Exactly one week ago, the Kings and the state of California announced that the team's former home would be converted into a surge hospital to help patients battling the coronavirus.
On Friday, Kings owner Vivek Ranadive spoke to NBC Sports California's Jim Kozimor about exactly how the two sides were able to put the former Arco Arena/Sleep Train Arena/Power Balance Pavilion to use.
"When the crisis first started, I saw what was happening, and I actually first learned about the crisis when I was in Davos [Switzerland] at the World Economic Forum, and in my conversations with the head of the [National Institutes of Health], I saw fear in his eyes and he said this is way worse than SARS and it can be spread by even asymptomatic people and I knew back then that this was going to be really quite bad," Ranadive said.
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"So when the crisis started over here, we reached out to the Governor's office and said 'We have this old arena, and as you start thinking about hospitals and beds, maybe we could put that arena to good use.' And I really believe we have the best Governor in the country and his office acted very quickly, just like a startup company, and low and behold, they said 'Yeah, we could use this.' "
On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave his daily press conference from the floor of the arena with Ranadive by his side.
"It was a very proud moment that we were able to stand with the Governor and walk through the arena and then announce that we were going to be able to make it into a surge hospital with about 400 beds," Ranadive told Kozimor. "So here we have this arena that has been such a big part of sports history, it's an iconic structure, it's where LeBron [James] played his first game and there were so many memorable moments against the Lakers, it's just a part of sports history.
"And when we turned the lights off, we thought that was it and now it's come to life again and it's the arena that keeps giving. So now it's going to house hundreds of patients, it's going to help them, so it has come full circle. We thought this arena was dead and it has come to life again, and it's going to help many, many people in the Sacramento area."
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Ten days ago, the Kings launched a new campaign titled "In This Together," a program designed to help the community and fans learn more about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.