My dear Sacramento Kings are threatening to leave town! Reading about the Arena issue off and on for well over 5 years now, it would be an understatement to say things have escalated to full-fledged crisis mode right now. The iceberg tipped when the Maloofs filed (an extension) with the NBA this week to relocate.
To make a convoluted long story oversimplifiably short, you may say the Kings want a new arena, Sacramento wants the Kings, and it takes a new arena to keep the Kings in Sacramento. After several failed attempts - regardless whose blame it was - over the last 10+ years to get a new arena built in Sacramento, the Kings' owners Maloofs say they have had enough and have started looking down south towards Anaheim as a market they could move to. The City, led by Mayor Kevin Johnson, an ardent supporter of the Kings, has hired a top-notch developer group (Taylor/ICON group) to conduct a feasibility study to explore options to make an arena deal happen, but is just not in a position to make any guarantees at this time.
You may start to ask all kinds of technical questions here. Do the Kings just want a new arena, or do they really need a new arena? By the same token, does Sacramento just want to keep the Kings, or do they need to keep the Kings? If the Kings want/need a new arena, why don't they just go build it on their own? How would one justify a public-private partnership to build a sports and entertainment arena to save a sports franchise from relocation, when our governments have more pressing priorities - like say a frail economy, historically high unemployment, and home foreclosure crisis - to deal with? With all that asked, why is the City hitting panic mode today if they saw this day coming for some time now? Questions as basic as those remain convincingly unanswered this late in the day. The Kings say they will pony up some money proportionate to their use of the arena, but it makes no business sense for them to go build an arena all out of their pocket, especially when they can get a possibly better deal elsewhere. The City and the voting public say they just can not afford a public burden to pay for a $350 million arena, while among a host of other issues an outstanding City loan of $70 million is still pending settlement by the Kings.
Politics and economics aside, the intriguing point here is what the Kings mean to Sacramento and what Sacramento means to the Kings. After all, it was not too long ago that Arco Arena was seen as the home of the most rabid and loyal fan-base in the NBA and the toughest place for visiting teams to win in. And how our collective fortunes have changed in the blink of an eye? Yes, the naysaying general public could care less if the Kings leave town, and by the same token, the Kings will most-definitely find takers with a red-carpet elsewhere in the country. Neither will Sac remain the proverbial "cow town" forever, nor will the Kings play in an antiquated arena forever. Yes, when everything is said, done and forgotten, life will find a way to just move on. So that is not the point here. So what really is the problem? The problem is that Sacramento and Kings really love one and another, hate to lose each other because of this darn arena issue, but neither side is going to come out and admit that basic premise in this hour of crisis.
While both sides have some legitimate points to make, let us not forget that neither side is entirely not-at-fault here. The City lacked the proactive leadership and vision to make an arena deal happen when the economy was still doing good, while the Kings lacked the political savvy to explain why public dollars need to be invested in an arena deal. What we need from the public right now, in this eleventh hour, is not the grandstanding by City politicians, the negativity from the skeptics, or the indifferent media rhetoric that is doing its rounds right now. What we need from the Kings right now is not their posturing and hard-ball stance to somehow get what they want by black-mailing the threat of leaving town. The emotional cat-calls and outpouring of support from those wretched Kings faithfuls, yes those beleagured fans, will not help salvage the situation either. What we really need here is an honest sit-down for heart-to-heart talks by ALL concerned parties, pushing their hitherto bruised egos to the back-seat for a change, and discuss to weed out the real issues and come up with a game-plan to make this arena deal work here in Sacramento somehow. Engage with the Taylor group and give them one goddamn chance to come up with a magical solution. Yes, money is a problem, but let us make sure that it is our only problem. If at the end of the day, the arena money math does not pencil, then let us just part ways if that is what our destiny is. But just give staying here in Sacramento an honest chance! Just remember there will be no winners and only tears to shed on all sides if this thing falls apart.
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