The appropriate parties involved in getting an arena measure on the ballot are reconvening early this morning, according to Terri Hardy in The Sacramento Bee.

Last night's marathon meeting on pricetags and language was apparently helpful, though. Darrell Steinberg – former state Assemblyman, soon-to-be state Senator, Maloof consultant, and all-around good guy – indicates an agreement on the pricetag for the arena has been reached, but that there are still other things to work out.

This is a positive sign – the problem all along has been the pricetag. The Maloofs want to build a state-of-the-art arena. (And why wouldn't they?) The government wants to limit public participation and liability as much as possible. (And why wouldn't they?)

If the pricetag has been ironed out – and judging by the reports, I'd say the cost is skewed heavily towards the Maloofs' previous prediction instead of the city old $250 million quote – then I think the rest will fall into place…

…until November, that is. This process – the surfacing of the ballot plan three months ago, followed by the crashing-and-burning of those plans, followed by a very last minute resuscitation in a secret meeting in the Las Vegas megalith the Maloofs privately financed and have made a mint on – isn't going to help pass the measure. If anything, it's going to sour the hell out of the issue in the public eye and give the opposition more spears than they need.

We'll see, I guess.