City Council Approves New Downtown Arena

At its meeting Tuesday night, the city council voted 7-2 in favor of the the $477 million arena we've heard so much about.

Councilmembers Fong and McCarty voted against the arena deal.

The council voted on an agreement that commits $255 million in public money to the $477 million arena project at the  Downtown Plaza, most of that money will be backed by city parking revenue.

The financial terms, along with development and design agreements and the project's environmental review were all approved.

With the "go ahead," the Downtown Plaza could see the wrecking ball as early as this week.

"We have work to do, so the process will begin as soon as we possibly can," Kings President Chris Granger said.

Mayor Kevin Johnson and Kings Owner Vivek Ranadive have a news conference planned following the council meeting tonight. In anticipation of tonight's vote, a giant party was thrown -- a rally at city hall starting at 2:30, with live streaming of the council meeting at 6 p.m. on giant screens.

City Council Approves New Downtown Arena - 2 by JamesRojas

This was not your usual council meeting, you needed a ticket just to get inside the chambers and the meeting lasted past 10:30 p.m. Not everyone was in favor of the new arena. At least two community groups were raising their concerns prior to the meeting.

Eye on Sacramento, an activist group, issued a statement that claims the voters of Sacramento have been denied their Constitutional rights to vote on Sacramento's issuance of $300 million dollars worth of bonds to fund the arena project.

City Council Approves New Downtown Arena - 3 by JamesRojas

Also, the College/Glen Neighborhood Association is requesting that 50 percent of all net parking revenue generated by the new arena be generated to ambulance, fire and police services and that a minimum of 500 affordable community seats be set aside for all public arena events.