The Game Day Experience: Kings vs. Trailblazers at Arco Arena

Happy Easter Spot fans!  As everyone spends the day hunting, hiding or eating easter eggs...the Spot would like to introduce you to a new regular feature: "The Game Day Experience", where the Spot will give his low down on the complete game day experience for a variety of pro and college sports teams here in the Valley and Northern California.  This won't include just the game itself, but also pre-game attractions, post-game gathering spots, arena atmosphere, etc....so, while you're out there munching on the hollow chocolate bunny...lets begin!

For the Spot's first Game Day Experience outing, he decided to go up to Sacramento and catch the Sacramento Kings vs. Portland Trailblazers at Arco Arena.  The experience already started off on an excellent note since the Spot was also accompanied by...yep...#1 on the list of hottest women that the Spot knows!  For our pre-game dinner, we decided to hit Mikuni Sushi Bar in Downtown Sacramento. Both the Spot and Ms. #1 give Mikuni a double thumbs up!  The atmosphere was friendly and casual and everyone seemed to be having a great time...they even had the Butler/Michigan State game on for their patrons (ok ok, the Spot will confess, his attention really wasn't focused on the game....) our waiter was great and went the extra mile to make sure we were having a great time.  When it came time to order, Ms. #1 decided to go for the tempura fried tofu for an appetizer (which was suprisingly good....i know i know, tofu and good usually don't appear in the same sentence) and for the sushi main course selected the "Marilyn Monroll" and the Michi Roll.  The Spot ordered up the "Hang Loose" roll to finish things off.  We were both in agreement that all three were some of the best shushi we'd had in a long long time! (and the Spot loves his Sushi!).  All in all, Mikuni Shushi alone was well worth the drive up to Sacramento, and the Spot highly recommends it next time you're in Sac!

Next up was the actual game itself.  There were only three bright spots to the entire Arco experience: a) the company the Spot was with...b) the Isreali fans who started waving flags and going bananas every time Omri Casspi got in the game and/or scored...and c) the slam-wow.  Other than that, the game was played in a half full Arco Arena who's amenities and condition make the Stockton Arena seem like the Staples Center.  For those of you wondering if the Maloof's really do need a new arena for the Kings...yes...they do...really, REALLY bad!  The game itself was entertaining with the Kings fading down the stretch and losing to the Portland Jail...opps, that was like five years ago...I meant Trailblazers in the final minutes.  On court conclusions the Spot gleaned from the game: Tyreke Evans isn't a point guard....try as they might, Sacramento would be smart to move him to the two and get a real point to run things (paging Ricky Rubio, will you please report to the Arco Arena customer service desk)....work on the man to man defense will ya, way to many Trailblazers left completley wide open....next practice for the Kings, lay up drills please! They couldn't make one to save their lives last night...and last but definitley not least, Referee #55...both the Spot and #1 were in agreement during the 80's he probably went to school dressed like Prince and practiced his dance moves in the mirror pre-game!

With the game over and us on our way home, we decided to scout out any post-game options near Arco.  What we found is yet another reason the Kings need an arena Downtown...there were no post-game options near Arco! (unless you count a chinese seafood place with a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling an option)...all we wanted was a little yogurt or Baskin-Robbins, and what did we get...nothing!  But hey, thats what you get when you put a basketball arena out in the middle of almost nowhere.

All in all, the Spot misses the days when Arco was packed, the cowbells were getting under Phil Jackson's skin, and Stuart Scott was saying on Sports Center "Vlade...dade...he like to part-a...he can dunk on anybod-a"...while these young Sacramento Kings are starting to collect the pieces that could hopefully soon lead them back to the hey-day of Bibby-Webber-Divac...A move to downtown which actually has a multitude of pre and post game options would help...a lot.