SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After Sunday afternoon's very close game for the Sacramento Kings, fans in Sacramento are still holding on strong to their hometown team by showing up to DOCO even as the team played in San Francisco.
DOCO has been through a bit of a makeover with fans crediting the Golden 1 Center as the reason the area was successfully revitalized through the years.
As a lifelong resident of Sacramento, Roosevelt Beatty is no stranger to what was in the area before Downtown Commons became DOCO.
"They used to have Thursday night market here back in the 90s and a couple other stores here," said Roosevelt.
It's also a chance for him to show his daughter, Taiyah Beatty, what it once was to what it is now.
"There was a lot of nothing out there. So this right here, the Golden 1, now this is bringing everything out now. It brings the downtown area out, period," he said.
Before Golden 1 Center, the area was known as the Downtown Plaza.
Scott Ford with the Downtown Sacramento Partnership says Macy's came into the picture in the 1960s to help reinvent the area and it continued to grow into the 1990s.
"They revitalized it as a two-story indoor-outdoor downtown mall that had I think, 120 national and local retailers mixed in," said Ford.
Ford says what really helped make it a destination for locals and visitors was the addition of Golden 1 Center in 2016 after it became official the Sacramento Kings were staying.
"We want people to come down here, have positive experiences, whether it's at a Kings game, whether it's at a concert, whether it's at a great farm-to-fork restaurant, or all the other amenities now that are located here in downtown Sacramento. That builds a healthier and more sustainable downtown and it serves a broader cross-section of our community," said Ford.
Ford says the Kings making it to the playoffs for the first time in a long time is only adding to the area's popularity.
"We're seeing sold-out arenas. We're seeing thousands of people flood into the heart of the city just to be around it, to be in a place where they can see the beam lit after the Kings win," he said.
Fans also believe the Kings will continue to be the reason DOCO will be a go-to place for years to come.
"I think we will make the playoffs again next year if we don't go all the way this year, so that's going to bring in pretty big crowds still," said Roosevelt.
The Downtown Sacramento Partnership says there has been more than $6 billion in private investments into the downtown area since the initial investment into Golden 1 Center. The number continues to grow, especially now with how well the Kings are playing.
