http://www.sacbee.com/351/story/128798.html
Marcos Bretón: City's passion not problem in arena issue
By Marcos Bretón - Bee Columnist
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, February 25, 2007
Thousands lined the streets of Sacramento a few days ago just to watch professional cyclists on a weekday, proving once again how passionate this city is about sports.
That passion is as much vice as virtue, a source of strength and a weakness inviting to be exploited by greedy men.
There is, in fact, a connection between biker dude adulation and the capital city facing a looming threat of losing the Kings.
It's all part of the same story, a story of a rising sports market in Sacramento and a high-priced shell game for a new Kings arena. It's a saga shaped by the yearning of a city for sporting events of its very own.
Sacramento throws its heart and its money behind any number of events -- making it a place the NBA wants to be despite suggestions to the contrary.
There was the Triple-A All-Star Game in 2005, which drew roughly 14,000. Or the exhibition soccer game between two Mexican teams last summer that jammed Raley Field despite almost no publicity in the English-language media.
There were 20,000 or more fans over several days at dusty Hornet Stadium for the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials -- the two most successful track trials ever held. There are the River Cats, the best minor-league team in America. And Arco Arena endures as a house of passion compared to dead NBA arenas sprinkled throughout the league.
"The potential of Sacramento as a sports market only gets bigger," said John McCasey, executive director of the Sacramento Sports Commission.
Sacramento's leg of the Tour of California did much to prove McCasey's point last Tuesday. And it inspired an idea whose time has come:
If a deal for a new arena can't get done while the current Kings owners are involved, perhaps they should sell the team. Perhaps they should deal the Kings to an ownership group interested in investing in a new arena in Sacramento while they pursue an expansion franchise in Las Vegas.
It's not really all that far-fetched. Based on failed arena deals of recent months, the Maloofs don't want to invest any of their own money in the actual construction of one in Sacramento.
They'll pay their rent, put money toward repairs -- they'll obviously pay to run the thing -- but that's it.
Maybe NBA Commissioner David Stern can change their minds. Maybe he can't.
Or maybe George Maloof -- the Vegas casino titan and by far the smartest Maloof sibling of all -- is right as usual.
He told The Bee's Mary Lynne Vellinga last week that his family couldn't rule out an eventual move away from Sacramento if Stern's recent intervention in the arena process doesn't work.
"I would say anything is a possibility," he said. "That's not our intention, though. ... (Sacramento) is a good market, a team should be there. It's just a tough situation."
Exactly. Maybe the problem here is not the marriage between the Kings and Sacramento.
Maybe it's the marriage between Sacramento and the Maloofs.
Before some of you begin screaming, please get a grip.
If there materializes a plan to make an arena happen with the Maloofs as real partners as opposed to symbolic ones, the prediction here is that people would embrace it.
Are you kidding? Locals turn out to watch little cycling dudes pedal fast in cute colored shirts. The Maloofs would be cheered from Fresno to the Oregon border.
But maybe they'll continue denying money toward arena construction and Stern won't be able to make up the difference. That's been the crux of this arena problem all along when you strip away all the rhetoric.
Maybe Stern ends up tapping the Maloofs' Vegas know-how for a new Maloof-owned team in Sin City while finding new owners for the Kings.
As they say in sports, business is business.
About the writer: Reach Marcos Bretón at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@sacbee.com.
Marcos Bretón: City's passion not problem in arena issue
By Marcos Bretón - Bee Columnist
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, February 25, 2007
Thousands lined the streets of Sacramento a few days ago just to watch professional cyclists on a weekday, proving once again how passionate this city is about sports.
That passion is as much vice as virtue, a source of strength and a weakness inviting to be exploited by greedy men.
There is, in fact, a connection between biker dude adulation and the capital city facing a looming threat of losing the Kings.
It's all part of the same story, a story of a rising sports market in Sacramento and a high-priced shell game for a new Kings arena. It's a saga shaped by the yearning of a city for sporting events of its very own.
Sacramento throws its heart and its money behind any number of events -- making it a place the NBA wants to be despite suggestions to the contrary.
There was the Triple-A All-Star Game in 2005, which drew roughly 14,000. Or the exhibition soccer game between two Mexican teams last summer that jammed Raley Field despite almost no publicity in the English-language media.
There were 20,000 or more fans over several days at dusty Hornet Stadium for the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials -- the two most successful track trials ever held. There are the River Cats, the best minor-league team in America. And Arco Arena endures as a house of passion compared to dead NBA arenas sprinkled throughout the league.
"The potential of Sacramento as a sports market only gets bigger," said John McCasey, executive director of the Sacramento Sports Commission.
Sacramento's leg of the Tour of California did much to prove McCasey's point last Tuesday. And it inspired an idea whose time has come:
If a deal for a new arena can't get done while the current Kings owners are involved, perhaps they should sell the team. Perhaps they should deal the Kings to an ownership group interested in investing in a new arena in Sacramento while they pursue an expansion franchise in Las Vegas.
It's not really all that far-fetched. Based on failed arena deals of recent months, the Maloofs don't want to invest any of their own money in the actual construction of one in Sacramento.
They'll pay their rent, put money toward repairs -- they'll obviously pay to run the thing -- but that's it.
Maybe NBA Commissioner David Stern can change their minds. Maybe he can't.
Or maybe George Maloof -- the Vegas casino titan and by far the smartest Maloof sibling of all -- is right as usual.
He told The Bee's Mary Lynne Vellinga last week that his family couldn't rule out an eventual move away from Sacramento if Stern's recent intervention in the arena process doesn't work.
"I would say anything is a possibility," he said. "That's not our intention, though. ... (Sacramento) is a good market, a team should be there. It's just a tough situation."
Exactly. Maybe the problem here is not the marriage between the Kings and Sacramento.
Maybe it's the marriage between Sacramento and the Maloofs.
Before some of you begin screaming, please get a grip.
If there materializes a plan to make an arena happen with the Maloofs as real partners as opposed to symbolic ones, the prediction here is that people would embrace it.
Are you kidding? Locals turn out to watch little cycling dudes pedal fast in cute colored shirts. The Maloofs would be cheered from Fresno to the Oregon border.
But maybe they'll continue denying money toward arena construction and Stern won't be able to make up the difference. That's been the crux of this arena problem all along when you strip away all the rhetoric.
Maybe Stern ends up tapping the Maloofs' Vegas know-how for a new Maloof-owned team in Sin City while finding new owners for the Kings.
As they say in sports, business is business.
About the writer: Reach Marcos Bretón at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@sacbee.com.
