Sacto Gets Creative

The Sacramento, Calif., city council has come up with a different way to finance a new downtown sports arena – by soliciting businesses interested in leasing the city’s parking operations.

The potential revenue from such a deal could be as much as $200 million that would go towards the new basketball facility that is expected to cost at least $406 million, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The council is working to secure the rest of the funding and come up with a full plan by the March 1 deadline set by the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

The team has already indicated it would look elsewhere for new digs if the deadline isn’t met. City officials, the NBA, development group ICON/Taylor and its partner AEG met in October for a preliminary discussion on how to get the arena built.