by Jerry Feitelberg

SACRAMENTO–Opponents against the subsidy for the Sacramento Kings new arena at Downtown Plaza are holding tough with their lawsuit claiming the City of Sacramento over subsidized their payment to help construction for the new arena for the Sacramento Kings. The lawsuit was filed because the city overpaid their claim of $255 million as the opponents filed a “secret subsidy” lawsuit.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley who overruled previous lawsuits by oppnents has kept most of this lawsuit intact although he had knocked out part of the suit. A December hearing was scheduled to hear further arguments in the case which was filed by three arena opponents Issac Gonzalez, James Cathcart, and Julian Camacho.

The opponents said the city overpaid the Kings in the tens of millions, the trio said that the secret subsidies are “illegal and wasteful” and said that the City Council was irresponsible and they represent “abuse and discretion.” The opponents also plan to challenge the bonds the city plans to use to help finance the public subsidy.

The city and Kings have already started construction at Downtown Plaza which started in August, a great portion of the plaza has been torn apart and small businesses have stated that they remained but have moved out of the plaza due to a lack of foot traffic. Yummy Yogart moved out ten days ago as the owner said that with a lack of foot traffic and overhead it wasn’t worth staying.

River City Brewery a long time tenant at the plaza said that the large space and lack of customers were killing business and that neither the Kings or the city has invited the 21 year old tenant to stay at the plaza once the arena gets up and running, “nobody has reached out and said to us, ‘we want you to stay we want you to be part of the arena’ Beth Ayers co-owner of River City who spoke to the Sacramento Bee.

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