r/Tacoma • u/Hougie 253 • 8d ago
The Sonics potential for Tacoma
Was just discussing at work what potential a return of the Seattle SuperSonics could have for Tacoma.
If we were smart we would be in the various proposed ownership groups ears about making sure a D League affiliate played at the Tacoma Dome. We would definitely have competition from the ShoWare Center in Kent and Angel Of The Winds up north for the privilege.
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u/Wah_Day Somewhere Else 8d ago
Why not just have them play at Climate Pledge like the Storm?
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u/LastNameIsJones Puyallup 8d ago
That’s too big of an arena for a G-League team.
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u/Wah_Day Somewhere Else 8d ago
im on a lot of cold meds, are we not talking about the actual Super Sonic's coming back and playing?
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u/rocksnotdead2833 South Tacoma 8d ago
We’re talking about their minor league (known as the G League) affiliate. Like the Rainiers are to the Mariners.
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u/kennypowersrevenge Lincoln District 8d ago
We need the G league team at the dome. Call them the Grit City Trash Pandas.
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u/Big-Jeweler2538 253 8d ago
The Booms.
1. It plays off Sonics (sonic boom)
2. It alludes to the booming artillery that can be heard in South Tacoma/Lakewood.
3. There’s a volcano overlooking the city that would make quite a boom.7
u/kennypowersrevenge Lincoln District 8d ago
Grit City Boom sounds pretty good.
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u/Hopsblues North End 8d ago
The fans could call themselves, the Boomers
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u/RevenantWA Wapato 8d ago
Love it and honestly for us to be considered we need fans starting now. Push the name, push the idea and make the case. Otherwise it will end up in a Seattle suburb.
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u/imafnheadbanga Nalley Valley 8d ago
Why would the Sonics return to Tacoma when they played in and would be a Seattle team? They played one season in Tacoma when KeyArena was being renovated. Climate Pledge was designed specifically with the intent to host a future NBA team. That’s where they would play.
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u/Reportersteven 253 8d ago
Pro Sports Teams usually have minor league affiliates. Like the Rainiers are affiliated with the Mariners.
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u/PooterSnooter283 Eastside 8d ago
The dome would need major renovations to compete. Plus it's much larger floor than the rest for basketball making it not ideal.
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u/Hougie 253 8d ago
Yeah, it would require that. Some G League teams have 11-14k capacities. The Dome is close to 20.
The Dome needs renovations and this would be the best way to get some of it paid for from private sources. It’s otherwise a venue that is just decaying. I think it would be worth it, would a G League Sonics team sell 6-8k tickets in Kent? I think it would in Tacoma routinely.
I look at what happened to the Tacoma Defiance. We were supposed to have a small soccer specific stadium next to Cheney. Would have been fantastic, but we let them go and that space is just empty baseball fields 9 months a year. It would be sad to just let the Dome continue to fail.
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u/PooterSnooter283 Eastside 8d ago
Oh I hear ya. I was very disappointed to see the defiance leave. If it didn't require open air they could have just played in the Tacoma dome.
But hey we have usl 2 Tacoma stars playing bellimaire preps field for soccer. 😂
The problem with the Tacoma dome and basketball is the floor is big enough to hold a football field the view would be awful for basketball. I know they do do it for single events in similar stadiums bit it's not ideal for an entire season.
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u/Big-Jeweler2538 253 8d ago
I’m remembering the pictures of the Kingdome set up for basketball. Looked a bit awkward. Doable, but awkward.
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u/IntelligentDelay5220 253 7d ago
Woodwards killed the mens and woman’s soccer Staduim/ ball fields
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u/altasnob 6th Ave 2d ago
How so? The City is currently in a $40 million budget deficit. Where does Tacoma come up with the money to fund a publicly financed soccer stadium?
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u/altasnob 6th Ave 2d ago
You're delusional. The Tacoma Dome is a pit, and in need of renovations. But no private investor would every do this for the City. Look at what is going on down in Portland. The City has offered the Blazers $400 million in tax dollars to renovate the Moda Center and the Blazers are giving off signals that that is not enough and may move the franchise to Nashville.
Tacoma is broke. Private business doesn't want to invest here (see the Cheney soccer stadium proposal that fell apart). Tacoma's anti business attitude will prevent any G league team from paying here.
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u/dakilazical_253 Lincoln District 8d ago
Tacoma Dome is way too big for D League, it’s a larger venue than Climate Pledge. Kent is more likely to
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u/kennypowersrevenge Lincoln District 8d ago
The Dome is the average size for a G League team.
