Sacramento Republic FC fans gather in The Railyards to show their
passion for the team — and the idea it will become a Major League Soccer
expansion franchise. photo : terence duffy
on the property in 2010. “The Kings arena thing happened
close to the end of the time when Thomas was foreclosed
upon,” Sacramento Assistant City Manager Fran Halbakken
says. “But there was a whole plan for all these things that
were going to happen that weren’t the Kings arena.”
Not long after those plans stalled, focus shifted to an-
other part of the central city in need of a facelift. Despite its
charm and storied history, Sacramento west of 16th Street
suffered due to a mid-20th century push by planners to clear
out tens of thousands of residential units and replace them
primarily with office towers and parking garages, turning
the area into a commuter desert on evenings and weekends.
City officials wanted to bring vibrancy back to downtown.
The catalyst for that change: a new arena for the Kings.
After the Maloof family, previous owners of the Kings,
reached a deal to sell the team to a group that planned
to move it to Seattle, former Mayor Kevin Johnson led a
successful, though divisive, fight to keep the team. This
included directly lobbying the NBA, recruiting deep-
pocketed Golden State Warriors minority owner Vivek Ra-
nadivé to buy a controlling interest in the team, and push-
ing through an effort that led to the opening of Golden 1
Center in 2016.
Some critics decried the city’s obligations tied to its gen-
eral fund if parking revenues fall short, and some also wor-
ried the arena’s construction and related redevelopment
would displace low-income residents downtown, with one
group unsuccessfully suing the city, requesting that tens of
millions of dollars be set aside for affordable housing.
Though there are rumblings about sharply increased
rents and the reduction of free parking in the central city, the
arena has led to many other projects in and around the re-
branded Downtown Commons (DOCO) area, including the
Kimpton Sawyer Hotel, the renovated Century movie theater,
numerous restaurants and the continued revitalization of K
Street. “(Golden 1 Center) has been an incredible economic
spark for the surrounding urban core,” says Kings Chief Op-
erating Officer Matina Kolokotronis in a written statement
provided by a team spokesperson.
The arena has become so much more than basketball
too, hosting top entertainment acts such as Paul McCartney,
Lady Gaga, Elton John, Maroon 5 and Andrea Bocelli, and it
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