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In three years, I have seldom missed a bout of the Rat City Rollergirls, and they need a large enough venue for their growing fan-base to attend bouts. This is a fun, all-ages sporting event that encompasses a large community of skaters, coaches, referees, volunteers, half-time performers, and donations to charitable organizations. Hangar 27 is the perfect size for RCRG to continue growing as a Seattle league.
Seattle Parks needs to preserve Hangar 27 as the valuable community asset that it is. An organized community effort to renew, paint, and repair the facility would get my participation and that of probably hundreds more.
Thanks for your efforts to preserve community use of Hangar 27.

I am appalled at this situation. If a community asset is need of repair & face-lifting, I am sure (in this grassroots community of ours that supports all of the activities in Hangar 27) the community itself could/would support its restoration either monitarily or physically.

I whole-heartedly believe RCRG deserves a suitable space, given the fact that a self supporting, amateur sports organization has earned a top contender status on a national scale (something that the professional sports organizations of our city have consistently struggled with regardless of the multi-million dollar, publicly funded, facilities they compete in), the least the city should do is allow this MULTI-USE space to operate & its community organizations to have a viable home.

Of course there are times that a for-profit enterprise should be allowed to operate in a public park. I don't think that there are many people who think we should get rid of Green Lake Boat Rental. That's just not the issue.

Let's not paint the issue as Arena sports versus RCRG. The first question is whether it makes sense, given P&R's budget and priorities, to renovate Hangar 27 as a community venue. If so, great. If not, then the question is whether to find a private entity to develop it or let it sit abandoned. If we decide we want to keep it, then we can choose which private entity gives the most value to the community.

Personally, I doubt that the best use of $5 million from the P&R budget is renovating this structure, given all the other things on its plate. I wish that we had infinite resources to develop recreational facilities, but we don't. If it's true that the things we wouldn't be able to do if we spend the money on Hangar 27 are more valuable, it doesn't make sense to develop Hangar 27. What Arena sports wants to do doesn't impact deciding if P&R should spend the money.

It's just not so simple as choosing soccer or roller derby.

Andrew