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NBA commissioner hails Kings’ new arena

NBA commissioner hails Kings' new arena

Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA North American basketball league, has praised the Sacramento Kings for the team’s efficiency in building a new arena after Golden 1 Center hosted its first-ever regular-season game yesterday (Thursday).

As recently as 2013, the Kings looked set for a move away from California with former owners, the Maloof family, poised to sell the team to a Seattle-based investment group which sought to move the team to the Pacific Northwest.

However, Vivek Ranadive struck a last-minute deal to buy the Kings and pledged to build a new arena to keep the franchise in Sacramento. Three years on, the state-of-the-art, 17,500-capacity Golden 1 Center staged its first NBA game and Silver praised the team for the quick turnaround.

“I think it's a borderline miracle from where we were in 2013 to be here in 2016, a year earlier than they originally pledged to have an arena done,” Silver said. “To be done, to be here on opening night with the building completely finished with strong local ownership, it's everything a league could hope for.

“These are true modern day town halls. You can see from the smiles on the fans' faces as they were walking in, there was sort of a collective 'wow!"'

Golden 1 Center is said to be the first professional sports facility to be powered completely by solar energy. It also became the first indoor venue to be recognised with LEED Platinum certification – the highest-possible award for environmentally conscious buildings.

In other news, the Kings’ fellow NBA team, Charlotte Hornets, has confirmed that its Time Warner Cable Arena has been renamed Spectrum Center. 

It follows Time Warner Cable’s merger with Charter Communications and reflects the brand name of Charter’s all-digital TV, internet and voice offerings. Spectrum branding has replaced that of Time Warner Cable in recent months in readiness for the name change.

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