There are 19 days until Seattle's bidders and Sacramento's
bidders for the Sacramento Kings go to New York and make their case
before a National Basketball Association committee.
Seattle's Chris Hansen/Steve Ballmer group got the jump on
Sacramento in terms of making the first bid for the Kings and
-according to NBA Commissioner David Stern- making the biggest
bid.
But, Sacramento's grass roots efforts with the Here We Stay
group that morphed into the Here We Buy group that has morphed into
the Crown Downtown group has the upper hand in community outreach
and promised ticket sales. Herewebuy.org claims $24 million in pledged
ticket sales.
Thursday, the Seattle answer, sonicsarena.com opened up a
waiting list for fans who want tickets. The site crashed,
which might qualify for the perfect definition for irony
considering Microsoft founder Steve Ballmer is the other half of
the Seattle investor group.
But Hansen says the site meltdown was just a sign of how hot
desire is for tickets, "the first day clearly blew away our
expectations" is posted on the website along with a promise to
reveal after April 1 how many people signed up. April 3 is when the
NBA Committee will meet with both Seattle and Sacramento
groups.
The Seattle site also has new pictures of how a new arena
would look when turned into a hockey arena. Hansen says, "We
have designed the seats behind the backboard/goal to retract
backwards and the first few rows of courtside seating can be
removed to accommodate hockey's larger playing surface and dasher
board."
The City of Sacramento sent out a notice this week asking for
community reaction to the drawings and plans it hopes to release
March 21.
The Sacramento City Council will be asked to approve a term
sheet for the project on March 26th.
Artist's rendition of the new Seattle arena.
Photo: sonicsarena.com
