Cowbell Clippings: Starring a major hurdle in the arena project (December 2, 2011)

• Sacramento parking spaces and garages have emerged as a potential game-changer in the battle to build a new arena.  However, new findings reported by the Sacramento Bee's Ryan Lillis, Dale Kasler and Tony Bizjak suggest they may not be as valuable as the city originally hoped. "But with a pivotal City Council decision on the deal scheduled in less than two weeks, city officials say those parking spots may not be as valuable as originally hoped. City Manager John Shirey told The Bee on Thursday that the assessed value of the city's parking facilities is lower than officials' early 'hopes or expectations.' The recent estimates came from financial consultants at Bank of America. Multiple sources familiar with the details of the project told The Bee this week that the city may be able get $200 million – or slightly more – in upfront cash by leasing its parking operations to a private company. That would include 7,200 spaces in garages, 5,500 on-street spaces and parking citation revenue. Shirey would not confirm that figure, but he said the new estimates are lower than originally believed. Officials have never said publicly what their early estimates were."