do you think Sacramento will get a new arena built for the Kings? (Fresno: second mortgage, home equity loan)

[wburg]

Looks like the Maloofs are trying to make nice now:

Maloofs reach out to business owners who called for them to sell the team - Business - The Sacramento Bee

Will there be an "Ike and Tina" moment between them and Mayor Johnson?

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by ryuns

Totally ridiculous. The City Manager's comments seemed slightly less myopic than the Mayor's, as he seemed to focus more on how to move development of the greater railyards forward despite this "setback". It appears the headline headline of "Sacramento city manager: Vital arena-related work will go on" is a little misleading because he appeared to be focusing everything about the railyard EXCEPT for arena. Just because it happens at the railyard doesn't mean it's arena-related.

Shirey seems pretty sensible for the most part, and I hope everyone in City Hall heeds Councilman McCarty's advice to chill out for a bit, come to terms with the fact that the ESC is not going to happen in any way similar to what was envisioned, and come up with some new ideas.
[LEFT]ead more here: City Beat: Sacramento city manager: Vital arena-related work will go on[/LEFT]

Blame it on the crappy journalism. The ESC wasn't going to be in the Railyards, which is another minor flaw on top of the blatantly incorrect "paraphrasing." If you read the comments, the author is taking quite a beating for his ineptness.

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by wburg

Looks like the Maloofs are trying to make nice now:

Maloofs reach out to business owners who called for them to sell the team - Business - The Sacramento Bee

Will there be an "Ike and Tina" moment between them and Mayor Johnson?

The question is what is George doing... he's always been the one pushing hardest to leave for a bigger market. Are the Maloofs actually acting as a single unit, or are they doing what they normally do and pursuing mutually exclusive agendas simultaneously?

[CeJeH]

Btw not sure how I got in the "stay out of the maloofs business" camp- I think they clearly are too broke right now as is evidenced by the Kings payroll alone

[ryuns]

Originally Posted by Malloric

Blame it on the crappy journalism. The ESC wasn't going to be in the Railyards, which is another minor flaw on top of the blatantly incorrect "paraphrasing."

Good correction--he did conflate the arena's location with the railyard proper, so he was even "less correct" than I was giving him credit for.

Originally Posted by Malloric

If you read the comments, the author is taking quite a beating for his ineptness.

I try really really hard not to.

[wburg]

It's kind of one of those "shades of truth" things. The arena lot is technically within the overall boundaries of the Railyards, but it's really about 5% of the Railyards property south of the new track alignment that the city owns. The remaining 95% is owned by Inland, whose plan is to complete the infrastructure and wait for an uptick in the real estate market--they have no plan for development and never will, because they aren't a developer. Shirey did conflate the two, although the "largest infill site" is explicitly the other 95% of the site

The plans continuing at the city-owned property are the track relocation plans and the first phase of the intermodal depot. The planning for that started about 12 years ago, before the arena idea was even hatched and before the HSR bonds.

The thumbnail below is a diagram of how the intermodal depot was supposed to work before the arena idea came around. Note where the parking lot is (in phase 3 it's supposed to be a parking structure. Also uploaded is a "hybrid" plan that AECOM, the design firm working on the arena, developed last week as a compromise between the plan that put the arena up against I-5 (proposed by the ULI Rose Institute) and the one that put it directly in between the different intermodal functions to make room for a VIP parking structure (proposed by Taylor/ICON.) I put a question mark over the arena site...note the similarities between the two.

Theoretically, we could build the intermodal following the "hybrid site" plan, leaving a parking lot for Amtrak commuter parkers--and then, if, at some future point, there is money and a plan and partners to build an arena, it could be put right there. Parking lots are very common "ground cover" projects--it caps off the lot and provides short-term revenue while waiting for markets or projects to come around.

[NorCal Dude]

Originally Posted by CeJeH

Btw not sure how I got in the "stay out of the maloofs business" camp- I think they clearly are too broke right now as is evidenced by the Kings payroll alone

The problem is, if you don't know how big business works, you will make wrong assumptions like this. It's not like the kings being worth 300 mil changes the fact that the Maloofs are not billinaires. They Maloofs are one of the single largest shareholders of WELLS FARGO!!!!!

