One-hundred Sacramento Kings’ full-time employees will collect their final paychecks this month before going on furlough through the summer.
Team president of business operations John Rinehart sent an email to staff on Monday stating that, “due to the sudden and severe financial impacts to our business,” the Kings will implement a four-month furlough.
“Since all live events have been cancelled or postponed in the arena for at least the next several months, we need to reduce our operations to meet our current economic situation,” the email read.
The 100 employees represent 34 percent of the team’s full-time workforce.
The team promised in mid-April to continue to pay full-time staff as long as possible. It says it will continue to provide full medical benefits, but will stop matching 401K retirement.
Golden 1 Center attempted its last event March 11, when the National Basketball Association pulled the plug just before tip-off as the Kings hosted the New Orleans Pelicans.
NCAA basketball tournament games, California Interscholastic Federation high school championship games and several concerts, including Cher and Bon Jovi, have been canceled or postponed at the Golden 1 Center.
Essential basketball operations functions — which include scouting, analytics, the front office, and the health and performance team — will not be affected.
The team says executives have taken salary cuts and will not receive bonuses. All non-essential spending and hiring is frozen.
Earlier on Monday, the Kings and the California Office of Emergency Services announced the old SleepTrain Arena will not be taking in COVID-19 patients and would be downgraded to “warm shutdown” status. It had been set up to receive overflow cases from local hospitals if they became overwhelmed.
The arena will remain available as a setting for medical care through at June 30 under the new plan. It will remain under state control through the end of October.
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