You’ve got your freshly mustard-smothered hot dog and ice cold soda, and you are finding your way to your lower level seats in the arena. The crowd is poppin’. The mood is as uplifting as a pastor’s Sunday sermon. The rock will soon be in the air.

All of a sudden, your body shakes. The forethought of intense excitement has stirred your soul. Your crusty eyes open only to find that it was all a dream. Yes, you live in Sacramento still, but there is no basketball team here anymore.

Could it be that those days of high-flying hoops action will be soon behind this town, as a combination of people and problems let the River City down during the process of trying to find the Kings a new facility in which to display their collective talents?

That is the concern of the members of the newly formed “Here We Stay” group and they intend on doing something about it.

Here We Stay, according to founder Blake Ellington, is a local movement dedicated to helping the elected officials of the Sacramento area, the NBA and the Sacramento Kings get a new sports and entertainment facility built here in Sacramento.

Ellington runs Bleed Black and Purple, one of the popular blogging sites dedicated to covering the Kings.

Ellington communicated the idea to many of his fellow bloggers in the area, and they decided to work together and move the effort forward. He figures that since all the blogs or message boards would have a vested interest and that they are already the Internet voice of the fans, they might as well use that outlet to help the fans get involved in the process. They even started an e-mail chain to get the effort moving forward.

“The whole process that has been going on recently, the land swap deal going under, David Stern’s comments and the rest — there really hasn’t been a voice from the fans’ perspective,” Ellington said. “We want to get all the elected officials in the area, the NBA, the Kings, the fans and everybody involved to help get a new sports and entertainment facility in Sacramento.”

It’s Ellington’s perspective, as well as many other concerned fans’, the Kings need not only to “Rise” here, but “Stay” here as they are an integral part of getting the arena built. The ideal arena would bring in everything from entertainment acts to the NCAA tournament, a tournament that refuses to come here anymore because of the deteriorating condition of Arco Arena.

Therein lies the rub.

The support for the Kings is undeniable. The fans do come and will show up in larger numbers as the team puts a higher quality product on the floor.

The problem is with the support the City Council has seen during this process. It was reported that only one Kings fan was in attendance during the last round of meetings. Abysmal.

It’s one thing to garner their collection of Kings’ T-shirts, bumper stickers and headwear, or even drop some hard-earned dollars on some premium tickets. But when it comes to speaking up and having their voices heard about how bad they want the team to stay, the fans may need a gentle push and maybe some tools to help get them motivated.

“We want to get the number of people attending meetings up so that the city sees that the fans are really interested in this and they have a way to communicate with them through us,” Ellington said.

The group intends on providing updates and stories on the issue. They also plan to communicate with the City Council’s Board of Directors, the Kings and the NBA. They even want to look at the plans and talk to some of the developers and maybe even put their support behind one of the ideas.

Tom Ziller, the man behind the slogan, is also the keeper of Sactown Royalty, the highly popular blog/fan site covering the Kings.

Ziller knows that the fans must show a collective voice to be heard.

“You can call in to a sports talk show, write a letter to the editor, show up at a City Council meeting or just rant about it,” Ziller said. “(It’s hard) without a collective voice showing the city leaders, elected officials, as well as the Maloofs and the NBA, that we want to get this done and are willing to do whatever we can to help out.”

With the last day of February being the deadline for moving next year, Ziller thinks the area is safe for now, considering the uncertainty in the labor situation and that he doesn’t think that the Maloofs want to sign a lease for next season not knowing if next season is going to happen. Within a year from now, Ziller said, someone better have something good on the table.

“The clock’s been ticking for a long time now, and I think it’s getting closer to that doomsday scenario, but I still think we have time to get something done,” Ziller said.

For more information, Here We Stay has created a Facebook page and a Twitter account so concerned folks can follow the progress of the group and be notified about newsworthy items concerning building a new arena and keeping the team in Sacramento. You can also get the suggested form letter to send to elected officials regarding a new arena here.