How many times does it need to be said that the Arcos were built with private financing?
Apparently everytime someone brings up issue, because they haven't been paying attention for the last 25+ years.
The city wouldn't help build either Arco. Arco I was meant to be temporary. Arco II was built incredibly cheaply. Tha palace of Auburn Hills opened the same year. Arco = $40 million; Palace = $80. Arco's foundation won't support the needed remodeling (engineering reports to the city), and is economically near obsolesence without remoding (consultants reports to the city). Meanwhile the Palace could and has been remodeled to keep it up.
The Honda Center (Formerly the Pond) opened only five years later and cost $123 million. It's undergone $20 million in upgrades/remodeling in the last decade and is currently undergoing about another $20 million or something to get ready for the Democratic national convention. Crissake, its got marble floors and walls.
Lukenbill and his co-owners couldn't afford any more after paying to buy the franchise and assume its existing debt. The city loan was to Thomas, because they were drowing in red ink and he was going to sell to a buyer. The city was afraid they might lose the team. By the way, the city only guranteed the loan, its private investors who provided the actual dollars and are getting paid back through the payments.
Thomas started asking for a new arena fourtenn years ago. He finally sold to the Maloofs enough to give them 51% oenership and control. The truth is the Maloofs picked up the request for help with a new arena. The city's had 14 years. At this point we're lucky to have had the last 10 years, as the Maloofs could have moved the team back then. The great years were a gift, we could've missed. Now, when I suspect the team is on the way up, we're likely to miss having it here in Sacramento.
By the way, the team pretty much had to raise ticket prices during the glory years. We had one of the top three team payrolls in NBA. Unfortunately, it took us a lot of years to get that salary down. Petrie had to keep cutting payroll every year. And the Maloofs were slow to get with the program in using newer marketing techniques, until they hired there new marketing person during the season last year. It's difficult when a team relies mostly on two-pesron ticket sales, with little or no corporate money coming in.
