• DEVELOPMENT
the largest downtown employer, and as Michael points out, the stadium would not influence the State’ s hiring schedule.
“ As important a project as [ the Golden 1 Center ] is, there is only so much it can move the larger regional needle,” Michael says.“ You really need a decade to see the full realization of the potential,” he adds.
Academic studies have cast doubt on the greater economic benefit of sports arenas, with negligible impact on areas like general employment and government revenue. But those facts don’ t automatically invalidate the public investment, argues Michael, the economist.“ Evaluate it as an investment in the quality of life in the city,” he suggests.
Perhaps the most eye-catching statistic from the Golden 1 Center this year was placing 36th in the top 200 busiest venues worldwide, according to Pollstar. Events included NBA games, the 2017 NCAA men ' s tournament, a monster truck rally, professional wrestling, concerts, and private events hosted by companies and nonprofits. Ticket sales will undoubtedly improve once the Kings, which as of this writing have a record of 9-19 for the 2017-18 season, begin consistently winning games. According to a report released by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership last October, some 1.6 million attendees spent about $ 72 million in downtown Sacramento in 2017. Pollstar put the Golden 1 Center just four slots behind Oracle Arena in Oakland in the third quarter of 2017.
The attendance figures raise a question, however, to what extent the Golden 1 Center is producing new spending among consumers, or simply circulating money within the region.
“ People only have a certain amount of entertainment dollars and discretionary money they can spend on these sorts of things,” says Wassmer of Sacramento State.
Wassmer says when evaluating the success of the Golden 1 Center, a benefit to consider is how the arena’ s location has shifted development efforts back to the central city, and whether this is new money coming in from the outside. He says that the Kings owners,“ to their credit,” designed the arena to be used with existing infrastructure— for patrons to ride public transit, park in existing garages, eat at restaurants down the street.“ These are the benefits that come to everyone, but a lot of it is captured by developers,” Wassmer says.“ It’ s been kind of a windfall for them.” But having an arena in downtown, unlike in Natomas, Wassmer says, creates a wider vitality in which extra dollars spread to business owners of restaurants, hotels, bars and boutiques.
WHAT’ S NEXT On a crisp October morning, Ranadivé strode up to a makeshift stage outside the Golden 1 Center’ s northwest entrance. That night marked the Kings home opener against the Houston Rockets, but the owner is not there to talk about basketball.
He’ s there to address a crowd of Sacramento luminaries gathered for the unveiling of a bid for Amazon’ s second headquarters, dubbed HQ2.
“ Four years ago, I stood in front of Sacramento and said no other city would steal our team and never again would Sacramento play second fiddle to another city in America,” Ranadivé told the crowd. Some of his words get drowned out by the sound of loud construction nearby and by a drone flying overhead.“ Here we are again taking on another project, another challenge,” he went on.
Sacramento is a dark horse in a national competition of 238 communities trying to lure the online retail giant, which has said it would invest $ 5 billion in construction costs and create 50,000 jobs. As pointed out by HBO host John Oliver, Amazon mentioned the word " incentives " 21 times in its request for proposals for H2Q, calling the tax structure a " high priority " consideration. And while Sacramento political leaders can cobble together enticing tax breaks, California is a high tax state, and the capital can’ t compete with the incentives offered in other areas.
But as Ranadivé later pointed out, the bid was not just about Amazon. The Silicon Valley investor often says that putting together a competent team is the greatest indicator for success for any venture. The local Amazon bid, spearheaded by the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, involved partners from 19 surrounding communities. The bid listed 12 possible sites, including the nearby railyards area and The Bridge District in West Sacramento, and the former Sleep Train Arena in Natomas.
The proposal drove the argument for Sacramento as a destination for a large corporate campus: its leading universities, commitment among local colleges to tailor an educational framework to meet workforce needs, frequent daily flights, affordable cost of living and more.
“ We will go out and try to win it, but it’ s just one company, and there are lots of other companies,” Ranadivé says.“ How do we make this a great place for any company to be?”
Ranadivé views his basketball stadium as the start of a broader movement of regional competitiveness. He envisions Sacramento becoming a“ center of competence” in emerging technological fields like autonomous vehicles and virtual reality.
“ We’ ve lit the fire and we want it to become a bonfire,” the owner says.“ We want it to become something that provides energy for the entire region.” •
Sena Christian is the managing editor for Comstock’ s. On Twitter @ SenaCChristian. Allen Young is a journalist living in Sacramento. On Twitter @ allenmyoung. Allison Joy contributed to the reporting of this article.
50 comstocksmag. com | January 2018