The Sacramento Metro Chamber believes that California’s Capital Region deserves world-class amenities and encourages the Cal Expo Board to continue exploring a National Basketball Association arena on the state fairgrounds site.

Metro Chamber President & CEO Matt Mahood said a national sports franchise team, a world-class sports and entertainment facility, and meeting and exhibit space are the kinds of amenities that will benefit the region’s economic prosperity, in comments at the Feb. 27 Cal Expo Board announcement.

“If the city of Sacramento is going to be a world-class city, we need world-class amenities,” Mahood said, adding that despite current economic conditions, the region must plan for the future. “We need to position the Sacramento region now for the future economic growth that will eventually return.”

Since 2002, the Metro Chamber has had significant involvement in the new arena discussions. In 2004, the Metro Chamber initiated an Arena Task Force made up of business and community leaders.

In short, task force findings were:

• The Sacramento Kings are an important regional asset, and the business community wants and needs to keep them.
• ARCO Arena is obsolete and needs to be replaced as soon as possible.
• Some level of public funding may be required and is appropriate.
• The new facility should serve as a catalyst of some larger smart growth project.

“The project described today meets many of the criteria outlined in our 2004 findings, which still hold true in 2009,” Mahood said.