The original ARCO Arena, where the Kings played their home games for three seasons (1985–1988), after moving from Kansas City had a capacity of 10,333 seats.

This arena was also the home for the Sacramento Attack of the Arena Football League in 1992, their only season, the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs until they folded in 2009 and the Sacramento River Rats of Roller Hockey International.

Sleep Train Arena is located in a once isolated area on the expanding northern outskirts of the city. It was constructed at a cost of just $40 million, the lowest of any venue in the NBA. It is the smallest arena in the NBA with a seating capacity of 17,317, and has 30 luxury suites and 412 club seats. It can host such varied events as concerts, ice shows, rodeos and monster truck rallies. At one time nearly two million spectators from throughout Northern California visited Sleep Train Arena in a year. The configuration for ice shows and ice hockey actually runs perpendicular to the basketball court with the normal sideline seating being retractable to allow for an international standard ice rink.

In 2006, there was a campaign to build a new $600 million facility in downtown Sacramento, which was to be funded by a quarter cent sales tax increase over 15 years; voters overwhelmingly rejected ballot measures Q and R, leading to the NBA publicly calling for a new arena to be built at another well-known Sacramento facility, Cal Expo, the site of California's state fair.

The original namesake sponsor of the arena was ARCO. On March 19, 2007, the Maloof brothers announced a multi-year agreement extending the naming rights of ARCO Arena. ARCO's sponsorship agreement ran out in February 2011. The arena was renamed Power Balance Pavilion on March 1, 2011 for its new sponsor, Power Balance, a manufacturer of sports wristbands. On October 15, 2012, the arena assumed its current name when The Sleep Train purchased the naming rights.

The arena's center-hung scoreboard was designed as a joint venture between Panasonic and White Way Sign. Originally it contained four LCD video screens (one on each side) plus enough room for two players' stats on each team; as pro basketball grew in popularity, the scoreboard was upgraded in 1991 so that stats for five players on each team could be shown; the original video screens were replaced a decade later with Panasonic Astrovision LED video screens.

Sleep Train Arena was still in use until December 2016, even though the Kings and major concerts moved to the new Golden 1 Center in October 2016. There are no immediate plans on what to do with the old arena or land surrounding it.

The last Kings home game at Sleep Train Arena was on April 9, 2016, a 114–112 win against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The last points scored in the arena were two free throws by the Kings' Rudy Gay with one second left to clinch the game for the Kings.

The last ticketed event at Sleep Train Arena was the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus on September 19, 2016. The circus also opened the arena back in 1988. The last planned non-ticketed event was Sacramento State's winter commencement ceremonies on December 17, 2016.

In November 2018, officials from the Sacramento Zoo have explored the possibility of moving the zoo to the 183-acre (0.74 km2) Sleep Train Arena site, citing the need for more space and the constraints of their current location at William Land Park; however, the Kings, who control the arena site, have conflicting plans to replace the arena with a mixed-use development with 1.18 million square feet (109,600 m2) of commercial space and 2,000 residential units.

Though the arena is technically closed and seats in the upper bowl removed, it still hosts occasional events such as conferences and swap meets. Jehovah's Witnesses have used the arena for an extended stay in 2019.

In April 2020, state health officials announced that the Sleep Train Arena would be converted into a temporary hospital in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in California. The field hospital will treat coronavirus patients with mild to moderate symptoms while area hospitals would continue to treat acute care patients.

In June 2021, the Sacramento Kings and the City of Sacramento announced that the site had been donated to California Northstate University, and that a medical school and hospital will be built there. The old arena will be demolished.

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