THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, May 4, 2016

You can say the Seattle City Council didn’t do the city any favors with its decision on Monday to keep Occidental Avenue South open, instead of vacating it in order for a new arena to be built in the area surrounding Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field.

Then again, what else could you expect?

BY A vote of 5-4, the council opted not to sell that stretch of Occidental to developer Chris Hansen, who has tried to bring a franchise back to the Emerald City after its previous one bolted town in 2008.

Granted, traffic — which is already a complete and total nightmare on game day — could get worse by adding another team to the mix, but that shouldn’t matter.

A majority of the time, neither the Seahawks or the Mariners are at home at the same time. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to name a time that the Seahawks were playing at the same time as the Mariners. It happens a few times during the preseason, but often the Mariners will play in the afternoon, clearing the way for the Seahawk fans to come in a few hours after the game.

In the case of the Mariners and Seahawks, home games are often times played at 1 p.m., or if nationally televised, at 5 p.m. at the earliest.

If and when the NBA — or NHL — came to Seattle, those games most likely will be played at 7 p.m. at the latest.

Having another team, whether at the proposed location next to the Safeco Field parking garage, shouldn’t have the kind of affect on traffic as those council members think.

Don’t forget, the Sonics played home games at the Tacoma Dome during the 1994-95 season while its previous home, the Seattle Center Coliseum, was being rebuilt to bring it up to the standards of the NBA at that time.

When it was reopened under the KeyArena name on Nov. 4, 1995, the Sonics went on to appear in the NBA Finals against the Chicago Bulls. It was 13 years after that moment that they left the area for good.

And the more fans wait, it could be a lot longer before they see the NBA back in town.

AS FAR as the franchise itself, it might have been involved in one of the screwiest conclusions to a playoff game I’ve ever seen on Monday night.

In case you missed it, the Oklahoma City Thunder escaped at San Antonio with a 98-97 win on Monday, to even their Western Conference playoff semifinal series at 1 each.

With 13.4 seconds left, Oklahoma City had the ball stolen off an inbounds play, where, according to replay, it showed Thunder guard Dion Waiters pushing off a defender to inbound the ball.

No foul was called.

When Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant caught the ball, he was almost tackled, but no foul was called.

As San Antonio went to try and take the lead, LaMarcus Aldridge appeared to be fouled with under five seconds remaining, but no foul called.

An Oklahoma City player also appeared to be held by a San Antonio fan and taken out of the play near the end of the game.

Somehow, some way, the Thunder found a way to get it done when most fans thought they were done.

Hopefully the same could be said for the franchise’s former location, but it’s not looking great right now.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.