It may not go through, but Clay Bennett and the Sonics’ ownership is trying to push their new stadium deal through. The $500 arena is proposed to be built in Renton… which means for sure I will never be going to a Sonics game. Hell, when I’m living in Seattle you could not pay me enough to brave that traffic… its already ridiculous.

Sonics spokesman Jim Kneeland and Renton-area lawmakers confirmed Tuesday the arena legislation is being tweaked so that state sales taxes collected in King County would not be used to pay for arena construction. Instead, the plan would rely on hotel, restaurant and car-rental taxes in King County.

That would cut the amount of state-authorized taxes sought for the arena to about $280 million, down from the original $300 million, Kneeland said.

That…wow.. that actually makes sense in a way. So the tax money I spend in King County is not going to go towards the arena, but for the most part, out-of-staters will pay a large chunk of the money (hotels and car rentals). I’m not however a big fan of having the county pay $280 million to keep a pitiful team. Maybe if they actually showed some effort in improving the talent I’d be more optimistic, but considering how much taxpayers spent on Safeco, and now the Mariners suck, you would think that would make people a little more frugal when it comes to crap-tastic teams.

• Sonics arena proposal tweaked as clock ticks down in Olympia (Seattle Times)