Kreidler: Home Court Advantages

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#1
Note: This article was published in the first issue of a new magazine called SacTown. It was sent to me and I thought it really worth sharing:

“Home Court Advantages” by Mark Kreidler

First things first: Let’s reposition the reality. Joe and Gavin Maloof are less the “owners” of the Kings than they are the caretakers of a local institution that, on average, welcomes a new buyer every seven or eight years.

The Maloof family did not create the Kings (neither did Sacramento, which is the club’s fourth geographical home so far), nor was the franchise the first sports entity that Joe and Gavin pursued on behalf of their siblings. The Kings are the team that happened to be for sale when the Maloofs went looking to buy, and that’s how a couple of New Mexico guys with Las Vegas business roots wound up at the controls of an NBA operation in an aging building located on former sheep pastureland a few miles north of Sacramento’s downtown core. So how in the name of Wayman Tisdale did the arena question decompose itself to a referendum on whether the Maloofs float Sacramento’s emotional boat? There is surely no more narrow-brained view in the arena discussion than the one that limits it to a question about the Kings. If Sacramento needs a new facility--and it does--then it needs it for its own self above all others. The Kings certainly matter, and they matter in ways that anyone who loves the area can probably enunciate without much effort. The problem is, they also matter emotionally, and right now that emotion is spectacularly unhelpful to the larger conversation.

So forget about the Kings long enough to clear the air. Ask the Maloof-free question instead this way: What do Sacramentans want in their lives beyond jobs and homes? Great concerts? Touring shows? Major events? The Wiggles live? (Wait, don’t answer that.) A Republican or Democratic Convention? The Police Reunion Tour? An Olympic trials in one of the indoor glamour sports like gymnastics? Assume that even a few of these notions elicit a positive response, and you’ve just sold yourself a new multipurpose entertainment facility (downtown, preferably). The continued presence of an NBA team becomes a gratifying byproduct, not a reason for living. But the commitment to the kind of cultural growth that attracts educated people and forward-thinking companies--and all the while expands the area’s tax base--that’s a reason for living.

What follows is your garden-variety, agenda-free fact: Arco Arena is almost done. As one who has spent more than his share of time there over the past decade or so, I feel well-qualified to offer the perspective. Arco--God bless ’er, is cramped and uncomfortable and prone to leaking, not because it is old nearly so much as it was built on the cheap to begin with. The question has always been, or should have been, what happens after the inevitable.

Last fall’s failed tax vote was a little bit about a flawed plan and a whole lot about rejecting the notion of the Maloofs getting something at the public’s expense. As cathartic as it may have felt, it was an almost classically wrongheaded take. Forget the Maloofs. They may continue to own the Kings; they may sell the Kings; they may attempt to hijack the Kings to Las Vegas. Whatever they do, Sacramento will be still be left with an outdated facility that needs replacing and that even in a busy year would use only 50 of its available dates for NBA action.

The arena issue presents Sacramento with a clean opportunity to shape its own future--to stand for something rather than merely standing. This is our moment to seize control, and that can be accomplished by building the arena in a public/private partnership. Of course that includes public money; it’s public control that is so critical to the process. It has shockingly little to do with what the Maloofs feel like kicking in, and almost everything to do with what Sacramento wants for itself and the Kings--no matter who is the “owner” of record. The time to begin establishing exactly that kind of vision is now. Sure it’ll cost. But when it comes to cities, all the really good things do.

Mark Kreidler writes for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine, and was a sports columnist for The Sacramento Bee for 15 years. His book, Four Days to Glory, was published in January by HarperCollins.
 
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#2
WOW!!!

Thanks so much for posting this VF. I guess I love this article so much because it expresses how I have felt about this topic for a long while. As most here know, I feel really strongly about this topic and believe that the issue transcends the Kings. It is the reason I keep my avatar.

The article makes me smile on one side and then it also stirs the anger I harbor towards the Bee. Do you think that we could have seen just one article like this in the Bee last summer/fall instead of the 100% one-sided coverage we witnessed?

It isn't about the Maloofs. It's about building a great city.
 
#4
WOW!!!

Thanks so much for posting this VF. I guess I love this article so much because it expresses how I have felt about this topic for a long while. As most here know, I feel really strongly about this topic and believe that the issue transcends the Kings. It is the reason I keep my avatar.

The article makes me smile on one side and then it also stirs the anger I harbor towards the Bee. Do you think that we could have seen just one article like this in the Bee last summer/fall instead of the 100% one-sided coverage we witnessed?

It isn't about the Maloofs. It's about building a great city.
Ditto the sentiments. Kreidler expresses almost perfectly what I have felt all along. The fact that Kreidler was given almost no opportunity to write about the arena issue seemed strange at the time, considering his long association with the Kings and the fact that he was their best sports columnist by far. Now its clear that his opinion didn't support the Bee's agenda. Boooooooo Bee!
 
#5
Yeah, I couldnt have said any of this any better than the way Mark did right here. What's next...proposal #2...the 'rebuild' of the team. 2 very daunting tasks to take care of is, probably, a short period of time...and yes, both tasks do go hand in hand. The better the product, the better the support...I shutter to think...if a better proposal was brought forth in 2002 during the Kings run to the WCF, that included public money(like Q&R), what would have been the public support for the 'casual' fans?(or as I like to call them, 'lemmings')

Should be a VERY interesting next 6 months or so.
 
#6
Once again Kreidler comes through with another Brilliant piece. This goes to show you how idiotic the Bee is for letting this guy go...he was one of the VERY few things the Bee had going for it. The Bee is utterly pathetic at this point. BRING BACK THE UNION!