The Sacramento Kings broke ground on their new arena on Wednesday morning. This groundbreaking puts an end to 10 years of arena struggles, and two relocation attempts by the Maloof ownership group.

The arena groundbreaking in downtown Sacramento, Calif. (Courtesy of Sactown Royalty’s Facebook)

Mayor Kevin Johnson and Kings owner Vivek Ranadive officially broke ground at 11:55 am on the arena by sticking their shove into the dirt. Invited members of the community than gathered for a photo shoot.

Sacramento’s groundbreaking ceremony started at 11:30 am at the site of the future arena. The ceremony featured speeches from Johnson, Ranadive, and the daughter of one of the construction workers.

The ceremony follows nearly three months of demolition of the Downtown Plaza mall, in Sacramento’s downtown.

To get to this point, the City of Sacramento, the Sacramento Kings franchise, and Kings’ fans were put through the ringer.

The Kings almost relocated to Anaheim in 2009, but the NBA denied the Maloofs attempted relocation. But the real threat came in winter/spring of 2013 when the Maloofs attempted to sell the team to San Francisco businessman, and Seattle area native, Chris Hansen. Hansen was going to relocate the franchise to Seattle to play in the Key Arena whle hte Sonics arena was built just south of Safeco Field. Fortunately for Sacramento, the NBA denied the sale (and therefore the relocation).

Sacramento’s arena is expected to be finished in time for the Kings’ 2016 home opener.

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