Building a new arena for the Sacramento Kings has never been closer to reality.

The city, the Sacramento Kings and the NBA announced a tentative deal Monday to finance a new arena that would keep the team in California's capital for the long haul. The City Council will vote on the plan March 6.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, NBA commissioner David Stern and the Maloof family, which owns the Kings, emerged from three days of talks in Orlando, Fla., -- where they had been negotiating during All-Star weekend -- to announce that the framework of a deal had been reached, giving fans some 3,000 miles away in the Central Valley reason to cheer for a comeback story that fittingly came straight out of Fantasyland.

"I think when we left Sacramento and came to Orlando, you guys asked me how close were we. I thought it was a free throw -- and you need to make two free throws," Johnson told reporters at a news conference at the Waldorf Astoria at Walt Disney World. "I think the city made the first free throw, and the Maloof family made the second free throw.