Sacramento Kings Moving: Interest from AEG Will Help Kings Stay in Sacramento

The city of Sacramento has some very good friends in their corner on their quest to keep their Kings in the capital of California.

Massive arena and stadium operator Anschutz Entertainment Group confirmed last week that they would be interested in hearing from Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento and the man spearheading the project to keep the basketball team.

According to the Sacramento Bee, AEG spokesman Michael Roth said,

"We have made the mayor aware that…any assistance he would like to ask us for, we would be interested.”

The company is no stranger to big stadium ventures in the California area.

AEG operates the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles and is planning the construction of Farmers Field, the $1 billion-plus project to bring a modern football stadium to L.A. as well.

They also could be counted upon to front money for the project and, in turn, receive revenues for operating the stadium after it starts raking in money.

AEG did the same with the Sprint Center in Kansas City a few years back and fronted $53 million in exchange for a fixed percentage of profit.

That is definitely a positive sign because the city needs to come up with $387 million to build the planned Entertainment and Sports Complex by March 1st of 2012 to meet the NBA imposed deadline.

December 30th is the date that the mayor has set for the city, which is well ahead of schedule, but something that he feels is more realistic to meet and will put pressure on his council to get things pushed through.

He seems optimistic that AEG will get involved with them and become a big proponent towards getting the financing and stadium deals in place.

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"Sacramento deserves the best, and AEG represents exactly that," the mayor said in an email to The Bee. "Bringing on AEG would…guarantee our new entertainment and sports complex is developed and operated in truly world-class fashion."

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