http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/14279110p-15087840c.html
Marty Mac's World: Lots of arena talk comes with no action
By Martin McNeal -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 12:01 am PDT Tuesday, July 18, 2006
All this talk about financing and building a new arena would be sickening if anything other than natural causes made me ill.
So much talk, posturing and propositions without any follow-through.
On one side are groups of local leaders allegedly representing the citizenry in clandestine meetings with whomever is representing the Maloof ownership.
It's groups -- plural -- because local leadership, as in a wrestling match, has people tagging in and out every few months. One day, Mayor Heather Fargo is leading the charge. The next, she's nowhere near the discussions. There has been a sheriff (Lou Blanas) and a billionaire (Angelo Tsakopoulos) attempting to work out something, ideally for the common good, but maybe that's a bit too high an aspiration.
Now another group of politicians has tagged in, and one hopes these people at least get enough data on the PowerPoint hookup to get something on the November ballot so voters can weigh in.
Then there is this ownership group, which clearly does need to build a new arena.
The Kings do need a new arena, in the opinion of someone who has spent quite a bit of time in every NBA arena the past 20 years. Arco Arena, hastily thrown together after the previous makeshift arena was constructed in the same manner, has outlived its usefulness.
Ownership appears unwilling to say how much cash it will commit to a new arena. I've heard the Maloofs will pay off the debt on the outstanding loan on the old arena, and isn't that nice? The Maloofs are not dumb, and maybe they just are waiting for their advisers to tell them the optimal time to divulge how much they'll ante up. Maybe they don't plan to contribute.
However, one of the first impressions I had of Sacramentans when visiting here a year before the Kings moved in was that this area was filled with folks who were averse to change. That impression has not changed, no matter how much the landscape has.
Here's one piece of advice, though: If a proposal to fund an arena is put on the ballot, make sure plans for the arena are filled with foresight. It's better to have something futuristic, perhaps more expensive than some wish, than to go on the cheap and end up here again 20 years from now.
OK, two pieces of advice: Before it's over, open up Arco to whoever wants to come, bring the Maloofs and their representatives and the city's leaders together in front of the taxpayers, and let's have a meeting in front of the world.
About the writer: The Bee's Martin McNeal can be reached at mmcneal@sacbee.com.
Marty Mac's World: Lots of arena talk comes with no action
By Martin McNeal -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 12:01 am PDT Tuesday, July 18, 2006
All this talk about financing and building a new arena would be sickening if anything other than natural causes made me ill.
So much talk, posturing and propositions without any follow-through.
On one side are groups of local leaders allegedly representing the citizenry in clandestine meetings with whomever is representing the Maloof ownership.
It's groups -- plural -- because local leadership, as in a wrestling match, has people tagging in and out every few months. One day, Mayor Heather Fargo is leading the charge. The next, she's nowhere near the discussions. There has been a sheriff (Lou Blanas) and a billionaire (Angelo Tsakopoulos) attempting to work out something, ideally for the common good, but maybe that's a bit too high an aspiration.
Now another group of politicians has tagged in, and one hopes these people at least get enough data on the PowerPoint hookup to get something on the November ballot so voters can weigh in.
Then there is this ownership group, which clearly does need to build a new arena.
The Kings do need a new arena, in the opinion of someone who has spent quite a bit of time in every NBA arena the past 20 years. Arco Arena, hastily thrown together after the previous makeshift arena was constructed in the same manner, has outlived its usefulness.
Ownership appears unwilling to say how much cash it will commit to a new arena. I've heard the Maloofs will pay off the debt on the outstanding loan on the old arena, and isn't that nice? The Maloofs are not dumb, and maybe they just are waiting for their advisers to tell them the optimal time to divulge how much they'll ante up. Maybe they don't plan to contribute.
However, one of the first impressions I had of Sacramentans when visiting here a year before the Kings moved in was that this area was filled with folks who were averse to change. That impression has not changed, no matter how much the landscape has.
Here's one piece of advice, though: If a proposal to fund an arena is put on the ballot, make sure plans for the arena are filled with foresight. It's better to have something futuristic, perhaps more expensive than some wish, than to go on the cheap and end up here again 20 years from now.
OK, two pieces of advice: Before it's over, open up Arco to whoever wants to come, bring the Maloofs and their representatives and the city's leaders together in front of the taxpayers, and let's have a meeting in front of the world.
About the writer: The Bee's Martin McNeal can be reached at mmcneal@sacbee.com.
This is gospel.