A Night To Remember

I've stayed away from talking about the possible relocation talk of my beloved Sacramento Kings on this blog lately because I've been in a state of denial. When your favorite team is threatening to move you'll also be in a state of shock/denial.

Through an organic movement on the Internet Kings fans decided to rally through the "Here We Stay" rallying cry. There was two goals when fans were asked to sell out last night's Kings-Clippers game: To show the Maloofs we still care about this team and to send a message to the city politicians to quit bickering over the location/money of the new arena and just build the damn thing.

Sacramento needs a new arena. Arco is outdated. The NCAA tournament refuses to come back to Sacramento until a new arena is built. And this is what people who doesn't want Sacramento to build a new arena knows. Without a new arena, the city of Sacramento loses big time off of taxes provided by 41 Kings games a year and other events that come to Sacramento throughout the year. I didn't understand this until the NCAA tournament said they weren't coming back to Sacramento until a new arena was built. As a city we not only need the Kings, but also need a new venue.

The Kings were also celebrating an end of an era. Arco, which was one of the first corporate sponsors of a sporting venue and the longtime arena naming rights sponsor of the Kings, will no longer hold the naming rights of the Kings arena. The Kings arena will now be called Power Balance Pavilion. No joke, our current arena is named after a bracelet.

All these factors coming together and we have a night I'll always remember. Arco thunder returned last night as the Kings rallied in the fourth quarter behind Marcus Thornton to defeat the Clippers. Thornton finished the night with 29 points off the bench along with two assists. One of Thornton's assists to Omri Casspi reminded the NBA that Sacramento still has the loudest fans in the NBA.



February 28, 2011 will be a night I'll always remember. Will it be enough to keep the Kings in Sacramento? Of course not. The Kings still need a new arena and all of that has to be worked out between the Maloofs/Sacramento city council/developers. This night though served the purpose of showing the Maloofs and the city council that we still care.