68 replies to this topic

[Morning Woodhead]

One door closes, another door opens? I'm bummed out for Sacramento fans if this is true, they are getting a raw deal and deserve better. However if it HAS to be anywhere, I'm really glad Seattle is getting a 2nd chance.

http://fansided.com/...r-chris-hansen/

Edited by Morning Woodhead, 09 January 2013 - 11:20 AM.

[jsinger121]

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA
The Maloofs are finalizing an agreement to sell the Sacramento Kings to the Hansen-Ballmer led Seattle group, sources tell Yahoo! Sports.

[jsinger121]

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA
The deal will sell the Kings for approximately $500 million, with the Seattle group seeking relocation to Key Arena for the 2013-'14 season.

[The Social Chair]

This is awesome!

edit- I do feel bad for the Sac fans though.

Edited by The Social Chair, 09 January 2013 - 03:13 PM.

[dolomite133]

This is awesome!

edit- I do feel bad for the Sac fans though.

Agreed and agreed.

[Brickowski]

I hope they go back to being the Sonics, not the Seattle Kings.

[Max Power]

They're in King County, so the name still makes sense.

[Spacemans Bong]

If the Maloofs ever step foot in Sactown again, they better be armed.

[BigMike]

This will be big step necessary to push Seattle over the top on the new Basketball/Hockey venue that has been moving forward the past year.

Seattle may quickly go from 3 - 2 - 4 professional Sports teams, as an NHL team becomes almost inevitable when the arena gets approved

[TheWalthamKid]

When the original Sonics left for OKC, I heard that the Seattle name and legacy would stay in Seattle for the inevitable next team. So are they going to be the Kings or the Sonics? How confusing of a legacy will that be? Will they be the Sonics, formerly known as the Kings? Very weird.

[SoxFanInPdx]

I am pretty sure I heard when the Sonics were initially sold to OKC, that the city of Seattle retained the Sonics name in case basketball did come back. So, they should be able to name them the Sonics once again. Sucks for any city to lose a team, but Seattle shouldn't have even lost theirs to begin with. The Key Arena is an awful place to take in a game, but I'm really interested to see what the new arena will bring. Looks like the Blazers/Sonics rivalry is back on in these parts.

[Lose Remerswaal]

Chris Hansen is the new owner?

[Grin&MartyBarret]

The Maloofs rejected the offer according to multiple sources on Twitter.

[Stuart Scott's Lazy Eye]

this is like seeing a huge boxed present only to find out your mother played a "funny" prank and gave you wool socks. ruined my day.

[Ed Hillel]

They're gonna need a big name what with the move. A big name, perhaps like...Jeff Green!?!?

[mikeot]

Happy that the NBA will return to the Emerald City.

[Awesome Fossum]

[Infield Infidel]

Awaiting approval for sale and relocation

http://www.sbnation....-nba-relocation

[Brickowski]

Latest rumor is that Petrie will not be retained (he's expected to retire) and the new owners will attempt to replace him with R.C. Buford or Larry Bird.

[Nomar813]

Clay Bennett is the chair of the relocation committee, so the top man responsible for taking basketball from Seattle will play a role in bringing it back. Definitely excited for Seattle, but this really stinks for Sacramento. During the Webber years, Arco was as exciting and passionate a building as any in the league.

[wibi]

Just came across my FB feed. That's Isaiah Thomas who played his college ball at Udub

[redsahx]

This certainly beats them going to Anaheim as was floated about last year. The idea of Sacremento suffering for the sake of putting another team in LA that no one will care about (Ducks, Clippers, Kings) was tough to take. Seattle is good for the NBA, and I think this also helps strengthen Portland as well.

Speaking of Key Arena, whose idea was it in Seattle to build a new arena in the 90s that didn't have the option of housing a hockey rink? Even as a basketball arena, you can tell the design was a winner when the building became obsolete within a decade of opening.

[DLew On Roids]

Kevin Johnson is trying hard to keep the Kings, but this announcement today that he'd lined up 19 investors has a Dr. Evil "One MILLION dollars" feel to it. It's a miniscule fraction of what the Maloofs are getting from Hansen and Ballmer, and those guys can surely go higher if they have to.

[wibi]

This certainly beats them going to Anaheim as was floated about last year. The idea of Sacremento suffering for the sake of putting another team in LA that no one will care about (Ducks, Clippers, Kings) was tough to take. Seattle is good for the NBA, and I think this also helps strengthen Portland as well.

Speaking of Key Arena, whose idea was it in Seattle to build a new arena in the 90s that didn't have the option of housing a hockey rink? Even as a basketball arena, you can tell the design was a winner when the building became obsolete within a decade of opening.

