NBA and State Come to Agreement for LOU

Purple Reign

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Letter of Understanding

They are talking about it on 1140. It looks like this is beginning to get serious. Pushing towards a formal MOU (Memo of Understanding).

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif] Negotiators for the National Basketball Association and Cal Expo on Friday announced they'd reached an agreement to move forward jointly on a plan to build a Kings arena in the state fairgrounds.
According to a letter of understanding, which still must be approved by the Cal Expo board of directors, the NBA would shoulder the majority of the costs over the next 180 days as the two parties work together on a development plan that would accommodate both an arena and a revamped fairgrounds.
The parties plan to ask developers to submit proposals for turning the 360-acre fairgrounds into a mixed-use and entertainment development.



Cal Expo's board is scheduled to consider the letter of understanding at its May 21 meeting. Both NBA Commissioner David Stern and former Gov. Pete Wilson, the lead negotiator for Cal Expo, plan to attend.
The Maloofs, who own the Kings, are scheduled to be briefed by phone on the progress next week, said spokeswoman Donna Lucas. "They continue to be very supportive and appreciative of the work the commissioner and the NBA have been doing on the issue," she said.
The agreement is not legally binding, but representatives of both the NBA and Cal Expo said it represents a significant step forward. They cautioned that major challenges lie ahead, however.
"We wouldn't be doing it if we didn't think there was a more than fair chance it could be done, but recognizing that it's not a slam dunk," Stern said Friday.
Negotiators for both sides said they were confident enough that they could come up with a mutually acceptable development proposal to move to the next step -- crafting an actual plan and finding a developer to design and build it.
Wilson said Friday that negotiations thus far have led him to be "optimistic that it may lead to something really important for the city, and the state and for basketball fans, and ultimately for the people who are the daily inhabitants ... of this development."
The goal is to attract a developer that can both build a 17,000- to 20,000-seat arena and revamp the tired fairgrounds -- without using taxpayer dollars.
"We're going to squeeze these numbers every way possible," Stern said in a telephone interview.
Such a development -- which could include retail, office or housing -- would have to produce enough profit to pay for the arena and fairgrounds update, two items that could easily cost $650 million, based on past estimates.[/FONT]
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http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/927200.html
 
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Before some go all negative on this initial GOOD news, hopefully the 180 days of continuing negotiations clear up the biggest concerns - traffic congestion, who pays, who gets what revenues, etc.
 
It's the first step, one which had to come before anything else. I'm pretty excited because it indicates the NBA is, in fact, serious about keeping our Kings in Sacramento. And I'm excited because despite the traffic, it's still better than having to find a way to get to Omaha or Las Vegas or anywhere else they might have ended up...

It may not be a fait accomplait but it's certainly worth a little smile.

:)
 
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A very promising development...I was worried there for a while since I had not heard anything.

It will be interesting to see how they plan on pulling this off w/o taxpayer dollars. They also need to figure out traffic - cuz if the game's at 7, no one will make it on time after work!!! Haha, get used to Arco not being full until halftime. On that note, I hope they keep it on the 17,000 seat side and don't ruin the current intimacy of the current arena.

This will be an interesting summer...
 
Quite frankly, who cares? Color me old-fashioned but I'd rather read the reaction of Kings fans than have this dissolve into a political argument.

:)
 
I completely agree with you. I am very excited and cannot wait to hear how this will all come together as time goes on.
 
I don't see why people are so caught up on the traffic. For one, yes its bad at the american river curve. That needs to be fixed regardless if there is an arena or not. Traffic to the current arco isnt that great either. You have a merge at the 50/I5 interchange that gets traffic all the time. And when its light out, people cant drive on 80 cause the sun gets in their eyes.

Look as the Arena as a way to fix the current traffic problems instead of them taking another 20 years to get around to it.
 
I don't see why people are so caught up on the traffic. For one, yes its bad at the american river curve. That needs to be fixed regardless if there is an arena or not. Traffic to the current arco isnt that great either. You have a merge at the 50/I5 interchange that gets traffic all the time. And when its light out, people cant drive on 80 cause the sun gets in their eyes.

Look as the Arena as a way to fix the current traffic problems instead of them taking another 20 years to get around to it.

I am happy there has been some movement on the new arena issue. However, as a fan and STH, I want to see a definitive statement as to why a new arena adjacent to the current ARCO is not optimal. Both the City and the Maloofs own the sum total of that open land. Infrastructure is mostly in the ground (utilities) and on the ground (roads) with possible designs to require very little improvements needed in these important, potentially expensive realms.

