Having been born and raised in Sacramento, I’m hardly impartial. In order to properly do a Golden 1 Center review, you must understand the history of Sacramento Kings’ stadiums. We had Arco Arena before the shiny, new downtown venue, although it wasn’t called Arco during the last few years.
I actually tried to drive into Arco Arena late at night last year. The arena is still kind of lit up, but the parking lot itself is dark as hell. Like, a car could turn off their lights and be invisible kind of dark. It was legitimately scary. There was actually an Arco Arena before this one. The original Arco Arena, called Arco Arena 1, looks kind of cool in photographs but didn’t have nearly enough seats. A couple of seasons later the Kings moved to Arco Arena 2 which survived until 2016 despite feeling outdated when I first attended a game there in 1992.
That brings us to the Golden 1 Center which opened its doors ahead of the 2016-17 NBA season. It has all the bells and whistles of a new stadium. Some parts of the upper deck feel like you might as well be in another zip code and getting to these seats is a chore. If I buy tickets in the upper reaches of the stadium, I usually end up just standing somewhere along the concourse.
By and large, the Golden 1 Center is fine in the same watching a rerun of Family Guy is fine. I mean you’ll do because watch it better than most of the other crap on television, but you’d also watch something else in a heartbeat. Ultimately, this Golden 1 Center review is simply a front so I can air my two biggest grievances about the arena.
1) The internet blows
Look, this probably won’t mean anything to you because all stadium internet sucks, but we in Sacramento had to hear constantly about how fast the in-arena wi-fi was going to be. Like, it was the only thing the Kings would talk about when promoting the Golden 1 Center before it opened.
What kind of features will the new arena have?
You won’t believe how fast the wi-fi is going to be when the arena opens. We’re talking Limewire wet dream speeds.
How many seats will be in the new arena?
It will have more than enough seats to support its super high-speed wi-fi system andto you won’t want miss out on the experience.
So, George Karl seems to really hate DeMarcus Cousins. What’s that about?
Well, Coach Karl is just testing out Boogie to ensure he is ready to use the incredibly fast wi-fi at our new arena next season. Trust us when we say the George Karl/DeMarcus Cousins partnership will be the second most talked about thing at the new stadium after the amazingly quick wi-fi.
I’ve been to the Golden 1 Center multiple times and the wi-fi could best be described as unusable.
2) It’s hipster heaven
No Golden 1 Center review would be complete without mentioning how the arena has basically embraced the worst of Sacramento’s hipster culture. If you want to know what the absolute most annoying people in Sacramento like, do a lap around the concourse. It’s filled with stalls selling confusing food at comically marked-up prices.
I get wanting to embrace the local culture of the city, but Sacramento has no culture. I mean there is nothing more Sacramento than driving five miles to a Carl’s Jr., using the drive thru and then driving back home to eat it. The Golden 1 Center should replicate that experience that authentic Sacramento experience.
Golden 1 Center review score: 5
The Golden 1 Center is fairly average unless you’re really into seeing a big-ass cow bell. It’s not that there is anything wrong with the arena, but it lacks anything really memorable apart from a lot of obese people and fans who think they know everything about basketball, but really don’t. Also, fix the damn wi-fi already.
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