July 23, 2004

Sacramento council to take up arena debate

The Sacramento city council held its long-awaited meeting to discuss building an arena for the Kings last night, and the verdict was: They'll keep talking. Rejecting a proposed November referendum as too soon given the nebulous information about a proposed arena (as in, no one yet knows where it would be built or who would pay for it), the council instead passed an "intent" motion that calls for the city to enter into negotiations with the Kings, and says the council will begin discussing the issue next month, with the goal of a voter referendum next March.

The motion also sets the arena's price tag at $350 million (earlier estimates had been as high as $750 million), and says the costs will be split evenly between the Kings and the public. Though this language doesn't appear to be binding, Kings owner Joe Maloof nonetheless expressed outrage, telling the Sacramento Bee: "Weíve tried to negotiate for three or four years and have gotten nowhere. We're not in favor of this...we were never consulted."