The Sacramento Kings’ home arena is called the Golden 1 Center, but it is also referred to as “The Beam” due to its distinctive roof structure.
Up until this season, the Beam solely was the unique architectural feature of the Golden 1 Center that extends from the arena’s facade out into the surrounding plaza. It consists of a series of steel beams that curve upwards and form a dramatic canopy over the entrance to the arena.
But at the start of this season, the Sacramento Kings have made the beam something very special that has since become a part of the franchise’s identity.
Whenever the Kings win a game, whether that be at home, or on the road, it is ‘Light the Beam’ time in Sacramento. The “Light the Beam” event has since become a popular tradition in Sacramento and is attended by many fans of the Sacramento Kings.
Their new Beam culture has definitely helped to team to have its best season in well over a decade. The Kings not only won their division, but also reached the playoffs for the first time in 16 years – ending the longest drought in any of the big leagues.
All of this, paired with the hype surrounding the team and playoff-thirsty fans, have also helped the Kings to take a lead in their playoff series against the defending champions, Golden State Warriors. However, there have been more and more negative reports about the Kings, even though the team, nor its fans didn’t do anything wrong. The narrative from some popular outlets has switched, mainly because they think a Draymond Green suspension for Game 3 wasn’t justified (which it was). One of these negative voices came from Colin Cowherd, who said the Beam was a waste of energy.
“Light the Beam feels like an egregious waste of energy.”
Light the Beam feels like an egregious waste of energy. Hopefully @GavinNewsom looks into it.
— Colin Cowherd (@ColinCowherd) April 18, 2023
This led to Sacramento-based news outlet Sacramento Bee to look into the details. It didn’t take them too long to completely debunk Cowherd’s claim with nothing but facts.
Per SacBee:
The victory beam uses 1,800 watts worth of lasers — six 300-watt Laser Space Cannons made by a Folsom-based company called Nu-Salt Laser. That’s about the same wattage needed to run one cycle of an average dishwasher. It’s an extremely small percentage of the energy used by Golden 1 Center, according to figures from the venue and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. KINGS ARENA RUNS ON SOLAR ENERGY Golden 1 Center is powered entirely by solar energy, a fact that helped it become the first U.S. indoor sports venue to receive LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council…
…Even if the Kings decided to keep the beam lit 24 hours a day, 365 days a year — one can dream — it would still only account for just over 0.1% of the arena’s total annual energy usage.
