Did the Kings get a new arena deal? (San Jose, Sacramento: buy, casinos) - City-Data Forum

TominLasVegas · 08-24-2009, 10:32 PM

Still havent heard if they had or not.

rdane1010 · 08-24-2009, 11:14 PM

Nothing is in place that I have heard of.. I think they are going to have to put it back on an election ballot sometime in the next year or two.

wburg · 08-25-2009, 12:47 AM

no...the closest thing to a new arena deal is a deal that would basically give the California State Fairgrounds/Cal Expo to developers, in return for an arena on one end and a couple of dinky buildings for the State Fair. And of course it is based on the housing market becoming super-hot again really soon, and also probably every other infill development project in town like the Railyards and Township 9 suddenly falling through. In other words, the odds are probably better that the Maloofs will wish on a falling star and they will discover a new arena has magically appeared overnight. No ballot measure is currently being considered.

TominLasVegas · 08-25-2009, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wburg

no...the closest thing to a new arena deal is a deal that would basically give the California State Fairgrounds/Cal Expo to developers, in return for an arena on one end and a couple of dinky buildings for the State Fair. And of course it is based on the housing market becoming super-hot again really soon, and also probably every other infill development project in town like the Railyards and Township 9 suddenly falling through. In other words, the odds are probably better that the Maloofs will wish on a falling star and they will discover a new arena has magically appeared overnight. No ballot measure is currently being considered.

Im still convinced the Maloofs want to move the Kings to Vegas since thats where they spend most of their time anyways.

Jimbo15 · 08-25-2009, 01:19 PM

The issue is the NBA. One of the conditions that the NBA had for holding the all star game in Vegas was that there would be no betting on the game anywhere in Vegas.

Given that the all star game has never been a big gambling event, the casinos were willing to go along with that restriction in order to bring the event to Vegas. The reason they were willing to do that was they thought having the all star game in Vegas would bring in enough additional fans to make up for the lack of betting on the All Star game. So it made financial sense for the Vegas Casinos to go along with that idea.

But the NBA wants a ban on betting on NBA games as a condition for relocating a team to Vegas. That trade off is a lot less financially lucrative for the casinos, in general the casinos make a lot of money off of people betting on NBA games. Having an NBA team in Vegas might be good for the residents of Vegas, but does very little for the bottom line of the casinos, they give up revenue without generating new revenue from having an NBA team in Vegas.

The other fear in the NBA, is that the gambling and prostitution in Vegas is going to get some of their stars in some sort of scandal.

My hunch is that the first professional franchise to make to Vegas will be the NHL, they are willing to take more risks and betting on the NHL isn't nearly as lucrative for the casinos.

If the Kings move anywhere its probably either Anahiem or San Jose. There are already modern completely built arenas in both towns (the Pond in Anahiem and the Shark Tank in San Jose). Both of those towns have a lot more corporations to fill box seats and offer the potential for lucrative cable deals. Yet both are fairly close to Vegas, so the Maloofs could fly into either city to watch a game and still fly back to Vegas that night afterwards if they needed to be back in Vegas.

If the only deal on the table is at Cal Expo, than the Kings probably will leave Sacramento. But Sacramento is surrounded by empty land that could easily be upzoned and the proceeds used to pay for a new arena. Since Sacramento has already done this once already, I could easily see them doing that again. If they built the new arena downtown, I think that would buy off the opposition to opening up additional land in Natomas north of Elk Horn Blvd to development. In exchange for the right combination of land upzoning, I am sure Tsakapolous would pay for a new arena right now.

Kevin Johnson used to play in the NBA, I think he is pretty commited to keeping the team in Sacramento. My hunch is that is going to do what is necessary to keep an NBA team in the area on his watch.