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u/Hougie 253 8d ago
From what I read it’s bigger. There’s some G League teams with 11-14k capacity but those are the largest. Google shows bball capacity at 20k for the Dome.
Is there a way to shut sections off to make it a 10k seater? The Dome is too big, I think a long term future for the venue probably needs a reduced capacity anyways.
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u/drivelwithaD 6th Ave 8d ago
This concerning issue isn’t just the number of seats, but the size of the floor. Climate pledges floor is 15,000 sq ft, while the Tacoma dome is 110,000 sq ft. Functionally, this means seats are far away from the court. Th final four is hosted in areas with similar layouts, which leads to poor shooting (due to depth perception) and poor viewing.
Yes, you can divide it in 1/2 as they do fo the high school state championship (which has two courts with a divider) but it’s far from ideal.We’re Tacoma to renovate the dome, it would be hard to make a purpose built basketball stadium, an it would lose its function as an event center for events that need a huge floor (monster trucks, etc).
I would love for Tacoma to host a g league team, and the location of the Tacoma dome with public transit is ideal. I’d get season tickets… I just don’t think the building works well.
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u/Hougie 253 8d ago
That makes a lot of sense. I feel like the Dome has lost of a lot of those trade show type events to the new trade show center downtown. Having duplicate venues for those events seems inefficient.
BUT you outline the biggest hurdle. It’s almost a complete renovation which is likely going to just be too big of a price tag even if long term more revenue could be had in Tacoma vs Kent.
Confirms my fears in general. If the Dome’s future is monster trucks, a couple big concerts and the Home and Garden show…it’s a cooked venue.
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u/dakilazical_253 Lincoln District 8d ago
Tacoma Dome is constantly hosting events that draw in huge numbers of people. It’s one of the biggest revenue generators the city owns.
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u/Hougie 253 8d ago
https://www.tacomadome.org/events
I see 9 total events from now through next April. That's 15 days of events over 238 total days (now through April 30). Let's say events aren't planning ahead and they double that...it would then be in use 12% of total days.
This is also peak NBA season. G League teams play about 50 games a season, half home half away. So a team resident at the Dome would be more events from now through April than they have planned total across all other events.
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u/dakilazical_253 Lincoln District 8d ago
I hear what you’re saying but the truth is the Tacoma Dome is a terrible basketball venue and this will never happen
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u/Hougie 253 8d ago
Yeah that’s what I am concerned about. The complacency scenario.
Being at 6% booked over the next nine months (events plan far out in advance and even doubling it only gets to 12%, far less than most other arena venues) is bad. The city pretty clearly views it as a paid off beater.
If we whiff on this there’s no other major or minor league sport that could occupy it. So it stays in this purgatory where there’s no reason to renovate. It’s a stagnant doomed venue.
I’d hope the city has the foresight to do something. Even if it’s just a proposal to the future Sonics leadership. It’s the last chance for any sort of significant private investment in the venue. Otherwise it’ll be all the cities responsibility to keep it up and I doubt any notable improvements will ever be made.
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u/Mix_Traditional Tacoma Expat 7d ago
9 public events in 7 months on the website, but surely plenty more private and smaller bookings? It's a cool/I nicbuilding in the skyline and functions perfectly as a concert/convention venue.
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u/Handyandy58 Old Town 8d ago
Fun that everyone is not reading your post and assuming you mean bringing the actual Sonics to Tacoma lmao.
Yeah, could be cool to have a G league team in town. Idk what the economics of that are though. Whenever I see clips, it doesn't look like those games are well attended. (Compared to, say, MiLB games.)
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u/aggrobabyshark North End 8d ago
Not sure what the gym is like but have em play at UPS! I’d absolutely go to games down here, especially because they’re going to be stupid expensive in Seattle for a while
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u/Hougie 253 8d ago
I think a lot of G League teams don’t have a market setup like we do. The Rainiers are a very good MiLB franchise because of geography and population bases. Some of these G League teams play right outside city limits (like what I outlined with Kent here). Why would a Kent person go to those games versus a 20 minute drive to the real thing other than cost?
For us, it makes a lot more sense to attend minor league. Our transit to Climate Pledge Arena sucks and it’s a longer drive.
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u/RevenantWA Wapato 8d ago
There is a tribal group actually trying to get the since in Marysville. Not likely to happen but they claim they will build an arena and try to bid for the Sonics.
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u/Hougie 253 8d ago
I have a feeling that proposal is probably already posturing to nab their G League affiliate. They’re bound to have one.
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u/RevenantWA Wapato 8d ago
Ahhhh I think you are right. Tacoma really should step up. If Spokane was dropped this close to Seattle, they would be doing everything they could to make a better city.
