Sports Authority

The big problem with the Kings isn’t their history of failure, their dumb trades, mystifying draft choices, chronic mismanagement, clueless owners or inability to hire and retain people with the brains and talent to compete in the NBA.
The big problem is their potential to drag the city of Sacramento toward bankruptcy.

Can the Kings hurt the city’s fiscal stability? For decades, that’s been a mostly abstract question. Now the threat is real. The city’s vulnerability began 23 years ago, grew slowly and gained speed in 2015. Today, in an economy convulsed by pandemic, warning signs flash red.

Sacramento soccer fans are patient. It’s the secret to their survival. Elder aficionados have waited 40 years to see a local side match the skill and excitement of the Sacramento Gold, which filled Hughes Stadium, won the 1979 American Soccer League championship and lost the final in 1980.

Someday local fans may cheer a stronger left foot than the one that made the Gold’s Ian Filby the best scorer in the league. And they may find a more clever coach than Billy Williams, who built the Gold into a United Nations of diversity with winners imported from England, Scotland, Latin America and South Africa.

Running should be among the safest of pandemic sports. Open trails. Space for social distancing. Virus loads diluted by fresh air. Fit and healthy runners. If two sturdy legs and a decent pair of running shoes don’t guarantee immunity, they help the odds.

But what happens when 800 or 1,000 runners congregate for a Sunday race? Or when 29,000 show up for the Thanksgiving Run to Feed the Hungry? Health officials don’t want to think about that. In mid-March they banned organized races until further notice—a prohibition that wiped out the running calendar and threatens to linger into next year.

Summertime in Sacramento and the streets sizzle. After months of coronavirus and social upheaval, my thoughts naturally turn to sports. Specifically, ice skating.

Imagine the joy of heading to Del Paso Boulevard and cooling off with a few spins around the frozen pond at Iceland. But skating is impossible at Iceland. The ice is gone.

Destination Bliss Cyclists shouldn’t miss this riverside treat By R.E. GraswichJuly 2020 At a certain time each day, the most beautiful place in Sacramento is Oak Hall Bend. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it. What really matters is how you get...