On traffic at Cal Expo, you don't have to be a traffic engineer to see why the current arena locale is so far superior it's laughable. Major streets and interstate highways can take the traffic in and out in all 4 compass directions at the current ARCO. My "in and out" time averages 5 minutes on each end. At Cal Expo, you have ONE major thoroughfare running north/south that needs significant improvement just to handle the current traffic flow. No where to go to the west, to the east the flow goes to Howe Avenue, Watt Avenue, etc. This is a mess that cannot be fixed. Howe and Watt are already messes at midday and late afternoon. Light rail, always only a very partial solution, is in another zip code.

Even if Cal Expo area traffic could be fixed, for argument's sake...at what cost? It will need major new infrastructure. Next to the current ARCO needs in the vicinity of ZERO.

So, in the end, it's not realistic to say ... oh well, this will fix the Business 80 traffic problem now... It's far more complicated and overly expensive to do that, if it can even be done at all.

I applaud the NBA and Cal Expo folks for working to find a solution that this community needs. I just want to hear some answers about the most obvious and cheapest location to place a new arena before I jump on the train....not light rail...

BTW, I now live on the opposite side of town from ARCO.
 
It can't be in Natomas or downtown, because there is absolutely no way to finance it, period.The Cal Expo authority can sell bonds to investors to raise money and, if I understand correctly, the idea is to have commercial, office and retail space that will contribute toward the overall financing and/or repayment of bond funds.

The truth is, the city could have sold bonds, too, but that was nixed quite a while ago, by the usual nabobs of negativity.

Interestingly, the city/county will get no tax revenues from an arena at Cal Expo. It's state-governed land. The city may regret having a beautiful new entertainment district with retail and residences, etc, right in their midst from which they get bupkis financially. And if the details can be worked out, my guess is it will get built before the downtown railyards, because the city has no idea where it's going to get the $1 billion in pure subsidy they promised Thomas for infrastructure.
 
Even if Cal Expo area traffic could be fixed, for argument's sake...at what cost? It will need major new infrastructure. Next to the current ARCO needs in the vicinity of ZERO.
I've driven through that curve for the better part of at least 30 years. It's needed fixing just about that long. It's a ridiculous bottleneck in a major metropolitan area and always has been.

More people go to the State Fair every day for 3 weeks than will ever attend a single Kings game.

By the way, people and relatives I know from LA and the bay area always comment to me on how few traffic problems there are on Sacramento freeways. They just "breezed" from downtown to my house (even in rush hour). ;)

I take this very positively. The NBA and Stern must be very serious about keeping the Kings here. The NBA is apparently shouldering most of the cost involved in this 180-day pre-development work.

Maybe I'll get to attend some Sacramento Kings' games and watch every game on TV until I'm 100, after all. :D
 
Good to hear this news.

Traffic isn't that bad out there at around 6:30-7:30 at night, which is when people would be driving out there for events at the arena. I drive out there at around that time quite frequently and everything is usually going smooth at that time. Who knows, they may even move Kings games start times if necessary. 7:45 or 8:00 wouldn't be too bad.
 
I am happy there has been some movement on the new arena issue. However, as a fan and STH, I want to see a definitive statement as to why a new arena adjacent to the current ARCO is not optimal. Both the City and the Maloofs own the sum total of that open land. Infrastructure is mostly in the ground (utilities) and on the ground (roads) with possible designs to require very little improvements needed in these important, potentially expensive realms.

On traffic at Cal Expo, you don't have to be a traffic engineer to see why the current arena locale is so far superior it's laughable. Major streets and interstate highways can take the traffic in and out in all 4 compass directions at the current ARCO. My "in and out" time averages 5 minutes on each end. At Cal Expo, you have ONE major thoroughfare running north/south that needs significant improvement just to handle the current traffic flow. No where to go to the west, to the east the flow goes to Howe Avenue, Watt Avenue, etc. This is a mess that cannot be fixed. Howe and Watt are already messes at midday and late afternoon. Light rail, always only a very partial solution, is in another zip code.

Even if Cal Expo area traffic could be fixed, for argument's sake...at what cost? It will need major new infrastructure. Next to the current ARCO needs in the vicinity of ZERO.

So, in the end, it's not realistic to say ... oh well, this will fix the Business 80 traffic problem now... It's far more complicated and overly expensive to do that, if it can even be done at all.

I applaud the NBA and Cal Expo folks for working to find a solution that this community needs. I just want to hear some answers about the most obvious and cheapest location to place a new arena before I jump on the train....not light rail...

BTW, I now live on the opposite side of town from ARCO.

While 80 is close to the arena, its not next to it like I5. Taking the truxel route has been getting more traffic each year with the shopping stores increasing. Going to is definately worse than leaving. That's why I go in arena blvd and out truxel.

