In today's Sacramento Bee, Ailene Voisin dug deeper into the group behind the plan to renovate Power Balance Pavilion. This group, led by some of the original planners/designers/builders of ARCO I and II, believe they can renovate the building to last for about another decade at the cost of somewhere around $100 million.

As many of you will remember, the subject of renovating Power Balance Pavilion was broached at the notorious George Maloof Press Conference in which the Maloofs and their economist systematically killed the downtown arena deal. In George Maloof's own words:

For many, this came as a huge surprise, because it was the Maloofs themselves who for years had said renovation was not an option, that a new arena was the way forward. But when it came time to pay up for the new arena, the Maloofs backtracked, calling it a bad deal.

Why the change of heart? The main issue seems to lie with the fact that in a new arena, the Maloofs would be a tenant, earning less revenue than in their current situation at Power Balance Pavilion, where they retain all revenue from all events and parking. Considering the fact that the Kings are their only money making enterprise at the moment, that kind of makes sense, from the Maloof side of things.

What does not make sense is if the Maloofs expect the city to still chip in for the majority of such a renovation. In fact, the city should not spend a dime on renovating a building they do not own and will not see any of the revenue from. Mayor Kevin Johnson has come out strongly against spending city money on such a plan, and I urge him to stick to his guns there.

Again from today's Bee article:

If the Maloof family wants to renovate Power Balance Pavilion, that's fine by me. But they should do so with their own money since they're the ones receiving all the benefits. I think we all know what the chances of that happening are.