For immediate release:  March 16, 2000
For more information:  Barton Potter (360) 902-9033

State Finance Committee Authorizes April 18 Sale of Final Seahawk Stadium Bonds

With representatives of the Public Stadium Authority and First and Goal (the business arm of the Seahawks) in attendance, the committee approved sale of the final $200 million in bonds of the public’s $300 million share of the project. The total estimated price tag of the stadium, exhibition center and parking facility is $435 million.

The State Finance Committee approved the April bond sale at its regular meeting at the Office of the State Treasurer. The committee is made up of State Treasurer Michael J. Murphy (chair), Governor Gary Locke and Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen.

Proceeds of the state’s first stadium bond sale in May 1999 were used for building the parking facilities and exhibition center, demolition of the Kingdome and early stages of construction of the new stadium. The parking and exhibition center (in the former south parking lot of the Kingdome) was completed last fall and dedicated in October 1999.

Proceeds of the April 2000 sale will be used to build the Seahawks’ new open-air stadium on the site of the Kingdome. The Kingdome is scheduled for demolition March 26.

Bonds from the April issue are scheduled to be repaid in 2021. Referendum 47, which authorized the stadium project, identified sources of revenue to be used for repayment of the bonds. These include lottery income, parking taxes, admission taxes, certain hotel-motel taxes and a portion of the sales tax.

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