METALMiKE
07-20-2006, 07:17 PM
New arena to cost between $470 and $542 million
The Maloofs and the city and county of Sacramento have reached an agreement to finance a new arena for the Kings in Sacramento's downtown railyards. Sacramento Bee/Jay Mather
[Updated 4:20 p.m.] After talks that stretched into the night and bled over into the morning, negotiators for the city and county of Sacramento today announced a deal with the Maloof family to finance a new arena for the Sacramento Kings. The financing package would rely on voter approval of a new quarter-cent sales tax that would produce about $1.2 billion over 15 years.
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is slated to vote Aug. 2 on whether to place the measure on the ballot.
A new arena isn't the only thing in the financing package. If the new sales tax was adopted, at least $594 million would go back to the county and its cities for community projects, said members of the negotiating team, who briefed The Bee on Thursday.
The rest of the money would be reserved for building a new arena in the downtown rail yard costing somewhere between $470 million and $542 million. Any money not needed for the arena would go back to the county and cities.
In return for the public financing, the Maloofs, the family that owns the Kings, agreed to contribute $20 million to a repair fund for the new facility. They also agreed to sign a 30-year lease and make $122 million in payments over its life -- bringing the team's total contribution to between 26 percent and 30 percent of the project's cost.
In addition, the team owners pledged to pay off their current $71 million loan from the city. That payoff is not being considered as part of the contribution to the arena deal.
The new arena would anchor a sports and entertainment district planned by developer Stan Thomas for the downtown rail yard. It would be owned by a new joint powers authority likely made up of city and county representatives. But the Kings would be responsible for the operating costs, and would get all the money from events, food and beverage sales and parking.The team also would receive the millions of dollars likely to be paid for naming rights.
Arco Arena would be torn down. The Maloofs would be free to sell the 85 acres on which it sits, a gold mine in fast growing North Natomas that could fetch more than $500,000 per acre, according to a recent appraisal. The city, which owns 100 acres next door, plans to sell its land and contribute the money to infrastructure improvements needed in the rail yard to serve the arena project.
Representatives of the city, the county and the Kings said the deal is comparable to others reached for new NBA arenas around the country. The Maloof family is paying more than owners have in Memphis, Indianapolis and Charlotte, N.C., three of the most recently constructed arenas, said Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, one of the lead negotiators.
Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, who attended the briefing at The Bee, said building a new arena is about more than just professional sports, but also about injecting new energy into a dormant portion of downtown. "We're looking at 200 events a year, 2 million people, coming to an arena in the center of our city, within walking distance of our intermodal (transit) station," she said.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14280090p-15088525c.html
The Maloofs and the city and county of Sacramento have reached an agreement to finance a new arena for the Kings in Sacramento's downtown railyards. Sacramento Bee/Jay Mather
[Updated 4:20 p.m.] After talks that stretched into the night and bled over into the morning, negotiators for the city and county of Sacramento today announced a deal with the Maloof family to finance a new arena for the Sacramento Kings. The financing package would rely on voter approval of a new quarter-cent sales tax that would produce about $1.2 billion over 15 years.
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is slated to vote Aug. 2 on whether to place the measure on the ballot.
A new arena isn't the only thing in the financing package. If the new sales tax was adopted, at least $594 million would go back to the county and its cities for community projects, said members of the negotiating team, who briefed The Bee on Thursday.
The rest of the money would be reserved for building a new arena in the downtown rail yard costing somewhere between $470 million and $542 million. Any money not needed for the arena would go back to the county and cities.
In return for the public financing, the Maloofs, the family that owns the Kings, agreed to contribute $20 million to a repair fund for the new facility. They also agreed to sign a 30-year lease and make $122 million in payments over its life -- bringing the team's total contribution to between 26 percent and 30 percent of the project's cost.
In addition, the team owners pledged to pay off their current $71 million loan from the city. That payoff is not being considered as part of the contribution to the arena deal.
The new arena would anchor a sports and entertainment district planned by developer Stan Thomas for the downtown rail yard. It would be owned by a new joint powers authority likely made up of city and county representatives. But the Kings would be responsible for the operating costs, and would get all the money from events, food and beverage sales and parking.The team also would receive the millions of dollars likely to be paid for naming rights.
Arco Arena would be torn down. The Maloofs would be free to sell the 85 acres on which it sits, a gold mine in fast growing North Natomas that could fetch more than $500,000 per acre, according to a recent appraisal. The city, which owns 100 acres next door, plans to sell its land and contribute the money to infrastructure improvements needed in the rail yard to serve the arena project.
Representatives of the city, the county and the Kings said the deal is comparable to others reached for new NBA arenas around the country. The Maloof family is paying more than owners have in Memphis, Indianapolis and Charlotte, N.C., three of the most recently constructed arenas, said Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, one of the lead negotiators.
Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, who attended the briefing at The Bee, said building a new arena is about more than just professional sports, but also about injecting new energy into a dormant portion of downtown. "We're looking at 200 events a year, 2 million people, coming to an arena in the center of our city, within walking distance of our intermodal (transit) station," she said.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14280090p-15088525c.html