Go already

Former Mayor Heather Fargo worried for eight years that the Sacramento Kings would leave on her watch. Kevin Johnson may manage to lose them in just two.

Remember that candidate Kevin Johnson blamed Fargo for the lack of a new Kings facility. “If you had strong leadership, we would have a new arena here already, in my estimation,” he told The Sacramento Bee in 2008.

Bites has to assume that either the leadership never arrived or that the problem was just a little more complicated than Johnson thought.

Today, the mayor has taken a more pugnacious approach, saying “We deserve better” than to be dumped by one of the NBA’s worst teams.

But much of the Here We Stay movement isn’t so dignified.

Some Sacramentans are taking a stand against this shabby treatment—by trying to make sure the remaining Kings home games are sold-out. Yes, let’s make sure the Maloof’s snatch every bit of our money as possible, on their way out the door. That’ll show ’em. Better grab another $8 beer while you still can, Kings fans. You’re going to need it.

A lot is made of how much economic activity the Kings generate. But as CSUS economist Rob Wassmer has pointed out, people with disposable income to go to a Kings game are likely to spend their money on some other diversion—like dinner and a movie.

Sure, the businesses around Arco are going to get hurt. But the city was ready to screw Natomas out of its arena anyway—insisting that most-favored developer David Taylor take the lead on (maybe) developing a downtown sports and entertainment facility.

Beware also the argument that it’s “not about the Kings,” or that we need to have a new arena built even if the team leaves—so we can attract Prince concerts or whatever super-sized corporate spectacle we’re supposed to be missing out on.

It seems more likely to Bites that it’s the size of the market, not the lack of fancy new facilities, that determines what acts come to town and which take a pass. We don’t get new films at the same time as New York City and San Francisco. Should we build shiny new movie theaters?

And let’s say we are missing the mother lode of arena rock. “If everybody really wants to see those acts, you would think there ought to be a market for privately funding such a facility,” says Wassmer.

Bites recognizes that the Kings leaving would sting for some. “You can’t make the argument on the economic effect. The psychological effect is another thing,” says Wassmer.

The good thing about the psychological effect is that it’s all in your head. Bites recommends therapy. This could be a great opportunity for Sacramento to figure out, with some honest reflection, what is really important.

If Sacramento needs someone to talk to, how about Richard Florida, urban theorist and author of The Rise of the Creative Class and Who’s Your City?

A while back, Florida ranked Sacramento as one of the nation’s most creative towns—owing to our social tolerance, our technological savvy and the number of people engaged in creative occupations.

In his research for the first book, he wrote, “Not once … did any member of the Creative Class mention professional sports as playing a role of any sort in their choice of where to live and work.” Yet policy makers fawn over teams in manner way out of proportion to their actual importance.

“Why are most civic leaders unable even to imagine devoting those kind of resources or political will to pursue the things that really matter to their economic future or to people?” Florida asks.

Time to start imagining.