its preseason schedule Monday, and on October 5, the Golden State Warriors will take on the Sacramento Kings at Seattle’s KeyArena, becoming the first NBA teams to play there since the Seattle Sonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2008 offseason. The game will constitute a homecoming of sorts for Warriors forward Kevin Durant, who played his rookie season in Seattle. Back in February, when the idea to play a preseason game in Seattle first surfaced, Durant voiced his support. “That would be amazing, hopefully that goes through,” Durant told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I mean, the fans of Seattle definitely deserve basketball and that would be amazing. So, I’m looking forward to that.” Kevin Durant will return to Seattle a decade after he debuted there. (AP Images) Seattle is considered a frontrunner to land the NBA’s next available franchise. KeyArena to undergo NBA- and NHL-friendly renovations in late 2018 In December 2017, the Seattle City Council approved a proposal for a $600 million renovation project on KeyArena (which is now up to $700 million), to better optimize it to host a new NHL or NBA team. The project is scheduled to take two years. The plans entail turning the arena in a “top third” revenue-producer for the NHL and NBA both, according to the Seattle Times. “The brilliance of this building and what they’ve designed is that … if you’re the NBA, and you want to move to Seattle at some point or another in the future, you do not have to spend a billion dollars on a new arena,’’ said Tim Leiweke, CEO of Oak View Group, one of the project’s funders. “You walk into an arena and maximize your revenue streams as if you were moving into your own arena, without spending a billion dollars.’’ Leiweke has also repeatedly said that he’s not trying to but the cart before the horse in terms of the NBA’s decision to expand to Seattle, but rather, just wants to be ready should the time come. The renovation plans would expand spectator capacity to 17,400 for NHL and 18,600 for NBA games. More from Yahoo Sports: • NFL HOF reportedly considering requiring inductees to show up • Dak Prescott on ‘Get Out’ mural: ‘Everybody has their own opinion’ • Terez Paylor: Tyrod good for Cleveland? Just ask the defense • Dan Wetzel: How Jim Tressel scandal sheds insight on Urban Meyer situation<doc-sep>Seattle hoops fans still show up to support the NBA, even though the beloved SuperSonics have been gone for more than a decade now. On Tuesday morning, tickets for the preseason game between the reigning champion Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings at KeyArena on Friday, October 5th went on sale. Within the first hour, fans of the green and gold had purchased 12,000 tickets. The hunger for world class professional men’s basketball is still alive in the Emerald City. From the Warriors: "The Golden State Warriors vs Sacramento Kings preseason game scheduled for October 5 at KeyArena sold over 12,000 tickets in the first hour this morning. There are still tickets still remaining, but don't wait. Go get your tickets now!" — Kevin Shockey (@KevinShockey) August 7, 2018 Tickets went on sale at 10 am Pacific Time for the first NBA game of any kind in Seattle since April 2008. As of this afternoon, a smattering of single seats were still available in the lower bowl. KeyArena’s official capacity for basketball is 17,072. It’s likely the game will be a sellout by the end of the day. Update from @Warriors—— The #October 5th NBA EXHIBITION game at #Seattle’s #KeyArena between GSW and Sacramento is now “close to being sold out”. It is scheduled to be the last public event at the Key before demolition. Tickets went on sale this morning.#NBA #NHL @KDTrey5 — Chris Daniels (@ChrisDaniels5) August 7, 2018 Since the Seattle club, which had played in front of this Northwest crowd for 41 seasons, left for the plains of Oklahoma, Sonics fans have had a bitter and often cold relationship with the NBA. The desire to see the club return, though, has long burned fierce. In 2013, in preparation for a new arena and the potential to buy and relocate the Sacramento Kings, over 44,000 fans pledged to purchase season tickets and multi-game packages in an effort to demonstrate the passionate fervor for basketball that still existed in the city. “[This game is] just a great opportunity for the NBA and Seattle to get to know each other again.” - Brian Robinson On the verge of a new arena deal that would see the interior of KeyArena completely demolished and replaced with a building with a larger footprint and nearly twice as much space, the city and developer have been courting a potential NHL franchise. The league authorized a season ticket drive to gauge hockey fan interest, and in March the sports world was stunned when 25,000 deposits were placed within the first hour. The day ended with 33,000 deposits and 4,000 on a waiting list. This was noticed not only by the NHL but by the NBA as well. A dearth of professional winter season sports in Seattle is calling out to be capitalized upon. Today’s sales continue to underscore that point. Speaking with KOMO News in line at the KeyArena box office, Sonics Rising’s Brian Robinson called the game “a great opportunity for the NBA and Seattle to get to know each other again.” He further offered, “I think people have a lot of emotions around the NBA’s departure, and I think we’re going to go in, and we’re going to heal, and get excited and get ready for the next chapter in bringing the Sonics back.” Though the Kings will coincidentally represent the “home” team in the preseason match, the Warriors front office was quick to set the event in motion. Golden State president Rick Welts is a Seattle native and one time ballboy for the Sonics. He had looked at opportunities for the Dubs to play in the preseason in Seattle in the past, but nothing had come together until now. It’s only fitting that Kevin Durant, the last superstar drafted by the Sonics to take the court for them, will return to play in front of this rabid crowd. The city is expected to approve the project for the arena renovation at Seattle Center next month, a significant milestone in a saga that dates back nearly 20 years, prior to former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s purchase of the Sonics. Schultz would eventually sell the team to the Oklahoma City interests because of an inability to get a new arena done. The Warriors-Kings game will be the last event held at KeyArena, an apt closing of one chapter and start of another.<doc-sep>
When the news surfaced that the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings were going to play an NBA preseason game in Seattle, it seemed a bit like a cruel joke. NBA’s Warriors, Kings set preseason game at Seattle’s KeyArena So the league that yanked a 41-year-old franchise with a championship to its name out of Seattle wants to stage an exhibition game in the last scheduled event in the very building that was deemed unfit to house an NBA team 10 years prior? And the game would include Kevin Durant, the star of the final Sonics team, going up against the franchise that nearly became the new Sonics before the NBA put its foot down to prevent Sacramento from having its team ripped away like Seattle already had? The Friday, Oct. 5 game at KeyArena isn’t a prank on Seattle’s basketball fans, however. On the Warriors’ end, scheduling the game was more about a Seattle native, Golden State president and CEO Rick Welts, trying to bring the league back to where he first fell in love with the game. “He was kind of on a mission to get some kind of basketball back to Seattle,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers told Danny, Dave and Moore on Monday. “He was a ballboy (for the Sonics), he was reared in the NBA in Seattle and has great roots there, so he was kind of the impetus on our side. (We) didn’t need much convincing. … There was no need to push – it was pretty easy to say, ‘If we can get it done, let’s go.’ “We’re excited – everyone’s excited and hopefully it will give the fans up there some taste of the NBA.” Myers, who has ties to Seattle himself from his days working as an agent in the league and through a brother that attended UW, said the preseason game isn’t so much about taking the temperature on whether the NBA would be successful if it returned to the city. That much is already clear to him. “There’s hurdles to get over (in bringing an expansion team to Seattle), but I don’t think Seattle needs to sell itself on how great of a city it is – in any aspect, whether it’s the economy, the people, the appetite for sports,” he said. “… When the conversation (of NBA expansion) comes up, you have to think it has to be at the top or near the top of the list of cities in the United States, or anywhere for that matter.” You can hear the full interview with Myers, who also talked about Warriors guard and former WSU Cougars star Klay Thompson, in this podcast from Monday’s show. Tickets for the Warriors-Kings game at KeyArena went on sale Tuesday.