Saltonstall

The Sacramento Kings, a professional basketball team, have played at the Sleep Train Arena (formerly called Arco Arena) since 1988. In January 2013, the team’s then owners entered into a tentative agreement to sell the Sacramento Kings to a group of investors in Seattle, Washington. Seeking to keep the team in Sacramento, the City of Sacramento (City) partnered with Sacramento Basketball Holdings, LLC, to build a new entertainment and sports center in downtown Sacramento at the site of a shopping mall with declining occupancy rates. In May 2013, the Board of Governors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) rejected an application to sell the team and move it to Seattle, and approved the sale of the team to Sacramento Basketball Holdings. The NBA’s Board of Governors also reserved the right to acquire the Sacramento Kangs and relocate the team to another city if a new arena in Sacramento does not open by 2017.

To meet the NBA’s deadline, the City and Sacramento Basketball Holdings developed a schedule that targets October 2016 as the opening date of the downtown arena. To facilitate timely completion of the project, the Legislature added section 21168.6.6 to the…