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February 19, 2010
Sacramento arena task force presses for details, any details
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's arena task force has begun questioning prospective Kings arena developers, and have actually begun focusing in on the big question: How the heck does anyone propose to pay for this thing? The answers are awfully handwavy, according to the Sacramento Bee:
Several of the contenders suggest selling long-term seat licenses to arena users. One talks about enlisting civic-minded real estate agents to donate commissions. Another relies in part on competing for federal transportation and job-creation funds. And one would coax major corporations to pay sponsorship fees.
The presumed front-runner, developer Gerry Kamilos, again stressed that the Kings would pay $10 million a year in rent under his plan. "That's substantive to me," Kamilos' development partner David Taylor told the task force. Given that that would come to less than $150 million, and the whole project would cost at least $700 million, maybe not — though the rent would come "with annual adjustments," according to the Bee, so maybe there's hope that the Kings rent would actually scale up enough over time to come to a more significant chunk of change. File this under: Reply hazy, ask again later.
Thank you, Sacramento, for being a diligent, longsuffering steward of our Kings. However, it's now time for them to come home.
Signed,
Kansas City
Posted by KingmanIII on February 21, 2010 10:42 AM
Las Vegas is calling.
Sukramento will be under water soon. Vegas needs the buisness.
Posted by Las Vegas on February 21, 2010 02:18 PM
Dear Kansas City and Las Vegas,
We're not interested in contributing our tax dollars to a basketball arena. But if your cities and states are, then please take the Kings away from us.
Sincerely,
Sacramento
Dear Art:
www.sprintcenter.com
Regards,
Kansas City
KingmanIII, the Sprint Center is doing just fine w/o an anchor tenant taking all the prime dates. Although I miss not having the Kings around (did I really just type that?), in the long run it would do more harm than good.
Posted by Chris M on February 27, 2010 02:34 PM
Chris:
I don't think it would be nearly as difficult to allocate an extra 40-50 dates towards an NBA franchise as you're suggesting. If just about every other major-league arena in the United States and Canada can do it, then why can't ours?
To date, Sprint Center remains THE most expensive arena built to not house a major-league tenant; the Louisville arena might give it a run for its money, but at least they're hosting an elite college program. If we didn't plan to land an NBA or NHL franchise, we could've built something far less expensive like Tulsa, Wichita, Jacksonville, Des Moines, Oklahoma City and Omaha (only counting the arena) did, and still been in the running for all of those other big-ticket events. As it stands, the Sprint Center is not worth its $276-million price tag.
Posted by KingmanIII on March 4, 2010 08:54 PM
There are two problems with that argument:
1) NBA franchises don't like to pay rent, so (as Chris says) the Sprint Center would arguably do worse scheduling more basketball games and fewer concerts.
2) Even if the Sprint Center did make more money, it would go to SMG, not Kansas City.
Now, you can say that getting to watch Kings games would be at least some payback for the Sprint Center price tag. But in terms of strictly economic benefits, I don't see it.
Posted by Neil on March 4, 2010 09:10 PM
Neil:
Why would more NBA dates necessarily result in fewer other events? It doesn't seem to affect places like Staples (who are also run by AEG)...
Like I said, if we weren't gunning for the big leagues, we could've built a much cheaper building with about the same capacity like Tulsa did. Better yet, we could've built a barebones facility like OKC did and simply upgraded the place if we landed a major anchor tenant.
Posted by KingmanIII on March 5, 2010 10:05 PM
I haven't looked closely at the Sprint Center (or Staples) calendar, but as I understand it a lot of big concert tours require a day to set up and tear down. Not to mention making and melting the ice if there's hockey ... I guess what I'm saying is just because there are vacant dates doesn't mean you can slot in sports on those nights without displacing anything.
Posted by Neil on March 6, 2010 08:44 PM
After that pathetic showing at the Islanders/Kings game in September (and in years previous), we're likely no longer too high on the NHL's short list. Not only that, but Independence just built a new, smaller arena for a CHL expansion team, the Missouri Mavericks. We shouldn't have to worry about installing the hockey floor much at all now.
If AEG once again fails to bring a major-league franchise to a $275 million arena, us natives will begin to get *very* restless...
Posted by KingmanIII on March 7, 2010 08:56 AM