Intermodal is what they are calling the train, bus, light rail hub behind the old train station. The city has federal and state dollars to help build that … the last two arena drawings have combined the arena with this hub … which means the city can use federal and state funds for infrastructure and part of the construction. Basically, we don’t have to pay for a lot of the roads and “south wall.” The new courthouse will now help address a lot of the infrastructure heading east. If you recall infrastructure was a huge problem with Q and R. This matters a lot.
By 150 million, I’m putting this as the money the city will have to scrounge up after you deduct the money that will come in from fees on drinks, taxis, ect. Those are pretty easy to pass, but won’t collect a mountain of money. The city does stuff like – we are spending this now and we’ll raise it / cut it out of the budget later. Because the total “public funding” number will be higher (fees collected plus the city reaching for its wallet), I think the city politically is going to have a cap on what they can spend out of pocket.
So that’s what I’m talking about.
I like that KJ is willing to grab a few dollars here and there no matter how small.
I also think that it helps that the Maloofs are basically out of the equation. It’s been hard for the city to move this forward because the Maloofs expectations regarding the quality of the arena and their amount of participation and profit split remain in negation, changing, or undefined. The new approach basically appears to be: (1) Sacramento builds an NBA quality arena; and (2) expect the NBA will require the Kings (whoever owns them) to stay if the rent is reasonable or deliver us another team. That has a lot risk, but KJ can move toward a defined budget and project. The prolonged arena debate without defined features, profit shares, or budget was a huge detriment.