Here We Stay

Sam Smith

Rough Draft Op Ed

Sacramento California has and always will be a town based around its sports teams. From minor league baseball to NBA basketball, therefore last year when the town was confronted with the tragedy of the possibility of the NBA Sacramento Kings leaving the community was outraged. The city has grown to love the Kings over the past 25 years, especially in the 2000’s when they made it to the semi-finals and really helped people all over America and the world put the city of Sacramento on a map. So why move a team that is so close to the hearts of Sacramento? Unfortunately the arena they play in is now over 20 years old and falling apart. The King’s owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof are running out of money and it is time to find the fundings and lay down the ground work for a new arena. In order to build an arena in Sacramento the city has to find money to help the Maloofs, find a new place for the arena, and then convince the city that the money that they would be spending on the new arena would be profitable for the city itself. Other cities like Anaheim and Seattle either have existing arenas or the ground work already laid down to build a brand new arena.

Moving the Kings simply does not make sense. Especially to either of these two cities. Anaheim, California is in between Los Angeles and San Diego. In these two cities alone there are already two NBA teams, families are already faithful to their respective teams moving in the Kings, a rival to the Los Angeles Lakers would simply not make any sense. Not to mention Southern California already has seven professional sports teams, this is more than most states have. The fan base is simply stretched to its limit, there is no way that they can support another team. Also, The Los Angeles Lakers, and the Los Angeles Clippers would never support the Kings moving to Anaheim. The Kings would take revenue and fans away from their teams.

Seattle has had its chance with an NBA team and lost them, the Seattle Supersonics needed a new arena and state legislature couldn’t get anything passed. So the owner moved them to his home town of Oklahoma City.(1) Now the Supersonics are the Oklahoma City Thunder and one of the best teams in the National Basketball Association. Instead of sending the Kings to Seattle, Sacramento should learn from Seattle’s mistakes and find funding for an arena. Seattle has lost millions of dollars in revenue, the Oklahoma City Thunder make just over 118 million dollars a year.(2) If Sacramento can manage to keep the team and continue to improve, the city will soon find itself making a surplus of money.

The mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, has proposed a final plan to keep the Kings. In this plan the Joe and Gavin Maloof will have to contribute 73.25 million dollars to the deal while new sponsor AEG will contribute 58.75 million dollars. This leaves the city to fund 255.5 million dollars to the project over some 20 years.(3) In order to come up with the money, Mayor Johnson plans to make this money by adding several new parking lots to downtown Sacramento and taking other parking lot money around the city and making this the “Kings Fund.” Clearly this plan seems to be fool proof, the Oklahoma City Thunder have proved this. It is time for Sacramento to make a stand, keep it’s team and begin making money off of this new possible investment.

1. Young, Bob. "Why Seattle Is Losing the Sonics and Storm in 10 Easy Steps." The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times, 14 Nov. 2006. Web. 11 Mar. 2012. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003425388_sonics14m.html>.
2. Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 11 Mar. 2012. <http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/32/basketball-valuations-11_Oklahoma-City-Thunder_329710.html>.
3. Writer, ANTONIO GONZALEZ AP Sports. "Sacramento Approves Arena Plan to Keep Kings." ABC News. ABC News Network, 07 Mar. 2012. Web. 11 Mar. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/sacramento-city-council-begins-kings-arena-debate-15864485>.