The group made its presentation to the Sacramento Region
Builders Exchange, trying to drum up support for a downtown arena
while trumpeting the attendance numbers and lack of competing
professional sports franchises.
In a head-to-head comparison of the Sonics final 23 seasons in
Seattle, Think Big Executive Director Kunal Merchant told the three
dozen builders and media that the Kings had better attendance rates
in 20 of those years despite the fact Sacramento had only seven
winning seasons -compared to 16 for Seattle.
Merchant then unveiled a new measurement for identifying
television and radio audience strength designed to turn a perceived
weakness into a strength. Based on the number of people in
every National Basketball Association city divided by the number of
major professional sports teams in that city, Sacramento vaults
from a top-30 television and radio market to being the
second-ranked television market and the top-ranked radio
market.
Former executive director Chris Lehane also put a
mostly-positive spin on what is a pending bid for the team that
would compete with the bids made by Seattle investors
Hansen/Ballmer and the one by Mark Mastrov as part of a Sacramento
bid. Lehane called a second Sacramento bid a tremendous challenge
to the City, while describing the economic impacts of an arena at
Natomas and one at the Downtown Plaza as being apples and
oranges.
Think Big promises more studies and community outreach in the
coming weeks leading up to at least one vote in late March -likely
the 26th- by the City Council on an arena construction term sheet
with Ron Burkle.
Mayor Johnson told Capital Public Radio Wednesday a Sacramento
group could be asked to make a presentation before the NBA as soon
as late March -in advance of a presentation April 18 or 19 in New
York.
