So Long Kings?
From June 2005
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Impact would be felt, but not fatal
By Michael J. Marando
No doubt about it, the Sacramento Kings have been the hottest ticket in the Sacramento Metro Market for the past 20 years and Kings fans are generally regarded as the best in the National Basketball Association. But as the NBA wraps another year, a new season of the Kings versus their hometown is just beginning.Any time the Kings play at Arco Arena, nightly sales receipts at Joey B’s in downtown Sacramento go up at least 20 percent. On average, customers spend about $50 per person in food and beverage at the local restaurant and sports bar. In fact, during happy hour, elbowroom is at a premium anywhere near the bar’s five 60-inch high-definition screens.
“Our busiest nights,” says assistant general manager Julie Reynolds, “are when the Kings are playing at home. It’s pretty packed.”
Tom Fewer, general manager at Legends and Heroes Sports Bar in Roseville, isn’t so upbeat. The more the Kings are seen on television, the fewer people come in to see the games.
“Three or four years ago, when the Kings were on TV sporadically, we were packed on game nights,” he says. “We’ve been hit pretty hard, especially this year.” But despite the drop-off in business, he sees the Kings as a definite benefit to the region.
Reynolds and Fewer are microcosm of what’s happening all over the Sacramento Metro Market. As a community and business leaders grapple with ongoing efforts to build a new home for the locals’ beloved Kings, the question they face is how does the obsession translate into economic benefits to the region?
One way to pulse the impact and valuate a new arena investment is to imagine the region without the team. Set the countless consultants aside and speculate: What would be the tangible and intangible effects of a Kings/Sacramento breakup? A region in grief or preoccupied with other concerns?
Continued...
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