Seattle Supersonics fans cheered for the Miami Heat to beat OKC Thunder, the former Seattle Supersonics, in Game Four of the 2012 NBA Finals. (Ronald Martinez, Getty Images)

King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn signed legislation  on Tuesday approving a funding plan for the construction of an arena. The new arena could bring the NBA back to Seattle, although investor Chris Hansen said there is still a lot of work to be done.

The Mayor remains optimistic about a future Seattle team:

“We’ve taken a big step today to get a new arena built in Seattle and bring the Sonics back, back home where they belong,” McGinn said.

The plan is still subject to environmental reviews, but the existence of the deal is enough for Hansen to make a pitch to any NBA ownership.

The plan features a $490 million arena to be built near Safeco Field and CenturyLink field are located. $200 million will come from public financing.

It seems ludicrous for a league currently in a lockout to be interested in expanding to a city currently without an arena, but so goes the NHL.

According to James Mirtle of Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Chicago Wolves (AHL) owner Don Levin, who would like to get in on NHL ownership, told ESPN earlier this week that he thought the NHL would expand in three years.

Mirtle writes:

The league has stronger interest in going to Seattle than any other market but has been waiting on the building to come together before considering it a realistic possibility.

Expansion to 32 teams has been talked about off and on in NHL circles for the past few years, with Quebec City and a second Toronto team getting much of the attention.

Despite a few setbacks in some troubled markets, however, the league’s brass want to continue to try and expand the league’s footprint in the United States. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area is the 15th largest in the country and is also likely close enough to Vancouver that the team could establish a rivalry with the Canucks.

Seattle is more viable now that the city is close to building a new arena.

Seattle basketball fans may have their own team to cheer for in the next few years (Ronald Martinez, Getty Images)

The very thing that drove the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma city could see an NBA team return to the Emerald City. Four years after a dispute over renovations to Key Arena, The AP reports that the Seattle City Council has voted in favor of a proposal that would build a $490 million dollar arena in the South Downtown area of the city – nearby the stadiums where the Seahawks play their NFL games and the Mariners play baseball.

Investor Chris Hansen will front $290 million himself, while the city’s taxpayers will pay the remaining $200 million. The main holdup in the deal was an additional $40 million to assist with infrastructure concerns – opening up the roads and arteries in the area to make transportation easier.

However, The Seattle Times reports that Hansen must secure either an NBA or NHL franchise to play in the arena before work can begin.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has been made aware that an effort is underway to bring an NBA team back to Seattle, but he still sees two major roadblocks to that plan — funding and a new arena, according to Brian T. Smith of the Salt Lake Tribune.

“Everyone says to us, ‘Well, would you consider going back?’ Of course, if they have a building. And so that’s where it’s left. We have no involvement,” Stern said. “But if anyone asks us, we tell them what we know and we’re happy to talk to them … There’s no shortage of potential sites, but the funding is a huge issue.”

The Emerald City lost its franchise after 31 years when the SuperSonics picked up and left for Oklahoma City in 2008 to become the Thunder. Efforts to bring hoops back were first uncovered last week by the Seattle Times — hedge fund manager Christopher Hansen has been working with the city for eight months to build a basketball arena just south of Safeco Field, the home of the Mariners.

“We had heard reports of some interest in Seattle, and [Hansen] is not totally unknown to me,” Stern said. “I think he came in and I met with him, it must be a year ago. Just a general conversation; he was brought in by a mutual friend.”

Stern also added that with 30 teams, the NBA currently has no plans to add more franchises in the United States. Seattle can only gain a team if an existing franchise chooses to relocate.