The Stigma Of Sacramento: A King Size Issue

I have lived in the Sacramento area my entire life. It wasn't until I turned 21 that I could truly appreciate what this city has to offer though.

I hated living in the suburbs, yearning for a life in a city like San Francisco, and complaining about how there is nothing to do and how boring life is in the 'burbs.

The truth is, Sacramento is not a bad place to live. At all.

Its actually a fine place to live. It is an ear shot away from a variety of cities, activities and many other attractions that people travel to. In fact, many people will travel to the Sacramento area to stay here and drive to places like Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Reno.

The problem with Sacramento is that it is overshadowed by so many great cities in California that it often does not get the credit it is due. It may not be an incredibly exciting city or fast paced with sky scrapers and crawling with celebrities, but it is a damn fine place to live.

Regardless of any bad things someone has to say about it, its a great city. It has an array of upscale restaurants, a fun night life and a cool downtown area that is very much underrated.

Because Sacramento is not a big market, the Kings, and ultimately its fans, suffer.

In an article by John Hollinger from ESPN, the Kings are listed 28th out of 30 cities for its market. That is just in front of The Timberwolves and Grizzlies and one behind the Bobcats.

Sacramento just does not draw anything close to the attention of places with glits and glam like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, and Phoenix to name a few. Since the lock out season of 1999, the Kings have signed only one significant free agent, Vlade Divac, and many at the time thought he was at the end of his career.

Sure, they signed Scot Pollard and Bobby Jackson as well, but both of these players were relatively unknown before coming to Sacramento and just happened to pan out and turned out to be just what those teams needed.

The point I'm trying to make is the likelihood of the Kings signing any of the top free agents this offseason is highly unlikely. 

Its not even worth mentioning the players available, most people know who they are already and the teams they are considering. Hell, even the Clippers have a blip of a chance to sign someone!

But not Sactown, even with Tyreke Evans and a group of players with lots of potential, it is not a place many will come play. And in the end maybe the Kings will land a player via trade, as they did it in the past. Thats how they got Chris Webber, Doug Christie, Mike Bibby, Brad Miller, and Ron Artest. 

There could be some ways to get players worth a damn to come play in Sacramento. Here are a couple of them.

1. New Arena 

There is a nifty proposed land swap between the state and some private investors that would land the Kings in downtown which could be the spark for a real night life. The state gets Arco Arena, the private investors get Cal Expo to revamp the dated fair grounds for potentially a shopping center with housing. 

The idea has some real moxy, the question is whether this proposed deal will ever come to fruition. Its a great idea and there is some sort of general agreement between the three parties. If this happens the Kings will have a new arena, the state of California has new fair grounds and the current fair grounds are redeveloped. 

One can only hope this deal will go down soon. Or the Kings will only have a less and less desirable place to play each passing year and the threat of the Maloofs packing up and leaving becomes more and more evident.

2. Clubs/Bars Open Later

Anyone familiar with the night life here knows that last call is around 1:30-1:45. Most places in LA close around 3am - 4am. Some are probably open even later. The fact of the matter is that the later places are open the more likely people are to go out. 

The later places are open, the higher the revenue for these bars and the increase will follow for late night dining establishments as well as cab services and many other things that are connected to having bars and clubs that are open later. 

Having a legitimate nightlife will only make the downtown area stronger and more appealing. The amount of DUI arrests will probably increase as well, but that should be expected. 

I'm not a social scientist or anything of the sort, merely a man making an observation. 

3. Higher End Hotels

If there are better places to stay, the increase in quality performing acts will likely increase and the possibility of hosting an All-Star game would be much greater. There are great places to stay in Sac, the Hilton is very nice, but that is about as nice as it gets. 

The press needs a place to stay, and they will most likely want to stay somewhere better than Motel 6. Nothing against Motel 6, but it not exactly the Ritz. People are not drawn to modest economically friendly places to stay when making a trip for a star studded event like an All-Star game. Flashy and gaudy always wins out in that situation.

Sacramento has some work to do. If that arena is built in downtown, legitimacy will be established and the area will have something to hold onto other than being the state capital.