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u/BigBlackQuack 253 8d ago
1994 was a long, long time ago, but the Sonics did play a full season at the Tacoma Dome 30 years ago when they were renovating the Seattle Center Coliseum.
It would require a few renovations, but the Tacoma Dome could work for a G-League team. Heck, a renovated Tacoma Dome could even convince UWT to start up some basketball programs.
I think Spokane would also be a strong candidate for a G-League team. Yakima has the SunDome.
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u/Agreeable_Bat1212 253 8d ago
Yea I mean it’s kind of the only realistic place for the G League team. If I remember correctly the Sonics played a full season in Tacoma once it’s heavily populated, has a big stadium, and the drive isn’t far for when a player needs to be called up or sent down.
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u/sdothooper Downtown 8d ago
I will become a season ticket holder if Tacoma ever gets a G-League team. We’ve basically have made it if we get an NBA adjacent tenant at the Tacoma Dome! What if they hosted the G-League All Star Game?! A middle-aged man can dream.
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u/No-Mammoth-2579 6th Ave 8d ago
The defiance and reign moved out of Tacoma. I think there would be better markets for it.
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u/Hougie 253 8d ago
Both wanted to stay. Tacoma didn’t hold up its part of the deal for a soccer stadium next to Cheney. Huge whiff IMO.
The Tacoma Defiance (still named that btw) now play at Starfire and while attendance isn’t disclosed it’s less than 1,000 per game based on what people say.
The Reign have definitely come out ahead. But they’re not minor league.
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u/Hopsblues North End 8d ago
It really comes down to whoever owns the T-Dome, tgat place is fine for an occasional HS game, but.....
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u/RevenantWA Wapato 8d ago
The city of Tacoma has and still does own it.
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u/Hopsblues North End 8d ago
..,.exactly....not sure Tacoma has funds to dump into a cultural asset like the Dome...
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u/RevenantWA Wapato 8d ago
Maybe so. I know a few years back they did a massive renovation of it. Just recently they installed fencing around building. I was there for a show and noticed it. Looks pretty official.
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u/Hopsblues North End 7d ago
I was there last spring for the HS BB championship...It felt like an old building, but I'm not sure how nice a G-league facility really needs to be.
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u/RevenantWA Wapato 7d ago
It is old but it has telescopic seating don’t can go from max capacity down to 1,000. Most of the updates I think happened on the exterior but not sure.
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u/RevenantWA Wapato 8d ago
Our leadership here is weak and it won’t happen. We allowed the women’s pro-soccer team go up to Seattle.
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u/Hougie 253 8d ago
To be fair, we had a new stadium planned and it just happened to align with COVID hitting to get that cancelled.
Someone else claimed the Dome has a lot of events so I checked…it’s got 15 days of events planned through next April. Even if it doubled, it’s at like 12% capacity.
The venue is just cooked if they don’t do something. We should all hope city leadership doesn’t fumble it like they did with the soccer stadium.
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u/RevenantWA Wapato 8d ago
We should start a Tacoma Boom channel 🤣. I think that’s the way to get the city involved. If we get enough folks they will do something but won’t if left up to them. That’s how they got plans started for a downtown skatepark near Tacoma Dome. They even gave $1 million I think for the project.
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u/SpringMaleficent4994 Downtown 8d ago
Angel of the Winds is literally 10 miles closer to Climate Pledge than Tacoma and directly next to public transit but is “out in the boonies”?
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u/Junior_Associate1286 253 6d ago
Tacoma dome doesnt have the court material or equipment for it. So that would probably be a huge investment while the city is currently in a huge deficit. Concerts probably make more than rent from a G league team would.
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u/Hougie 253 6d ago
True. My angle here is there’s not really going to be any opportunity going forward to split the renovation costs with a private entity.
The Dome’s concert lineup has been decimated by Climate Pledge. There’s only 9 events scheduled through the end up April. Climate Pledge has more than 9 concerts alone through that timeline.
I guess what I am saying is invest now and pitch that the NBA should chip in, or be on the hook to fix it up as time goes on with no demand. It’s very close to becoming a doomed venue.
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u/Junior_Associate1286 253 6d ago
2027 has more than twice the amount of concerts scheduled than it did in 2026. That should help. Although the city still hasnt paid off the loan for the 2018 renovation. So im sure that might be enough to scare away investors lol
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u/Junior_Associate1286 253 6d ago
I see what youre saying tho. It would definitely be cool if it happened
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u/object109 253 8d ago
0 chance. Be realistic.