A pretty rad hashtag campaign blew up late Monday as Kings fans and Sacramento residents present reasons that the Sacramento City Council should "#SayYes" to the parking plan item on Tuesday's City Council agenda. The item to be voted on Tuesday would winnow down the list of qualified bidders for the parking contract and essentially kick-start the bid process on that end. In two weeks, the council would be expected to come back with a deal to be approved.

Let's hear your #SayYes reasons in the comments. We'll tweet some of them out from @sactownroyalty, which you should definitely follow if you are on Twitter and love liberty.

Bumped. This is important. Send your letters if you have not already. -- TZ

We showed the world why Sacramento deserves to keep our Kings. Now let's show the City Council how important this is to us outside the arena.

Below the jump we have a sample letter that we are encouraging everyone to send to the members of the Sacramento City Council, four of whom voted this week to essentially kill the progress, and all of whom will be making critical votes on critical components in the coming weeks. Staff will soon be recommending negotiations with parking operators, and hopefully, a term sheet with one bidder. We need 'yes' votes. That 5-4 vote this week? Way, way too close for comfort. That was damn near the Horry Shot. We need a Bibby Shot to get back, and we need to hit our free throws. (I'm stretching, right? I'm tired.)

Whether you live in Sacramento or Timbuktu, you are here because you are a Sacramento Kings fan. Please help this push to let the Council know that this is important. The sample letter -- which you should absolutely feel free to personalize -- and the email addresses are below the jump.

Let's get loud again.

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As we all know by now, during the TNT broadcast of Kings-Thunder on Thursday -- while many of us were screaming our heads off inside the gym -- Cheryl Miller, Reggie Miller and then Chris Webber misstated some facts about last week's City Council vote to deny a public vote on the parking revenue funding plan. Kevin Johnson tried to correct them, and Webber ended up seeming legitimately confused, but if you were an NBA fan watching the telecast with no knowledge of the actual situation here, you would likely have walked away believing that it was a done deal: the Kings were leaving Sacramento.

We know that's not true. There are a series of votes coming up that will determine whether the funding plan is workable, and negotiations with the league and AEG continue to round out the full menu of financing. The vote last Tuesday was narrowly a positive: the gasps came from the narrow margin, not the result itself. That's what Webber, Miller and their producers missed.

But here's the thing: it doesn't matter.

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Tonight the Sacramento Kings will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder before millions of viewers nationwide tuned in to TNT. Hopefully, you'll be among the 17,317 in the building. (Get tickets now if you don't have them. 1-888-91-KINGS or the box office or Kings.com.)

We will have the attention of the Sacramento City Council, of the NBA league office and of any potential future owners of or investors in the new facility or the basketball team. (AEG, Burkle ... they are paying attention.) More importantly, we will have the attention of the national media, who won't be able to avoid writing about the amazing fight and panache of the people of Sacramento and our elected leader, Kevin Johnson. The Maloofs tried to leave our city a year ago, and we didn't lay down. We stood up, and we fought. And we're still standing. And we're still fighting. And we won't stop until there are shovels in the ground.

All of those parties watching: let them hear it.

1. Wear black, wave your rally towel and cheer the hell out of the Sacramento Kings.

2. At tip-off, jump with the Goon Squad. The section behind the Kings bench always gets into it, but on such a special occasion, it'd be wonderful to get the whole building into it. (This comes at the request of Sign Lady. You don't want to dissapoint Sign Lady, do you?)

3. Lead and join into "Here We Stay" and "Sac-ra-men-to" chants during stoppages in play, coming out of timeouts and Thunder free throws. Print and pass out Here We Stay chant flyers. We've heard these chants come through television broadcasts in the past. That's on the local broadcasts. TNT loves to crank up the crowd noise. Let's do the work for them.

This is an incredible opportunity for us to be heard on a national stage with focused local attention. It's time to show the country what being a fan of the Sacramento Kings is all about. Let's do this.

Our friends James Ham and Rob McAllister of Cowbell Kingdom have a double dose of sourced entertainment and sports complex news. McAllister reported this week that the NBA is expected to bridge any feasible funding gap to get a plan for a new downtown facility approved; Ham reports that the city is looking for $80 million of that to come in the from of an up-front lease payment from the Kings and the NBA. The lease would be for 30 years, breaking it down to $2.67 million per year.

The other $50 million in private capital would come from AEG, the arena megalith that would operate the facility year-round. The city is hoping to receive City Council approval this month on a deal to lease the operation of downtown parking structures for $200 million in up-front payments -- the lease could be for 30-50 years. That leaves another $50 million. The hotel association has committed to some level of investment via a room fee, but not at that level, and not necessarily with advance capital.

The Sacramento City Council today voted on a motion put forth by Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy that would have left the decision on whether to use the leasing of parking assets to partially fund an Entertainment & Sports Complex to the voters. The measure would have appeared on the June 5th ballot and would have essentially killed the Arena plan.

The Council voted 5 to 4, a much closer vote than most anticipated, as Councilmembers Sandy Sheedy and Darrell Fong have been the only consistent detractors of a new downtown arena. Joining them in votes to put the measure on the ballot were Kevin McCarty and Bonnie Pannell. Mayor Kevin Johnson, Angelique Ashby, Steve Cohn, Robert Fong, and Jay Schenirer all voted to keep the parking lease off the ballot.

This vote was too close for comfort, but we move on. The next City Council meeting will take place on February 14th, where parking will be discussed. I encourage you all to come and speak your mind. We need to show the City Council our support. This battle will not be over until shovels are in the ground.

R.E. Graswich, the chief of staff for Mayor Kevin Johnson, tweeted today from KJ's weekly Q&A with the media that the mayor said he will attend All-Star Weekend in Orlando later this month to speak with NBA commissioner David Stern about Sacramento's plan to build a new arena. Graswich also said that KJ called the city "close" to a term sheet with the league and, presumably, AEG.

But even if there is buy-in from the league and AEG, there remains one critical piece: the parking lease funding plan. The City Council is expected to vote on that matter on February 14. Stay tuned for info on how you can help.

TNT Night is Thursday as the Kings host the Thunder in Sacramento's only appearance on national TV this season. There were fewer than 1,000 tickets remaining as of early Monday ... so get them if you haven't already. It's a Blackout game, and the Kings are asking fans to wear black to the game. Black rally flags and purple glowsticks will be handed out at the door as the team will replay its wild intro from opening night.

Linked to this text is the official Here We Stay chant flyer for the game. We have a number of flyers for HWS to hand out before the game, but it worked quite well last year when we also had fans from Sactown Royalty print up some flyers to hand out within the section at the gym.

Given that, let's get a roll call going for the game. Do you have tickets, and what section are you in?