New Arena for the Sacramento Kings!!

The thought of the Sacramento Kings getting a new arena is now becoming a reality. The NBA and the Kings reached an agreement on Monday for an arena. On March 6, if the City Council votes yes on the plans, it will keep the Sacramento Kings in the capital for the long haul. Sacramento’s Mayor Kevin Johnson, the Maloof Family(Owners of the Kings), and NBA commissioner David Stern all met together this past weekend to discuss the arena options in Orlando, Fl.  The deal that has been prosed is the city will contribute $200-$250 million to estimate $387 million arena, mostly by leasing out parking garages around the facility. The Maloofs agreed to contribute around $75 million and also agreed to pay off the $67 million loan to the city. In addition to all of this money, the arena operator AEG agreed to pay around $60 million. Gavin Maloof has this to say; “I think its great for our community, I’m glad its finally coming to an end after 13 years. It’s been a long road.”

This is very exciting to write about for a Kings fans perspective because Sacramento deserves to have a NBA team. This team, the city, and the community all wanted and need this team to stay.  All the credit for getting this deal done has to go to our major Kevin Johnson. He is the man responsible for keeping the Kings in Sacramento for another year and now getting the Kings a new arena. If you are a Kings fan and you see Kevin Johnson in public, go shake his hand and say thank you.  Johnson secured hundreds of million dollars of funding for this deal to happen.  When the arena gets built, I know I will want to be at that first game. 

Now with this arena into place, doesn’t mean the work is done. The team still needs to make some changes and get back to the glory days where it was a playoff team.  At least now the players and staff doesn’t have to worry about in the back of their minds where they will be playing basketball next year. The kings are talented young team with great potential. Maybe a trade here or there could possibly get some excitement back to the team. For now, even though our season isn’t looking to bright; at least the fans have something to be excited for and no longer have to worry. It’s an exciting day to be a Kings Fan!!!!