'Creative Financing' The Unfortunate Buzzword Heading Into Arena Talks

Rob McAllister, Ryan Lillis, Sam Amick and Ailene Voisin are all writing about the state of Sacramento arena negotiations today from Orlando. The dollar figure that the city is looking for from the Maloofs is now pegged at $85 million. A few more details on the proposals in play have been reported, too: $25 million from the sale of the Natomas land that Magic Beans Pavilion sits on, and $15 million from a refinanced city loan that the Maloofs have been paying on. That's $40 million. The family still needs to come up with $45 million, which is roughly the figure the Maloofs would be expected to kick in for upfront lease payments for the next 30 years.

And it's not like the city can budge. If you add up the Maloofs' $85 million, AEG's $50 million and the city's $200 million from the parking lease, we still have $50-70 million to go. You hope the parking number comes in higher, because selling city-owned land to finance this is just another obstacle.

The city doesn't look like it has much room to budge. As Kevin Johnson has noted regularly, the city has done what is said it would do. Life may be a negotiation, but it shouldn't be one-sided.