The arena that will house National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Sacramento Kings is undergoing concrete pours that will help reinforce the structure and help update it for the future. The concrete pour will occur Friday, February 6, 2015, with others scheduled throughout the month. These concrete pours will make up the barrier of the site at the bottom, with this pour being the second done for the project.
Other projects included this week at the site of the arena focused on installation of vaults for utilities below the concrete pour, along with micro pile-drilling. The new arena broke ground in downtown Sacramento in October 2014. The $477 million project will be available – if on time – for the 2016-2017 basketball season. As of today, the arena is on schedule to open
60 employees, and more than 600 total workers, will help finish the new arena. More than 60 percent of workers on the project are based locally.The Kings’ new arena has been in the making for over two decades, with the team, NBA and city officials fighting for a new place for the team to play. More than 80,000 tons of concrete have been hauled away since the demolition of the grounds around where the new arena will be erected. 4,000 tons of steel have also been part of that clean-up effort.
Formwork, reinforcement, waterproofing and rebar installation have been on-going between concrete pours to ensure the foundation and structure is sound. This state of the art arena will be able to host more than just basketball, which the city is hoping for. Concerts, conventions and other events, potentially even hockey, could be played or hosted at the site in the future.
Many cities focus, fundraise, and fight for new arenas and stadiums for their sports teams much like Sacramento did for the Kings. New stadiums and arenas help get the community excited for their sports teams, which then drives revenue in for the teams and the city. Since many cities rely on this revenue as a way to boost all sorts of improvement and publicly funded projects, these stadiums and arenas help in more ways that just allowing a team to play in the best place possible.