NBA Kings Managing Partner Vivek Ranadive yesterday promised that the team "won’t forget about its current home," Sleep Train Arena, after it moves downtown next year, according to Dale Kasler of the SACRAMENTO BEE. Ranadive said that the team "expects to have a vision for the neighborhood by December." He said, “We’re hoping that by the end of the year, we’ll have chosen a path." Kasler notes the city's Natomas community has been the team's home "since it relocated" from K.C. in '85. Ranadive: "We’re going to give it the same care and thought and investment that we are giving to the downtown." Kasler notes the team "owns 84 acres surrounding Sleep Train and will receive an additional 100 acres of city-owned land adjacent to the arena." Team officials have said that preliminary ideas for the Natomas site "include a hospital or medical complex, a higher-education campus or a corporate technology park." Under the Kings’ agreement with the city, they "can’t keep Sleep Train operating as an arena in competition with the new downtown building" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 3/31).
ART OF THE MATTER: In Sacramento, Cathy Locke reports a panel charged with commissioning $1.5M in local art for Sacramento’s new downtown arena, the Entertainment and Sports Center Public Art Panel, "has identified several possible locations for art installations." Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission Exec Dir Shelly Willis said that potential sites "include LED screens flanking the entrance to the arena;" a plaza area; a berm site; and the 5th Street tunnel or underpass. She added that the sites "must be researched before any decisions are made" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 3/31).
