Sacramento Officials, Kings Owners Officially End Plans for New Arena
Follow-up discussions between the city of Sacramento and the owners of the National Basketball Association’s Kings franchise for the construction of a new arena complex at the Railyards redevelopment site ended April 27 with no agreement.
The Kings have one year left on its Sacramento contract and the owners, the Maloof family, indicated in local news reports that it has no intention of selling the team and has no solid plans to move it as yet, but will not be supporting the proposed entertainment and sports complex project.
Joaquin McPeek, Mayor Kevin Johnson’s spokesman, says the city will take the next couple of weeks to “figure out what our options are.”
McPeek says the NBA’s $200,000 contribution to the entertainment and sports complex development plan will cover some pre-development costs paid through April to recently hired consultants, including AECOM, Fehr & Peers, and ICON-Taylor partnering with stadium design firm Populous.
The pre-development will include site planning, environmental reviews, infrastructure design and engineering, building review, site design and building design.
John Dangberg, the city’s assistant city manager, says that the NBA-funded pre-development contracts “have been completed and the contracts are being closed out.” He adds that no further work on the arena design is proceeding. “Of course, all Railyards projects are proceeding unabated, including the infrastructure under construction or under design and as well as site planning and design for the Sacramento Valley Transit Station,” Dangberg says.
