SEATTLE — Local restaurants and bars near Climate Pledge Arena are feeling real excitement as the news of the NBA Board of Governors approved a vote to explore expansion came down on Wednesday — paving the way for the Seattle Sonics to potentially return.
In recent years, Climate Pledge Arena has helped drive revenue for the city with the multiple professional teams that call the venue home, and in turn, filled sports bars and other restaurants nearby.
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Now, with what could be the return of the most significant team of them all — the Sonics — businesses are thrilled at the prospect of frenzied crowds of the past could be headed back to downtown.
“Getting ’em [sic] back will be huge and I think the whole city will wake up to it,” said Kerbie Predmore, the owner of Uptown HopHouse, just a short walk from Climate Pledge Arena.
Predmore says he’s been in Seattle his whole life and was a season ticket holder of the Sonics in the 1990s, making the news doubly exciting for him.
However, it also brings serious implications, as he says running a local restaurant and bar is the hardest it’s ever been in his 25 years of experience.
Predmore says that with an NBA team comes another 40-or-so home games, without the playoffs, for people to flock into nearby bars before and after.
But, according to the NBA, an expansion team in Seattle could theoretically tip off on the hardwood starting in the fall of 2028, making the wait feel particularly long for business owners.
“Because we’ve persevered this long, we will somehow, some way, make it to when they come back, and hopefully the neighborhood develops along with that,” said Predmore.
Other establishments like the Blue Water Taco Grill, which is just one block over from Climate Pledge, has been open for nearly 29 years — and have managers who remember the years leading up to the Sonics departure.
“That was a good time, we really enjoyed it, it was so busy,” said Arturo Alamo, a manager with the Mexican restaurant fixed along Queen Anne Avenue.
He echoed the same sentiments as Predmore, citing the difficulties of running a business these days, and said a team of the Sonics’ caliber would bring a surge of business, beyond what they’ve seen with the Kraken’s emergence.
“Now, after the pandemic happened and business [has] gone down, we really want to get [the team] back,” Alamo said. “It can be like 70% more business, because everybody has been waiting for it, everybody [is] excited about it [and] been waiting years and years,” he added.
Back along 1st Avenue, a new face to the arena neighborhood is Tsuki Shokudo, which opened its doors about 2 months ago, serving ramen and Japanese cuisine.
Bartender Jake Cook believes that another major pro team would inject so much energy into the area, adding to the existing Seattle sports success.
“Everybody in Seattle is very sports passionate and the city loves to see teams win,” said Cook. “I think it’s going to be great for us and for the whole neighborhood, it’ll be a great selling point for us,” he added.
He says they have a projector screen inside to play sporting events on, and that they’ll be using that for every Sonics game, should their return become a reality.
“I’m stoked for it, I love basketball so, getting to see a basketball game live, there’s nothing like it,” said Cook.
