Sacramento - New Arena Plan

[wburg]

Putting it out in the middle of rice fields (there weren't any suburbs there in 1988) was supposed to make us a "world class city," although it became the mechanism for the suburban expansion into North Natomas today. At this point the Seattle folks have already paid the Maloofs a non-refundable $30 million and have spent two years preparing arena plans for the site.

The rendering above is from the 2010 Think Big search for multiple arena plans--any new building at the site probably wouldn't look much like this, as I think the main person behind this plan moved to San Francisco after his restaurants went out of business because Sacramento wasn't grown-up enough for them. Which is too bad, because it's a swell rendering, very visually striking.

There are some concerns with the location, as already mentioned, because building an arena on any part of Downtown Plaza means demolishing part of the city-owned parking structures that are supposed to help finance an arena. Depending on which half of the mall the arena goes on top of, there will have to be some reshuffling to relocate businesses--and if they don't stay downtown, that sales tax revenue gets lost. Obviously they become good choices for vacant spaces nearby, but if those retail spaces need some work to be habitable, that's an extra expense.

In terms of location, a K Street arena is ideally situated--great freeway access on streets that were designed for high capacity, good public transit access, high-profile spot right where it's needed. And, unlike the Railyards, it wouldn't mess with a rather large pile of federal transportation money the city is already spending. But there's still the issue of how to pay for it--and the risk exposure to the city budget. And, of course, whether we'll have a team to put in it.