Traffic from cal expo will get better the farther you get from the arena since people will be splitting off. So yes it may take a longer getting onto the freeway, the overall commute time may change little.

There are only 4 exits from the parking lots to the side routes that lead out. Now they may have fewer entrances, but they can increase the amout of lanes to compensate. If the parking lot is planned right people can get in an out just fine. They can block off streets like they do now to keep it flowing when exiting.

How about seeing an actual layout before assuming it will just remain status quo.
 
An LOU is step #1 towards having an arena in Sac. There may be a long way to go, but I will gladly accept the step forward. Yay!!!!:D
 
An LOU is step #1 towards having an arena in Sac. There may be a long way to go, but I will gladly accept the step forward. Yay!!!!:D

Agreed. Sacramento has traffic. But at 6:30 to 7 that area is relatively calm traffic-wise. And I am sure they will implement traffic improvements as necessary to improve flow.

Again, this is just the first step. Let's see what they can come up with before deciding it doesn't work, OK?
 
Maybe they could create a second monorail line from the closest station to the new arena. That would be great.
 
It makes me sick to see how slow EVERYTHING moves in todays world of red tape and politics. Ive got $200 bucks on CA getting started on a high speed rail line before a kings arena is built.:mad:
 
You're kidding, right? The ONLY reason this has taken so long is because of the bleeping politics and posturing done by the city council and one mayor. Now that it's been taken out of their hands we're actually seeing movement. This LOU is a good, good thing - and I am very glad it's happened.
 
No im not kidding VF. Whether it's the city council, state govt, or federal govt, the red tape anyone has to go through is horrendous. Whether you are trying to build up the railyard or trying to get something as no brainer as a high speed rail system built it takes years.
Since Cal Expo is a state entity the maloofs and the NBA are going to have to deal with the State of CA buearacracy. Not to mention the city. Environmental reports. Private citizens who don't like the idea. Forgive me if I have lost faith in our system. It's so damn cumbersome. It's a mess. I just don't have much faith, even if everything goes right, in seeing this arena before 2015.
 
I'll take an arena in 2015 over no arena. :D

Honestly, taking this out of the hands of the City/County is the best thing that could've happened. The city can't seem to ever get anything done. Or they do it cheaply with little to no vision. There are exciting things happening in cities the size of Sacramento, while Sac itself just stagnates. Horrible way to try and attract business to the region.

I think this is promising news. The pessimist in me thought they might come out and say it just couldn't be done. So I'm ecstatic. Cautiously ecstatic, but still ecstatic. :D
 
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WOOHOOO!!!!!!

How's that for optimism? This is great news. I would quit this team if it left sac. Here's to not having to buy a horrendous Warriors Jersey!!!!
 
No im not kidding VF. Whether it's the city council, state govt, or federal govt, the red tape anyone has to go through is horrendous. Whether you are trying to build up the railyard or trying to get something as no brainer as a high speed rail system built it takes years.
Since Cal Expo is a state entity the maloofs and the NBA are going to have to deal with the State of CA buearacracy. Not to mention the city. Environmental reports. Private citizens who don't like the idea. Forgive me if I have lost faith in our system. It's so damn cumbersome. It's a mess. I just don't have much faith, even if everything goes right, in seeing this arena before 2015.

I understand your frustration, and this is especially true in Sacramento, but at last something IS happening. There’s no way you can compare this to the rail yards though – it’s not like we are battling for historical preservation of Cal Expo. The point is that things are moving along, and I don’t mind waiting to 2015 if it means keeping the Kings.
 
I am actually very happy that this actually went through. Now I wouldn't be surprised if the Kings get more energy we they play in their new arena. I just want to see how this would play out now and find out when they expect to have an arena built.
 
I don't see how this can be construed as anything but a good thing. I don't care how much you might personaly prefer a stadium in Natomas, or downtown, or wherever, there have been times when it looked like there might not be one at all. A LOU about a stadium ANYPLACE in Sacramento certainly has to beat the hell out of the alternative of not getting one done at all.
 
While I'm very happy to hear this news, I just remember trying to get out of Cal Expo after any forth of July and the mere thought repulses me. Getting out of the State Fair is different. People leave at all times of the day, not all at the same time. Hopefully, exit patterns will be improved if an arena goes there.
 
While I'm very happy to hear this news, I just remember trying to get out of Cal Expo after any forth of July and the mere thought repulses me. Getting out of the State Fair is different. People leave at all times of the day, not all at the same time. Hopefully, exit patterns will be improved if an arena goes there.

Can't compare it to the 4th of July. People are all over the surrounding area. That won't happen at a game.
 
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