Prospects to keep pro basketball in Seattle appear to be improving, while a proposed NASCAR track faces more hurdles.

The News Tribune reported that the owner of the Sonics is leaning toward building a new stadium in Renton. The site, which the city would give to the team at a steep discount, is close to Eastside corporate customers and near several highways. The team is expected to ask the state legislature for a subsidy of about $300 million.

The request likely further complicates plans for a 83,500-seat NASCAR track on the Kitsap Pensinsula. According to the newspaper, no legislator in the area supports a public subsidy for the project, which supposedly would bring a development boon to the region. Yet State Sen. Derek Kilmer of Gig Harbor, who holds an economic development PhD from Oxford, says financing the project should at least be considered.