$1.2 billion for a basketball arena...

From an e-alert from the Sacramento Bee:

Accord reached on new arena for Kings

Negotiators for the city and county of Sacramento have finalized a deal with the Maloof family to finance a new arena for the Sacramento Kings.

The financing package would rely on voter approval of a new quarter-cent sales tax that would produce about $1.2 billion, sources said. Important details, such as the Maloofs' contribution to the deal, have not yet been released.

I had been meaning to write about this. They've run a number of articles about the groundswell of support for this. I don't understand putting that much money into watching a bunch of guys run around in logoed laundry.... And it makes you appreciate Abe Pollin for putting up his own money to build the arena now monikered as Verizon Center (although he was forced to do this by a counter-proposal put forward by Robert Johnson).

What could a city do with $1.2 billion?

Today's City Paper reports in the Show and Tell column that DC's Cultural Development Corporation has offered $500,000 to buy the Source Theater to keep it operating as a theater, and there is another offer on the table to pay $2.9 million, leaving the Source a profit, "working capital" to use to remain in the theater business. (The Post had a story about this a couple weeks ago, but it didn't disclose the amounts.)

Doesn't seem like an even trade. And it seems, despite the good faith, that the keep the theater operating contingent will lose.

Yet if the City of Washington had an open and transparent process for Cultural Facilties Fund, what a difference that could make. Instead, our priorities are clear. See "Cultural Facilities Fund is an opportunity for arts organizations" from the Boston Globe, about the creation of a $15 million state fund to support the arts.

DC spends more money on the arts. It's just how we spend it. And the lack of an open and transparent and critically reviewed application process.

Also see "New group making appeals to S.A. companies, workers" from the San Antonio Express-News about the development of "theFund" a united arts organization that:

raised more than $215,000 in its inaugural 2005 campaign. The money is being disbursed this month to assist with administrative expenses at 24 local nonprofit organizations.

(Photo by John Davenport/Express-News) Employees of Bjorn's Audio Video watch a presentation last week about theFund, a united arts organization that raises money for local nonprofit arts groups. It raised more than $215,000 in its inaugural campaign last year.

Index Keywords: stadiums-arenas; arts-culture