Sacramento Kings Moving?

Posted by Eric Rios on Feb 24, 2011 in Telegram Past News

Although California is a very populated state, and has many sports teams, Northern California, specifically North of the bay area, actually does not have many teams. There are currently four NBA teams in California, consisting of The Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, and Kings.

The Kings are located in Sacramento and are the only proffessional sports team in California located North of San Francisco. The Kings have moved from city to city over the earlier to mid 19th century. Finally in 1985, they came to Sacramento.

Since 1985, the Kings have made several appearances to the Western Conference Finals. They have also had a notoriously supportive base of fans. Arco Arena is known to be one of the loudest arenas and thus best home court advantage. The Kings team even retired a #6 jersey in honor of their fans (the 6th man).

 As far back as 2006, attempts were made to attempt to build a new arena. The current arena that the Kings play in, Arco Arena (aka Power Balance Pavilion) is an old arena and relatively “obsolete” compared to newer and better arenas in the NBA. Several attempts to build new arenas have been voted down by voters in Sacramento.

With no support from the citizens, the Kings organization, with help from the NBA, turned to Cal Expo to try to negotiate building an arena on their property. On September 25th, 2010, the Cal Expo Board voted not to allow the new arena to be built on their land. This resulted in the NBA pulling out their efforts in assisting the Kings to find a new location within Sacramento. Recently, there have been rumors of the Kings talking to officials of other cities about a possible team move. David Stern, commissioner of the NBA has confirmed that there indeed have been talks between the Kings and officials in Anaheim about a team move.

If a team move does happen, the franchise’s name could possibly revert back from the “Kings” to the “Royals.” The Kings have until March 8th, 2011 to decide whether or not to move to Anaheim for the 2011-2012 season and until June 1, 2011 if they wish to move their until the 2012-2013 season.

For most basketball fans in Northern California, the rumored move is frightening. Aside from entertainment, the Kings location in Sacramento has also served as a good source of revenue for the city. If a team move is announced, I would anticipate a sudden drop in support from fans. The general feeling by fans of the Kings would probably be betrayal. After two and a half decades of constant support, it feels as though this organization is just leaving, and moving on. Hopefully the Kings decide to stay and hope for the best here in Sacramento.