Marcos Breton: Kings arena forces are finally pulling together

For the first time in years of failed tries to build a new sports arena in Sacramento, the parties involved are actually working together.

They are steering clear of lobbing verbal bombs at each other, presenting a unified front – and that's the only way an arena will ever get built in this town.

Does Friday's announcement of an NBA/Sacramento peace offering mean a new arena one day will rise on the Cal Expo fairgrounds? Maybe, maybe not. But that's a lot better than no way.

For years, every time a new arena plan was unveiled, it ended up in the no-way scrap heap. Sacramento is a tough city when it comes to building a sports facility. Voters here are hostile to taxes for private sports facilities. And California does not open the vaults for the inevitable arena cash shortfalls.

Absent those funding streams, past arena deals were left for local governments and the Kings owners to figure out.

Yeah, that didn't go very well. (No need to rehash years of heated words, fumbled plans and political stink bombs).

What matters now is that Sacramento is the opposite of Seattle, where city leaders practically dared the local NBA team to leave.

"We met with the mayor (of Sacramento), she said she'd love to be helpful. We met with the county, they said they'd love to be helpful. We met with the governor, he said he'd love to be helpful," NBA Commissioner David Stern said Friday.

"They are prudently supportive of something intelligent and for the benefit of taxpayers."

Stern plans to return to Sacramento on May 21 – even as the NBA playoffs are reaching a critical stage – to push the idea of a Cal Expo arena.

On that day, the Cal Expo board of directors will vote on whether to approve a letter of understanding, which basically says that the NBA and Cal Expo will work together to get an arena built.

Even if passed, the document will not be legally binding. And it does not address the biggest obstacle: How do you pay for an arena without a new tax?

The letter sets a six-month deadline to get an arena deal done. If the two sides are nowhere in six months, that could be that.

Still, what's important here is that this arena process looks to be a straight business deal and not a political time bomb. It's all about whether building an arena would make fiscal sense for the NBA and for Cal Expo.

Does it pencil out or not?

"The lesson learned from contentious efforts of the past is that if you try to negotiate something all one way, you're not going to get a deal," said former California Gov. Pete Wilson, lead negotiator for Cal Expo on this deal.

The feeling locally was that past deals were stacked in favor of the Kings owners, and that bred hostility.

Wilson is as tough as they come. He is not given to faint praise, but he did say the NBA is showing a willingness to work with local officials to make something happen.

That's half the battle right there. But as Wilson said, that doesn't guarantee anything.

"Let me be absolutely candid, it may not be possible," he said.

The NBA and Cal Expo have to find a developer who believes he can make a project work financially – during a horrible economic downturn.

It's a steep mountain, but at least the climbers are pulling in the same direction.

About the writer:

• Reach Marcos Bretón at (916) 321-1096. Watch him at 6:15 a.m. Wednesdays on News 10. Listen to him at 7:40 a.m. Wednesdays on NewsTalk 1530 KFBK. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/breton.