Dive Brief:

• The new arena approved by Sacramento for the Kings NBA basketball team is the target of a lawsuit in which two housing advocacy groups and an environmental group are using a statute called the California Environmental Quality Act to seek $40 million from the team for affordable housing.
• The Kings' deal with the city included a commitment to provide $863,760 to a city trust fund for affordable housing.
• The city is the defendant in the lawsuit and has to pay legal costs up front and be reimbursed by the team later.

Dive Insight:

The total cost of the arena project is estimated at $477 million, with the city putting up $255 million toward that. The plan, approved by the city council in May, is to have the Kings playing on their new home court by December 2016. A previous lawsuit filed under the same environmental statute alleges fraud in the the deal itself, and defending against that will be all the city's expense.