From an article in the Sacramento Press about the possibility of a new sports arena in downtown Sacramento… “[Mayor Kevin] Johnson also pointed to his time as an NBA player, which he said he doesn’t talk about a whole lot. ‘I lived in Phoenix when there was no arena downtown, and I was also part of a team that helped bring an arena downtown,’ Johnson said. ‘Phoenix was a ghost town, much worse than Sacramento. If you go to downtown Phoenix now, it’s a whole new town because of the catalytic impact that the arena had [on] downtown. I think the year was 1993; if you look at what has transpired over the last 16 years, [it proves] that [an arena] can galvanize a downtown community.'”
Downtown Voices Coalition 