Andy Furillo: Golden 1 Center? If you pay to park, you own the joint
Janis Hawkins dug around in her car for quarters to feed the meter Wednesday, and Sean Eichelkraut waited for an app to download on his cellphone so he could pay to park. Two different people from two different worlds, the Oakland woman and the Sacramento man shared one thing in common – their stake in the Kings.
Like it or not, if you pay to park a car in the city of Sacramento, you have a stake, too. We’re all on the hook through our parking spots for about a fourth of the $272.9 million the city laid out as its obligation to build the $507 million Golden 1 Center. As unwitting investors, it’s important that we make sure our partners in charge of basketball get things figured out by the time they move into our arena next year.
Over the 35-year life of the bonds, our bill will have come to $147 million, or enough to pay the 2050 salary of a backup point guard. Hopefully, he, or she, will be able to defend the three-ball.
Most of us hoped the Kings would have the basketball end of things figured out by the time we give them the keys to our arena. It appears that won’t happen. They still go through a coach a year, sometimes more. They nearly fired another last week. Our players too often lack energy and inspiration. Right now, it’s odds-on that our tenants will move into Golden 1 riding a streak of 10 consecutive losing seasons.
It used to be we could just blame the Maloofs. Now, the Kings are our responsibility, and it’s up to us to demand accountability, to make sure we are heard.
“Oh yeah, anybody who lives in Sacramento should have a voice, everyone who’s got to come downtown for personal affairs and things,” said Eichelkraut, 36, a state computer programmer and Sacramento resident, as well as a Kings season-ticket holder. “The arena is owned by the city.”
Hawkins, 54, lives in Oakland and roots for the Golden State Warriors, but she made her investment in the Kings’ future when she drove over from the East Bay to check up on someone in court.
“It’s expensive,” she said, while putting money into the meter across I Street from City Hall. “I mean I’ve been here since 9 o’clock this morning, and I’ve spent $3. And I’m going to be here another two hours.”
Talk about whales – the term Mayor Kevin Johnson used when he was looking to gaff big-moneyed investors to save the Kings from Seattle. It turns out we are the big fish. And we’re gaining weight, and leverage, now that the city has jacked up the meters to $1.75-an-hour.
Our influence will only increase when the “dynamic” parking price model kicks in, at rates that will get your attention even if you’re in for multiple dinner courses at the Grange and can pay for them on your cellphone.
The Sacramento City Council voted us into our landlord’s position, which was cool. That’s the way a republican democracy works. Now it’s up to us to lean on them to ensure our voices are heard to turn the Kings into winners in our building. A municipal Department of Kings Affairs appears to be in order, as well as a subcommittee on basketball oversight.
In the good old days of $1.25-an-hour street parking, we didn’t mind it so much when the Kings burned through coaches or missed on their draft picks. It was really none of our business that they passed on three-fifths of the current Warriors’ starting lineup – Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green – or that they could have chosen alternatives such as DeMar DeRozan, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Damian Lillard and/or Andre Drummond.Andy Furillo: Golden 1 Center? If you pay to park, you own the joint | The Sacramento Bee: