Sacramento Ca Athletics

Show me the money! --Pro football receiver Rod Tidwell in the movie "Jerry Maguire." **** Los Angeles developer Jim Thomas, who five years ago bought the Sacramento Kings pro basketball team, is telling local politicians to show him the money or he's out of here with his millionaire players. Never mind that the last 475 home games have been sold out. The average ticket price for this subaverage NBA team is $32, plus $6 for parking, and the arena holds 17,317.

The Canadian Football League, which has been busy bringing us such features as a field that is too wide, a receiver who is too fast and a quarterback who is too small, may have gone too far this time. Canada's football league announced Tuesday that it is adding franchises in San Antonio and Sacramento, cities that were still located in the United States the last time somebody bothered to check. How are we supposed to feel about this? Maybe it's natural progression.

Sacramento's chances of bringing the Raiders to the state capital suffered a major setback Monday. Mayor Anne Rudin told reporters that Al Davis, Raider managing general partner, told her by phone that he is not going to reach a decision by the Wednesday deadline set by the Sacramento City Council. Davis will receive a city-financed, $50 million franchise fee if he announces a move to Sacramento by then. "He will probably not make a decision by Wednesday," Rudin said.

Bill Walsh, former San Francisco 49er coach, is attempting to forge a partnership between Sacramento and Oakland leaders to get an NFL expansion team in California's capital, a newspaper reported. Walsh told the Sacramento Bee that he has talked to investors willing to participate in a franchise that would have owners in both Oakland and Sacramento.

The California Lottery Classic, a one-day bicycle race held on the streets of Old Sacramento, will be canceled because of unreasonable demands, the race director said. Margaret Hansen, a Sacramento businesswoman who ran the four-year-old event that featured professional and Olympic cyclists, said she will end the race because of financial demands, proposed time and date changes and sponsorship restrictions.

The California Lottery Classic, a one-day bicycle race held on the streets of Old Sacramento, will be canceled because of unreasonable demands, the race director said. Margaret Hansen, a Sacramento businesswoman who ran the four-year-old event that featured professional and Olympic cyclists, said she will end the race because of financial demands, proposed time and date changes and sponsorship restrictions.

The Continental Indoor Soccer League will begin play next June with a 28-game schedule, said Ron Weinstein, CISL commissioner and founder. The CISL has received franchise applications from four California cities: Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego and Sacramento.

Ten groups, including three from Baltimore, have submitted applications to the NFL for expansion franchises. Two will be accepted, with 1994 the target date. The prospective owners include former NFL stars Willie Davis in Memphis, Tenn., and Walter Payton in St. Louis. Others applying were Charlotte, N.C., Jacksonville, Fla., Sacramento, Oakland and San Antonio.

repreneur Gregg Lukenbill, who brought the Kings to Sacramento and unsuccessfully tried to lure the Raiders north, has halted construction on the area's sports stadium as he struggles to pay off heavy debts, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Sacramento Bee said Lukenbill and his associates are trying to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills incurred during work on the $100-million, multipurpose stadium.

The most recent major sports franchise to be lured to a new indoor arena in California was the National Basketball Assn.'s Kansas City Kings who moved to Sacramento in 1985. This is all it took for owner Gregg Lukenbill and his partners to pull it off: --They began lobbying city officials in the 1970s for a facility. --They obtained interest in 6,000 acres of agriculturally zoned land on the outskirts of downtown. --They paid $10.

Just about a year ago, the Dallas Cowboys were sold to oil tycoon Jerry Jones for $146 million. It was the highest figure ever paid for a professional sports team. In exchange for his dollars, tycoon Jones got America's Team plus the 65,000-seat Texas Stadium plus the training camp. There was, as always, debate over such a price. It was said that no football team would pencil out at $146 million.