The Sacramento City Council yesterday voted unanimously to "allow staff to enter into detailed talks with 11 firms seeking to lease downtown parking," according to a front-page piece by Lillis, Bizjak & Kasler of the SACRAMENTO BEE. An agreement with one of those companies “is being counted on to provide up to half of the $387 million bill for a new downtown sports arena.” In approving deeper talks with the parking firms, the City Council “showed it supports moving forward on an attempt led by Mayor Kevin Johnson to create a financing plan for an arena by March 1 and avoid losing” the NBA Kings. City staff is “in tense negotiations with representatives” from the NBA, the Kings, arena operator AEG and the arena development team “to round out the facility's financing plan.” Those talks “are expected to continue for at least another two weeks” (SACRAMENTO BEE, 2/15). SI.com’s Sam Amick wrote chances are the Kings “will stay” in Sacramento as the “overwhelming optimism among those heading the Sacramento effort is making it hard to envision this not getting done” (SI.com, 2/14).
