Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Arena Wars: Sacramento Arena Opponents Acquire Hansen Signatures

09/17/2013 at 9:56pm EDT

A Sacramento group opposed to a tax payer funded arena proposal - Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork, or STOP - has announced that it has acquired 18,000 Signatures paid for by Chris Hansen, the proponent of Seattle's Arena bid, and plans to use them to get a measure on the ballot to stop the arena from being built:

STOP is now in the process of verifying the validity of the 18,000 signatures. The campaign needs to collect 22,000 valid signatures from city residents by mid-December to qualify its ballot measure.

"These petitions represent the will of 18,000 people who took the time to provide their signatures and express their desire to put this tax subsidy to a vote,” Julian Camacho, president of STOP, said in a statement. “We believe it would be wrong – ethically and legally – to deny them that right.”

Read more here

Hansen recently agreed to pay a $50,000 fine along with some of the consultants that helped him gather the signatures, for failure to disclose the source of the funding for the signatures - which were collected as part of Hansen's campaign to stop the Sacramento arena when he still hoped to purchase the Sacramento Kings and move them to his own new arena in Seattle. After the NBA nixed the Kings sale, Hansen had a change of heart and decided he didn't want the signatures used after all.

Why does this matter to hockey fans?

Well, maybe it doesn't too much. But - although Hansen says his change of heart about the signatures is about wanting to do the right thing, a more cynical person might think it has to do with his need to get an NBA franchise to move into his proposed Seattle arena. As he's already learned, this requires the good will of the NBA and its owners - good will that could be lost if the league felt like Hansen's actions hurt their plans in Sacramento.

Could a Sacramento STOP mean a GO for an NHL team in Québec City, or the Greater Toronto Area?

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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