Right now, there is no visible indication More teams will be headed to the California capital.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg wants more big-league sports teams in his city. Presently, only the National Basketball Association’s Kings franchise is the only major league franchise that calls Sacramento home. But Steinberg is hopeful that the 20th biggest American television market will be able to perhaps get a Major League Soccer franchise or a Major League Baseball team. It is unlikely that Sacramento can land a National Hockey League team for the same reason that Phoenix and Brooklyn failed. The arena was built for basketball not hockey and that, of course, limits the number of events that the city-owned building can have. Sacramento officials want a chance at getting a Major League Baseball franchise and a Major League Soccer team. Sacramento was awarded an MLS expansion franchise in October 2019. But Ron Burkle, who would have provided a significant chunk of the expansion fee dollars and stadium construction money, backed out of the ownership group and eventually MSL owners pulled out of Sacramento.
“The people of Sacramento are hungry for more,” Steinberg told The Sacramento Bee newspaper. “Being a great city and building a great city is about creating more opportunities for joy or opportunities for people to come together. We want more sports and we want more professional sports franchises. Absolutely. The question is how to attract more major league sports in a way that is compatible with a limited city budget, a stressed city budget, and the rightful public insistence that we don’t use city general fund money to make it happen.” That is a problem that sports franchise owners and elected officials are facing. Getting public money for a venue that will be used by a private business. In Sacramento there is another problem. Finding potential owners. There could be a soccer stadium on the horizon but MLB and NHL teams aren’t coming to Sacramento.
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