Sacramento Kings

Golden 1 Center opened in 2016 in the DOCO development and it immediately became one of the best new arenas in the league. The building is designed to be fully natural ventilation - a significant engineering achievement in Sacramento heat - and the downtown location anchored the revitalization of the area around it. The atmosphere inside when the Kings are running has that specific quality of a franchise that went too long without success finally having something to celebrate.

The sixteen-year playoff drought ended in 2023 and the light beam postgame celebration became one of the more joyful sports rituals in any market. Sacramento had been the smallest market in the NBA for years and the city's relationship with the Kings is the kind of loyalty that only comes from staying through the bad years. The current squad, led by De'Aaron Fox, plays at a pace that makes Golden 1 Center feel electric in a way that the building's design amplifies.

The DOCO development around the arena is the pre-game and post-game answer - bars, restaurants, and outdoor space built specifically to serve the arena crowd. Old Sacramento, the riverfront historic district about a 10-minute walk west, is worth a stop if you want something with more character than a sports district development - the wooden boardwalks and Gold Rush-era storefronts are genuinely old Sacramento. The 7th and 8th Street grid around the arena has parking in structured garages and the light rail stops nearby on the J Street line.

Sacramento did not get its due for years and the Kings have given the city something worth being loud about. The current era - playoff competition, a new-ish arena, De'Aaron Fox at the wheel - is the best version of Kings basketball since the early 2000s Bibby/Webber squads.

Browse Sacramento Kings tickets on Evil Tickets - Golden 1 Center is genuinely one of the better arenas in the West and the Kings are giving it the team it deserved.