If a business can not finance something, the owners/board of directors-execs do not get together and say "Hey lets all use our personal savings accounts, 401k's, and children's college funds to cover the bottom line". That's bad business.

If you did that you would be a dumbass. Imagine you have a hotdog stand to suppliment your current income. The hotdog stand struggles from time to time but as of late you make enough to keep it open, make payroll and taxes, and pocket a small profit. You want to expand from a stand to a truck, but you can not finance it. Does that some how make you less wealthy than you already were??

It's like the Maloof haters keep flip flopping. One minute they are greedy billionaire playboys, the next they are paupers looking for a hand out. With the next sensational Marcos Breton column ready to dictate the mood to readers whom typically do not understand the business world.

Everyone keeps talking about how poor the Maloofs are, but I turn on my Tv and there is Adriennne Maloof on Real Housewives of Beverley Hills. Living in lavish luxury, with private security, limo service-just the total class A life. If that is being broke than I'd sure as hell like to be it.

[Marv101]

A couple of questions---If this arena were to be built in 'the Railyards', would hotels and restaurants follow, and perhaps revitalize that area as Staples Center has here in LA, or the Rockies ballpark (Coors Field) in what used to be a desolate area of Denver?

Also, what exactly is wrong with ARCO Arena? Location, amenities, nearby nightlife and hotels, or something else?

[wburg]

In both cases (LA and Denver) there were already positive signs in both cities, due to redevelopment projects, adaptive reuse ordinances, and already-present economic indicators before the arenas arrived. Cities targeted for new arenas are already on the upswing, the folks who build arenas look for those cities based on trends already happening--like the current upswing in downtown Sacramento.

There isn't any sort of guarantee that hotels and restaurants would follow a downtown arena development. The site is still highly physically constrained (it has railroad tracks, an interstate highway, and a busy freeway on-ramp on three sides, and a train station on the fourth) so new development actually can't occur right next to it--the closest development opportunities are a couple of blocks away, past the 5th and 6th Street bridges or north of the Central Shops (or in the Shops themselves.) K Street/Downtown Plaza is a couple blocks south--you won't even be able to see the arena from K Street. There are, however, ongoing redevelopment projects about to start (they were already paid for when redevelopment ended) and a definite increase in leased space on K and adjacent streets (outside of Downtown Plaza.)

What's wrong with Arco? It's not downtown, which is revitalizing, it's in a recently-completed underwater suburb, which is not. For purposes of being a sports arena, it's just fine. For purposes of enriching the local development community, who pretty much own City Hall, it's dreadful.

[CeJeH]

Originally Posted by NorCal Dude

The problem is, if you don't know how big business works, you will make wrong assumptions like this. It's not like the kings being worth 300 mil changes the fact that the Maloofs are not billinaires. They Maloofs are one of the single largest shareholders of WELLS FARGO!!!!!

If a business can not finance something, the owners/board of directors-execs do not get together and say "Hey lets all use our personal savings accounts, 401k's, and children's college funds to cover the bottom line". That's bad business.

If you did that you would be a dumbass. Imagine you have a hotdog stand to suppliment your current income. The hotdog stand struggles from time to time but as of late you make enough to keep it open, make payroll and taxes, and pocket a small profit. You want to expand from a stand to a truck, but you can not finance it. Does that some how make you less wealthy than you already were??

It's like the Maloof haters keep flip flopping. One minute they are greedy billionaire playboys, the next they are paupers looking for a hand out. With the next sensational Marcos Breton column ready to dictate the mood to readers whom typically do not understand the business world.

Everyone keeps talking about how poor the Maloofs are, but I turn on my Tv and there is Adriennne Maloof on Real Housewives of Beverley Hills. Living in lavish luxury, with private security, limo service-just the total class A life. If that is being broke than I'd sure as hell like to be it.

Broke is relative! Clearly the maloofs aren't "top ramen and food stamps" broke but they are certainly "overpay chuck Hayes to reach the minimum required base salary in the NBA" broke which just so happens to be the kind of broke that affects this particular situation. You don't hear Mavericks fans complain about ****ty arenas and ****-poor performance because of Mark Cuban and next year Nets fans will get a taste of Russian money In Brooklyn next year because those teams owners can afford that kind of thing.