by Jerry Feitelberg

The Sacramento City Council will decide on approving plans for a new downtown arena at Downtown Plaza mall on Tuesday night at Sacramento City Hall. The mall is now currently vacant with former merchants who moved out in preparation of construction to tear down old retail buildings in place of the new Sacramento Kings arena but first a vote must take place and it all gets underway on Tuesday night.

The Kings and the city plan to spend upwards to $90 million in the next five months on reconfiguring the mall for the arena. Once the vote has been finalized on Tuesday night the Kings plan to start work at the mall on Wednesday by intitially turning off the water and electricity at the east end of the mall.

The total cost of the arena development is estimated at $477 million with major demolition starting in July. Although the Kings have spent almost half the costs towards the arena the property will be owned by the city. The City is in for $255 million of the costs and the Kings share is $222 million.

$16 million of the land is going to be transferred to the city from the Kings, while the city will own the land the Kings will run the arena and the corporate enterprise of the Kings basketball business, according to Sacramento City Assistant Manager John Dangberg.

The Kings according to the agreement that will be submitted to the City Council on Tuesday night will receive a interest free loan of $12 million that will cover various permits that are required by the city. The parcel land that was Macy’s Men’s store near the Holiday Inn that sits near the middle of Old Sacramento and the mall will be demo’d and the team is expected to spend around $4.3 million on the Macy’s building that was forced into sale through eminent domain.

The City Council made one change in the financial figures that must be approved, the city is expected to approve a ten day waiting requirment because the agreement is in excess of $1 million. Danberg believes he has enough votes from the city council to get the ten day waiver. If the council does not vote to approve the ten day requirment then the project will still move forward and the one change on the agreement will be delayed according to Dangberg.

The City Council will hear all arguments for and against the new arena on Tuesday at City Hall and that seating for the Council meeting will allow 200 capacity in the chambers and overflow for the meeting will be seated outside of the building located on the second level at Old City Hall short circuit TV will allow the overflow crowd to view the meeting. The city will make sure that fair access to tickets to the meeting will be allotted to both parties for and against the project.

A vote will be taken after both sides have finished speaking at which the vote results will be announced. It’s expected that the City Council will vote overwhelmingly in favor of the arena.

Jerry Feiltelberg is covering the new arena developments of the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com