The Sacramento Kings are ready to open a brand new arena, the Golden One Center, this month.
The arena broke ground on Oct. 29, 2014 with the idea of becoming the most technologically-advanced arena in the world.
“All of the resources of the arena are at their fingertips with the touch of a button on their iPhone or on their Android,” said Kings Owner Vivek Ranadive in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. “It’s a technology marvel.”
To get ready for the grand opening, the Golden One Center was open to the public for the first time on Oct. 1 for an open house and a fan fest event.
The open house began 11 a.m. Thousands of fans lined up outside the entrance waiting to step inside the arena for the first time.
With all the events and new advanced features installed in the arena, it has a lot of fans excited. “The arena is amazing,” said Adrian Rodriguez a lifelong Kings fan. “It is going to provide a lot of energy and excitement to Sacramento that hasn’t been here for a long time.”
The open house was free and Kings Fans were allowed to explore the new venue on their own until Fan Fest started.
Fans could enter in raffles and giveaways, browse the team store for Kings merchandise and join in on contests on the court.
Fan Fest, although similar to the open house, was a different event.
It began later in the day at 6:30 p.m. where fans walked throughout the Golden One Center and had the chance to watch an open practice with Kings players and coaches, participate in on-court contests with players and an opportunity to check out the local eats stands.
The first things fans will notice while walking through the main entrance are the huge 40-foot hangar doors that can be left open or closed during games and what Ranadive calls the world’s first “indoor-outdoor arena.”
The standout feature of the new arena is the brand new scoreboard above the court.
“Totaling over 6,100 square feet, the center hung video board will feature the largest screens in the league and is over seven times larger than the current video board at Sleep Train Arena,” according to the National Basketball Association. “It is the NBA’s first ever 4k ultra HD center hung video board.”
The Sacramento Kings preseason home opener is on Oct. 10 and the team’s regular season home opener on Oct. 27 against the San Antonio Spurs.