Golden 1 Center is an
indoor arena
An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...
in downtown
Sacramento, California
Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...
, United States. It sits partially on the site of the former
Downtown Plaza shopping center. The publicly owned arena is part of a business and entertainment district called
Downtown Commons (DoCo), which includes a $250 million 16-story mixed-use tower.
The arena, which replaced
ARCO Arena as the home of the
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...
of the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
, hosts concerts, conventions and other sporting and entertainment events. Capacity is expandable to about 19,000 to accommodate concert audiences.
34
luxury suites were sold to include all
events year-round. Suite partners have access to three exclusive clubs on the premium level including two skyboxes that overlook the concourse and have a direct view of the outside. In addition to the luxury suites, there are 48 loft-style suites.
History
As part of
the successful effort to keep the Kings in Sacramento, an ownership group led by
Vivek Ranadivé
Vivek Yeshwant Ranadivé ( ; born 7 October 1957) is an Indian-American business executive, engineer, author, speaker and philanthropist.D'Agostino, RyanThe Man Who Knows Everything ''Esquire''. 19 January 2012. Ranadivé is the founder and for ...
purchased the majority stake in the team from the
Maloof family
The Maloof family is a prominent American family based in Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, who are owners of numerous business properties in the Western United States. The original spelling of the family name is Maalouf. The family is of Lebanese pe ...
, with the city agreeing to partner with the Kings to build a new arena by 2016. Construction began October 29, 2014.
Turner Construction
The Turner Construction Company is an American construction company with presence in 20 countries. It is a subsidiary of the German company Hochtief. It is the largest domestic contractor in the United States as of 2020, with a revenue of $14.4 ...
, known in the Sacramento area for having built Terminal B at
Sacramento International Airport
Sacramento International Airport is an international airport located in Sacramento, northwest of Downtown Sacramento in Sacramento County, California, United States and covers . It serves the Sacramento Metropolitan Area, and it is run by th ...
and other projects, was the construction manager for the new arena.
The Kings' previous owners, led by the Maloof family, first proposed a downtown arena in 2012.
The arena's estimated cost was $391 million. The City of Sacramento would have paid $255.5 million, the Kings would have contributed $73.25 million, and
AEG The initials AEG are used for or may refer to:
Common meanings
* AEG (German company)
; AEG) was a German producer of electrical equipment. It was established in 1883 by Emil Rathenau as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte El ...
was going to contribute $58.75 million.

The Kings decided to name the street leading to the front door of the arena in honor of former NBA Commissioner David Stern, whose persistent, decades-long efforts helped keep the franchise in Sacramento. Officially, the address of Golden 1 Center is 500 David J. Stern Walk.
The arena's first concert was held on October 4, 2016, with a two-night concert held by
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
on his
One on One tour.
Financing
The
Sacramento City Council voted approval of public financing and other terms on May 20, 2014. The total cost of Golden 1 Center was once estimated to be $507 million. The Sacramento Kings contributed approximately $284 million and the City of Sacramento contributed approximately $223 million. The City of Sacramento financed its contribution through the sale of bonds ($212 million) and parking and economic development funds ($11 million).
Construction costs of the new Golden 1 Center increased to $534.6 million due to a change in the seating configuration that moved hundreds of seats to the lower bowl and closer to the basketball court and additional features.
Design
Golden 1 Center reflects the fabric of
Northern California
Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
by utilizing regionally sourced materials that range from glass to recycled aluminum to potentially precast concrete, composed of sand from
San Benito and rocks of Sierra limestone that reflect the colors of the region. Additionally, Golden 1 Center utilizes only
FSC-certified wood, an international standard of quality and responsible forest management.
A rooftop solar array, installed by Solar Power Inc. at a cost of $2.5 million, generates up to 1.2 megawatts, augmented by an 11 megawatt solar field in nearby
Rancho Seco
The Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station is a decommissioned nuclear power plant built by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in Herald, California.
History
In 1966, SMUD purchased in southeast Sacramento County for a nuclear ...
operated by the
Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). Installing
solar power
Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to c ...
is part of the Sacramento Kings ownership's goal to have its new sports and entertainment center be the most technologically advanced arena in the country, and that includes being efficient and using
renewable energy
Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...
. The arena earned LEED Platinum certification in late September 2016.
Along with the architectural design, a number of artworks were permanently installed, with works from local artists such as
Phil America and Gale Hart and internationally recognized artist
Jeff Koons.
A unique fan tradition was born on the arena in 2022. For the
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...
