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SACRAMENTO -- With a little more than six weeks until the first event at the brand new Golden 1 Center, city officials and the Kings rolled out their plan to help make traffic flow easier.

Basically, they are asking folks to plan ahead by reserving their parking spaces at one of five public lots near the downtown arena.

"It just makes sense, and hopefully it will relieve some of the angst around parking that people may have right now," explained Kings President Chris Granger.

Granger said Kings season ticket holders are the first to get a crack at the reserved spots, but by next month, those spots will be offered to the general public, for any event happening at the new arena.

"The reservation system is really about planning ahead," said city parking manager Matt Eierman. "Making sure people understand where they're going to be parking their vehicles, getting them from the garage to the Golden 1 Center."

And here's how they'll be making those reservations.

By mid-September, SacPark will be launching an app to use with your mobile device, and each time you use it you'll receive a 25 percent discount. Meaning, the $15 reserved spots at public lots now will only cost you $11.25.

"So people will actually be guided right to a parking garage that they've already prepaid," noted Eierman.

The city said they have about 5,000 parking spaces available in the five public lots they plan to use, but other independently owned lots may also jump on board the reservation system.

In addition to that, the city said they will be installing live-stream software to the thousands of metered spots within a four block radius of the new arena, which can instantly tell you if a spot on the street comes open.

"So you can actually go right to the app and it will direct you down a path and give you a probability factor of where parking is," said Eierman.

The other thing that should help traffic flow is the Kings plan on starting the majority of their 41 home games a half-hour later than in the past, at 7:30 p.m. That way, there will be an extra 30 minutes for those who work downtown to exit the area, or for those coming to the game to arrive downtown a bit later than usual.

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