May 25, 2011

Kings arena plan coming tomorrow, actual plan details coming who knows when

The plan for a new Sacramento Kings arena is due out tomorrow at 2 pm Pacific time, and according to several reports, it's going to look something like this:

• A price tag of between $350 million to $395 million, according to Mayor Kevin Johnson, for a "smaller but yet world-class venue."
• The project would be a "public-private partnership" in which the Maloofs' only contribution may be rent: "If they're coming in as tenants only, which I think is where they'll come in, that's a different level of contribution," Johnson told FOX40 News.
• According to the Sacramento Press, "After the feasibility study is presented to the council Thursday, developers and officials must start work to determine how much private money will be available to help pay for an arena and how much of a gap remains that may be filled by public financing."

So in that case — whoa, hold on, say what? This long-awaited arena financing plan isn't even going to include a plan for financing, but rather just throw it up to "developers and officials" to decide who will pay for the thing? Who on earth would come up with an idea that poorly though ... oh, right.

Not to say that a plan that relies entirely on team rent payments for the private portion is necessarily a bad thing — the Minneapolis Metrodome, after all, was financed that way, and ultimately paid off its construction costs without dipping into public coffers. Still, without knowing how much rent would be paid, whether the public would be required to donate free land, or really how any of this would be paid for, there are way too many wild cards to evaluate this plan. And it doesn't sound like things will get any clearer tomorrow at 2.