, 4 massive, purple-lit
laser beams were installed in the grand entrance of the arena, meant to be lit everytime the Kings garnered a victory, either at home or away. The intense beams can be seen from miles away, and have received significant fan support. Chants of "
Light the Beam!" have become common ahead of Kings wins, with the
hashtag
A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...
#LightTheBeam becoming popular within the Kings' social media presence after every win.
Technology
The main videoboard, to be hung over center court, is long, shorter than the basketball court below. Developed in partnership with
Panasonic Corp. of North America, it consumes more than and is currently the second largest screens in the
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
. The main screens are wide by tall, crowned by tall message boards, and broadcast in
4K Ultra HD. In addition to the main scoreboard, two tall video screens welcome fans as they walk through the arena's main entrance facing the public plaza, and another 600 HD displays broadcast the game to fans gathered in concourses, clubs and suites, Over of LED ribbon boards were installed throughout the arena bowl.
According to a Kings news release, the arena is “the world’s most connected indoor sports and entertainment venue" as the result of a multi-year deal with
Comcast
Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...
to provide “fully redundant transport facilities and two 100-gigabit
ethernet
Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...
dedicated internet circuits” at the facility. Free
wi-fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
connections at the arena, provided by
Ruckus Networks, will be 17,000 times faster than the average home network. The connection will extend into the plaza surrounding the arena. As an example of its bandwidth, the team said the network will be able to handle more than 225,000 posts on
Instagram
Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
every second.
A rooftop platform with light pipes can be programmed by local artists and used to convey events in the arena to the public through visually appealing light shows.
Naming rights
On June 16, 2015, Sacramento-based
Golden 1 Credit Union acquired naming rights for the arena at a cost of $120 million over 20 years, with an average annual value at $6 million, making it one of the largest
naming rights
Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...
deals for a single-tenant NBA arena.
Accessibility and transportation
It is estimated that 10–15% of visitors will walk, bike or take public transportation to Golden 1 Center events. More than 13,500 parking spaces exist within ½ mile of the arena.
Sacramento Regional Transit (RT) has five light rail stations in the vicinity, with the closest at 8th & K (also known as St. Rose of Lima Park Station). The
Sacramento Valley Station, located at 4th and I Streets, offers
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
trains, RT trains and buses, and taxi service.
Notable events
Wrestling
WWE has held multiple events at Golden 1 Center including
No Mercy in 2016 and
Hell in a Cell
Hell in a Cell is a professional wrestling steel cage-based match which originated in 1997 in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It features a large cell structure, a four-sided cuboid made from open-weave steel mesh chain-link f ...
in 2019. The venue also hosts ''
Raw'' and ''
SmackDown'' as well.
AEW held the post-
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...
episode (and
Rampage tapings as well) on March 8, 2023.
Mixed martial arts
On December 17, 2016,
UFC on Fox: VanZant vs. Waterson took place at Golden 1 Center and marked the first MMA event held within the arena.
Bull riding
Since 2017, the
Professional Bull Riders
The Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) is an international professional bull riding organization headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It is the largest bull riding league in the world, sanctioning hundreds of events every yea ...
(PBR) have held an annual
Built Ford Tough Series event at Golden 1 Center. Prior to 2017 the event was held at the Sleep Train Arena (an event which began in 2005).
Basketball
Professional
The
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...
began using the arena since the 2016–2017 NBA season. The Kings' first game at the arena was on October 10, 2016, against
Maccabi Haifa B.C. in a preseason game, winning 135–96. Their first regular-season game at the arena was on October 27, 2016, as the Kings lost to the
San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...
, 102–94.
College
The
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
(NCAA) announced Sacramento as a host city for the first and second rounds of the
2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The 2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 20 ...
on March 17 and 19, 2017. The arena hosted the first and second rounds of the
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...
in 2023. Sacramento was also selected to host the regionals of the
NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament
The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Div ...
in 2026.
High school
The arena has been home to the
California Interscholastic Federation
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have s ...
(CIF) High School Basketball State Championships and CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Basketball Championships since 2017.
Politics
The winter 2020 legislative session of the
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...
was conducted at Golden 1 Center to facilitate
social distancing
In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...
during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
References
External links
Official SiteCity of Sacramento websiteSESC Construction camDowntown Sacramento Partnership: Entertainment and Sports Complex
{{Authority control
Sacramento, California
Basketball venues in California
Indoor arenas in California
Mixed martial arts venues in California
NBA venues
Sports venues in Sacramento, California
2016 establishments in California
Sacramento Kings
Sports venues completed in 2016