Sacramento Kings moving franchise to the OC, CA.

I understand that the metro population is about 1.7 million in the area and is larger than than Oak City or Memphis. But I find it difficult to believe that there is enough money in that media market Comcast can make a decent return on the broadcast rights to pay for a 350M or an arena and then pay the team for media rights (the number I remember reading is right now the Maloof's make 10M a year in Sactown).

Which means the government will need to kick some money in. Which leads to the issue of which government(s)? My understanding is that there is no comprehensive governing body for the area. In Virginia cities are separate entities and not part of a county but instead basically a separate county. Would one city in the area step forward- as the City of Sacramento tried to do- and finance the whole thing or would a regional approach be needed?

I read an article where someone said the state would have to assist. Short of a special session then financing would have to wait until the next legislative session. I just don't see this all coming together this week.

 

Wow

Wow, great insights there. I remember visiting the Truman Sports Complex years ago and thinking it was the nicest I had ever seen. To have separate, side by side stadiums for baseball and football was almost unheard of in the 70s.

I know back then the hip trend was to abandon the inner cities for the upper middle class suburbs. I wonder if there has been much noise made about new stadiums, although I can't fathom why they would need one.

So I guess pro sports, especially the NBA, sort of outgrew what Kansas City could afford. Well, they're not alone there. I wonder if there's a big enough base to support an NHL or NBA team now.

As for Virginia Beach, never been there, so I can't say. They weren't really on my short list of potential franchise homes, but if they can make it work, more power to them.

 

I've been to one Royals game. Like exmediahack said, it's in the middle of what used to be suburbia, but the neighborhood has blighted out.

Unlike County Stadium/Miller Park, I didn't get the vibe the Royals' fans tailgaited, which is how Milwaukee fans made their non-descript stadium site all their own. Milwaukee is the only place I can think of where a downtown stadium would be a detriment because the tailgaiting culture is so interwoven into the Brewers' game experience.

Perhaps it is in K.C. too, like I said, I've only been once. But I didn't sense it.

Kauffman Stadium is pretty awesome though. One of my favorites.

And I do get the sense that the minute the Royals ever turn it around fan interest there will explode, just as it did in Milwaukee when the Brewers finally got their act together.

 

I come with an unusual perspective on this as I grew up in KC but, from the travels of my college and post-college years, I probably attended about 50 Brewer games in my life. Fully agree on all of this.

Tailgating culture in Kansas City is weird. YES to Chiefs tailgating (with BBQ) but not for Royals games. Heck, fans in Wisconsin would tailgate for Women's Pro League Soccer. </crossthread>. Okay, maybe not.

I simply think Kansas City was the BEST at building stadiums and arenas in an era that is no longer valid but, in 1969, the Truman Sports Complex was in an ideal spot on the MISSOURI side. Yet, in the 40 years since, almost all of the money moved west but the stadiums couldn't move with the money.

 

Royals attendance was consistently above AL average from 1975-1990 (often near the top). Similar to Kings attendance in the NBA from 1990-2005.

When the fans realize the owners don't give a shit and have no interest or desire in fielding a winning team, they quit coming out.

There's no reason KC can't support MLB (and NBA for that matter) and Sacramento the NBA -- except for shit ownership.

Simple as that.

They move to Virginia, they'll fuck that up too soon enough. As soon as they bleed out the big profits of the first few seasons.

They'll drain another corpse dry, then head off somewhere else.

 

Time for Brimingham to get in the mix as a small market that can't support a team.

 

Many thanks for all the Kansas City insights, exmediahack. Would be curious if you've stayed in touch with any of those Kings players, particularly Scott W., Sam Lacey and Larry Drew. Again, good stuff.

"Stay tuned after the game for Neil Funk and the Fifth Quarter."

 

So far, NBA Birmingham only exists as a delusional Twitter account.

 

There was a bit of noise for building a downtown baseball stadium a while back before it was decided to renovate both Kauffman and Arrowhead instead. The stadiums hold up incredibly well now but I guess there wasn't that "build a destination center around it" mentality at the time like there was with, say Coors Field or, on the KCK side, the Legends around the speedway, the T-Bones' stadium and Livestrong Sporting Park. Most of the money in the metro is on the Kansas side and the original idea for the Wizards/Sporting KC stadium was to build it in Johnson County, where most of the money on the Kansas side it, rather than Wyandotte County. There was even talk of a small events center in Olathe for a while that would have been good for minor-league sports and smaller concerts (similar to what ended up being built in Independence).

 

Given when they were built, it seems like the football and baseball stadiums in Kansas City have aged remarkably well. Kaufmann Stadium is still in my top five among Major League parks, even if the home team stinks.

 

Well, the KC stadiums were the newest sport-specific stadiums built for some time in the 1970s, as opposed to multipurpose ashtray-style stadiums and domes.

When the next big wave of stadium construction began in the 1990s, the separate-stadium arrangement became the rule.

 

The Bee had an interesting column that basically said that nobody knows if there is any truth to this and the Maloofs aren't talking.

So who the hell knows?