Ho hum. On Friday a city advisory panel recommended replacing Seattle Center’s Fun Forest site with exactly what the Center administration picked before public outcry forced it to entertain alternatives: a private Dale Chihuly Exhibition (don’t call it a “museum”) with public play space and fenced-off “art garden.” The panel found that the Space Needle Corporation, which wants to build the exhibit, was much better funded, organized, and prepared than eight challengers for the site. No surprise; the company had many months to hash out details with the Center, while the others had just two months to cobble together proposals. (See more on the plans here.)

The only other proposals the commission deemed (barely) ready for prime time come from other established entities: the existing Fun Forest operation and KEXP-FM, which already stages concerts at the nearby Mural Amphitheatre. KEXP wants to move its offices, studios, and performing space to the Center. But the panel deemed its financing thin and noted a fatal flaw: It doesn’t make sense to consign prime public space to offices.

Two ad hoc groups, the Northwest Native Cultural Center and Open Platform, got plaudits for their “good” and “exciting” ideas, but didn’t persuade the panel they could pull them off. Come back and do something else at the Center, it suggested. The NNCC in particular scored points for its broader cause: The panel concurred that “there be should be greater representation of ‘Seattle’s heritage and Native people from whom Seattle Center derives its name.

It’s both tantalizing and dismaying to imagine what these and other challengers might have come up with if they’d had time to solidify their proposals, round up financing, and even collaborate. KEXP and Open Platform have already discussed teaming up; how about open space backers and the Native Cultural Center?

But Seattle Center’s not giving them time. It’s determined to have something up and open by April 2012 for the 50th anniversary of the world’s fair that created the Center—a short-term imperative with long-term implications. On that schedule you get Chihuly, the artist who best says “Seattle” to the rest of the world, and whom Seattle most loves to hate.

This project will likely reinforce the Eye-Patched One’s standing on both counts. And it will boost either the Center’s budget or the city general fund, depending on which gets to keep the $350,000 annual rent promised for the exhibit’s first years. That’s just half what the Fun Forest paid in better times, but it’s the biggest take going these days.

The review panel, in its report, insists it didn’t base its recommendation on these revenues but admits it would be “remiss” not to note them. But Chihuly’s backers haven’t been shy about waving their checkbook and touting their project’s financial benefits. And so, as in most such civic showdowns, from streetcars to sports stadiums, the big money is winning again.