0.14 Revelation  (Page 8/12)

While Gates was buried in the work of growing Microsoft and fending off armies of federal regulators, the retired Allen was constantly turning up as a conspicuous consumer of companies and celebrity. He bought and sold TicketMaster and a large share of America Online, and was investing heavily in wireless communication, TV cable companies, Hollywood studios, and Internet enterprises, apparently intent on becoming a new-media mogul. His media enterprises included a company he founded, Starwave, that was to help pioneer the movement of print and electronic media onto the Internet. Starwave, which entered into various deals, including one with ABC News to create abcnews.com, started madly hiring editors and contracting with writers to establish an online publishing empire.

A typical Allen story—this one in the Seattle Times —included this characterizing item: “Last month, Allen hosted a lavish bash in Venice, Italy, for 200 friends, family and Hollywood stars, including Robin Williams, Geena Davis and Sting. He flew them in from California, then shuttled them by gondola to a medieval masquerade ball where they were entertained by jazz saxophonist Tom Scott, guitarist Carlos Santana and Allen himself, who also played the guitar.”

Allen bought or funded a tremendous number of companies in the 1990s, began building what would eventually be called the Experience Music Project—a high-tech rock-and-roll museum and entertainment venue—and announced, in 1995, his intention to buy the languishing Seattle Seahawks, whose current owner, California real-estate baron Ken Behring, was trying to move the team to Anaheim.

The Seahawks purchase, though, came with a condition attached: Allen would “save” the franchise, as local fans were clamoring for him to do, only if taxpayers entered into a “partnership” with him by replacing the Kingdome with a new state-of-the-art, taxpayer-financed, $425-million football stadium. Given his net worth of $13 billion, paying for the stadium himself would have been equivalent to something like a $15.00 investment from me, but Allen nonetheless insisted that he could not save the Seahawks unless local citizens joined him as partners in the salvation effort.

Immediately, King County politicians reacted in horror, having just been through their battle with nintendo and the Seattle Mariners. “Allen’s purchase doesn’t remove the financial pressures on us in any way,” said Ron Sims. Added fellow councilmember Maggie Fimia, who had voted against the baseball stadium funding package, “We’ve signaled with our arrangement with the Mariners that we have no bottom line. We talk tough, but when we get pressure from the business community and the fans, we give in.”

The battle over building another stadium would rage into 1997, with local resistance to another round of stadium taxes strong enough to result in the state legislature putting a voter referendum on the ballot, asking citizens statewide to approve a $425 million stadium tax package. The referendum would be held in a special election in June 1997, with Allen—in an historic move—underwriting the $4.2 million cost of the vote.