December 29, 2009

Sacramento gets seven pipe dreams proposals for NBA arena

The results of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's Kings arena fishing expedition are in, and he's managed to net seven new proposals to consider alongside the possibility of an arena at Cal Expo or a renovation of Arco Arena. As promised, downtown railyard developer Thomas Enterprises is one of the applicants, along with a mixed bag of other local development bigwigs (and not-so-bigwigs — two are restaurateurs). Kings blog Sactown Royalty goes so far as to say that five of the seven "might as well be written on papyrus and shoved into a kiln."

The real question here, though, is who's managed to figure out not just where to build an arena, but how to pay for it? Interestingly, according to traces left in Google News' cache, both KCRA and MSNBC previously had the phrase "No specifics were released on possible funding options" in their stories, but it's gone now. We'll know more after Johnson's task force holds a public forum on January 14. Maybe.