Greg Lukenbill talks to Sacramento Historical Society

[pdxKingsFan]

My mom is in town and invited me to her apartment tonight to watch via Zoom.

Some interesting tidbits.
* He claims that part of his pitch to Stern was selling naming rights to what would become Arco Arena. He had a chart of all the arenas and what they were named and said the Lakers were next with the Great Western Forum. Seems to track, but at the time I didn't even realize Great Western was a bank and just thought it was a fancy nickname by a city that fancies itself highly.

* Also claims he originates Season Ticket Presales.

Both of these are now key parts of the entire professional sports business model.

* Says Raiders to Sacramento was a done deal except for Joe Benvenuti killing it over money (side note I knew both of these families and had no idea how much bad blood but he spent a LOT of time trashing Joe). The Kings ownership group would have had a 25% stake in the team and stadium, Davis would have had the rest. If this had happened I can only imagine what losing the Raiders would have eventually been like.

* Says his hatred of Benvenuti and the ethics of pro sports is why he sold the team.

* In something that probably shocks no one who was a day one fan - says he never watched the NBA before purchasing the Kings (he was 28 when he closed the deal).

* Said hiring Bill Russell probably damaged both of their legacies but that Bill was an amazing person who had the unfortunate tendency (that he claims for himself) to think others share his same vision/worldview.

* Blames Anne Rudin and Heather Fargo for holding Sacramento back, said they were the 20th ranked city 40 years ago and are now 39 (no idea what metric) and rattled off a list of cities that have leapfrogged Sacramento including Phoenix and Charlotte that was hard to dispute. This was pretty popular logic in the late 80s and early 90s but I have completely forgotten about those people.

* His whole inspiration to buy the team came from the fact that the Ringling Bros. Circus hadn't been to town in 40 years and he wanted Sacramentans to have the sort of aspirational entertainment that every other city in America had.

* His proudest/happiest moment was opening night of Arco 1.

It was very interesting. He certainly came off sincere despite having a high opinion of himself, but he frequently thanked those in attendance (those in person) and called on them to back him up for some his his more incredulous claims. I'm glad I got to hear it.

He also shared a video from 2017 of David Stern thanking the city and how proud he was of having attended all three arena openings in Sacramento. David seems to have had a personal affinity for Greg which may lend credence to his first two claims above, and may have also showed why Stern was eager to save the team for the city. Stern really seemed to have a genuine appreciation for Sacramento and the people here. Also Stern really did look unwell, I guess this was the midpoint between when he stepped down and when he ultimately passed and he looked considerably aged.

 

[QWERTYLICIOUS]

Says Raiders to Sacramento was a done deal except for Joe Benvenuti killing it over money (side note I knew both of these families and had no idea how much bad blood but he spent a LOT of time trashing Joe). The Kings ownership group would have had a 25% stake in the team and stadium, Davis would have had the rest. If this had happened I can only imagine what losing the Raiders would have eventually been like.

Man, that would've been something if it actually happened. It would've also been super fun to have a professional football team in Sacramento.

He also shared a video from 2017 of David Stern thanking the city and how proud he was of having attended all three arena openings in Sacramento. David seems to have had a personal affinity for Greg which may lend credence to his first two claims above, and may have also showed why Stern was eager to save the team for the city. Stern really seemed to have a genuine appreciation for Sacramento and the people here. Also Stern really did look unwell, I guess this was the midpoint between when he stepped down and when he ultimately passed and he looked considerably aged.

Wherever he is these days, I hope Mr. Stern is resting well. Glad that he was still around back when all of the stupid relocation BS was going around. I am not quite sure that we still have a team if he was not the commissioner at the time.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

Some interesting tidbits.

* He claims that part of his pitch to Stern was selling naming rights to what would become Arco Arena.
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This is something I’ve long heard and believed to be true. ARCO was certainly among the first, if not the first, arena to sell off naming rights.

* Says Raiders to Sacramento was a done deal except for Joe Benvenuti killing it over money (side note I knew both of these families and had no idea how much bad blood but he spent a LOT of time trashing Joe). The Kings ownership group would have had a 25% stake in the team and stadium, Davis would have had the rest. If this had happened I can only imagine what losing the Raiders would have eventually been like.
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This is another topic I’ve long known to be true. It wasn’t well-known at the time, but Lukenbill and the KINGS were involved in negotiations to bring the Raiders to SAC.

IDK that it was ever a “done deal” as Lukenbill suggests, or even close to it, as most reports and accounts I’ve heard or read over the years alleges that Al Davis was never really serious about SAC and just used the possibility to leverage a better deal elsewhere. ”Irwindale” was also used in similar fashion. IIRC this was “around” 1990 or so. Not too long after SAC’s ”march on baseball” event in 1988 that garnered a lot of media attention, including Davis’ attention apparently.

* Blames Anne Rudin and Heather Fargo for holding Sacramento back, said they were the 20th ranked city 40 years ago and are now 39 (no idea what metric) and rattled off a list of cities that have leapfrogged Sacramento including Phoenix and Charlotte that was hard to dispute. This was pretty popular logic in the late 80s and early 90s but I have completely forgotten about those people.
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Yeah, color me confused over what he said there too.

My best guess is “20th ranked media market”. Thing is, SAC is still a top 20 media market. I have no idea what he is referring to wrt a 39th place ranking.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

IDK that it was ever a “done deal” as Lukenbill suggests, or even close to it, as most reports and accounts I’ve heard or read over the years alleges that Al Davis was never really serious about SAC and just used the possibility to leverage a better deal elsewhere. ”Irwindale” was also used in similar fashion. IIRC this was “around” 1990 or so. Not too long after SAC’s ”march on baseball” event in 1988 that garnered a lot of media attention, including Davis’ attention apparently.

Yeah I remember the Irwindale deal and what a screwjob that turned out to be and I have some difficulty believing Sacramento wouldn't have gotten equally hosed by Davis somehow. But Greg seemed to imply the money was a lot better in our deal, and that Joe B. wanted more to come to Sac ownership's way (and kind of got a dig in saying that they'd have wound up billionaires today if it did go through). He said he regretted not having 50%+1 interest in the partnership. He also mentioned that when he started he actually worked with Benvenuti's son Richard and Joe cut the rug out from his own son.

He had kind of a canned 50 min presentation with powerpoints including a lot of excerpts from Down in the Valley and the answered questions for another 45 mins where a lot of the more candid stuff including the Raiders and Benvenuti chat took place. It was kind of wild but also so on brand for Sacramento.

As for Sacramento's growth/stagnation, he likened that mayors of the day to the leadership of Jefferson City, Missouri, which he says got completely lost in the transition from water transport to railroads and became frozen in time in the 1870s. If nothing else he seemed to be quite the student of history, and actually seems quite involved with other bits of Sacramento history preservation. He's a big fan of Joan Didion and also helping to get a book published about one of Sacramento's civil rights leaders.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Oh one more thing I had never quite pieced together since I only learned the team was originally named the Seagram's a few weeks ago when I became more aware of the pre-NBA existence of the franchise and how we are entering our 100th year - when they realized that maybe being named after a distillery was not in the long term best interest, they rebranded to reference their popular product - Crown Royal.