(SACBEE) — Sacramento doesn’t have many role models to follow as it tries to auction off its parking garages and meters to help finance a new sports arena.

Just two major U.S. cities – Chicago and Indianapolis – have completed such privatization deals. And the biggest one, in Chicago in 2008, was a public relations nightmare.

Chicagoans were outraged when meter rates soared and the machines briefly malfunctioned. The city’s inspector general said the $1.15 billion price the city received was way too low. While the operating company says citizen anger has abated, the deal is still viewed in political circles as a mistake.

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