Key wasnt built in the 90s. It was built in the 60s and then renovated in the 90s. No amount of renovation could have made it a good hockey rink due to the way the scoreboard and the ice were setup.

[Spacemans Bong]

When it was the Seattle Center Coliseum, it accommodated hockey just fine, but the seating capacity for basketball was something like 15,000. To increase the basketball capacity they basically rebuilt the arena to suit basketball and damn hockey. Oracle Arena is pretty similar, but the footprint of KeyArena is really small, so they could only squeeze another 2,000 seats from screwing over hockey.

Kevin Johnson is trying hard to keep the Kings, but this announcement today that he'd lined up 19 investors has a Dr. Evil "One MILLION dollars" feel to it. It's a miniscule fraction of what the Maloofs are getting from Hansen and Ballmer, and those guys can surely go higher if they have to.

There's just not enough money floating around Sacramento to make it work. Their only hope is that Larry Ellison, who has been floating around trying to buy a sports team for years (he was interested in the Warriors), decides that NorCal is better than NoTeam and turns into an angel investor.

Yeah, I don't think it'll happen either.

[soxhop411]

perhaps a new development?



Kurt Helin ‏@basketballtalk
Sources: “Mega-Whales” Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov in serious talks with Sacramento http://dlvr.it/2qs0xy #PBT #NBA

https://twitter.com/...Burkle&src=typd

Edited by soxhop411, 23 January 2013 - 12:11 AM.

[Beomoose]

Hansen's ownership group has officially filed to move the Kings to Seattle, according to Darth Stern.

[Beomoose]

Darth Stern.

"The idea of leaving Sacramento is not a good one,” Stern said, according to multiple reports. “The idea of going back to Seattle is a good idea. We’ll have to see how that plays out.”

Then grant an expansion franchise to one of them you raging douche.

[soxhop411]

https://twitter.com/KJ_MayorJohnson

 

Kings are staying..

[Nomar813]

Oh shit. Seattle keeps getting the rug pulled out from under them. That was probably their last option for relocation in the near future.

[Judge Mental13]

The NBA still has to vote next month, but yeah, not looking to good for Seattle now

[redsoxcentury]

The NBA still has to vote next month, but yeah, not looking to good for Seattle now

which I would presume means no NHL team as well, as I doubt Seattle would build a new arena solely for a hockey team.

[Spacemans Bong]

I'm glad for Sacramento. The community loves their Kings and supports them far better than their often crappy record and crappier community relations deserves.

 

I mean...I feel for Sonics fans, but not really. They have the Mariners, Seahawks, Sounders and UW. They are obviously going to get an NBA team sooner rather than later and probably an NHL team too.

 

Sacramento doesn't have any other major league teams and no major college program. The city is close enough to the Bay Area and middling enough economically that relocation would probably be the end of their major league sports history. They'd be the Hartford of the West Coast.

[Spacemans Bong]

which I would presume means no NHL team as well, as I doubt Seattle would build a new arena solely for a hockey team.

 

Tabernac!!!! - Quebec City.

[radsoxfan]

https://twitter.com/KJ_MayorJohnson

 

Kings are staying..

 

Is this assured?  Seems like they have an arena deal in place, which certainly helps their chances.  But the NBA owners still have to vote.

[Beomoose]

which I would presume means no NHL team as well, as I doubt Seattle would build a new arena solely for a hockey team.

The deal requires an NBA team coming to town before it can go forward, and with Phoenix staying put there's not an obviously ready-to-move NHL franchise.

[SoxFanInCali]

Is this assured?  Seems like they have an arena deal in place, which certainly helps their chances.  But the NBA owners still have to vote.

Definitely not a sure thing.  Sacramento had a tentative new arena deal worked out with the Maloofs a few months back, which ended up falling through.

 

When it comes down to voting for the Seattle group (that will be ponying up a big relocation fee to the league) or Sacramento (status quo), I don't have a lot of faith in the other owners.

[MiracleOfO2704]

The deal requires an NBA team coming to town before it can go forward, and with Phoenix staying put there's not an obviously ready-to-move NHL franchise.

 

I've dealt with that end of the story in the hockey subforum, but while the indication is that Phoenix will probably stay put for 2013-14, the fact of the matter is that they don't have an owner, don't have anyone seriously interested in owning the team in Arizona, and the Glendale City Council has taken away a $308 million, 20 year arena management agreement that the previous council put in place for an ownership group that couldn't raise funds in time to act on it. Their future in the desert beyond 2014 is murky at best.

[Beomoose]

I'll defer to you on that, stopped paying close attention to the Coyotes mess since I left AZ.  Regardless, the Hansen area deal isn't going to move forward on breaking ground on the chance of getting a hockey franchise a year from now.

 

Assuming it makes it past the Sac city council, I think Seattle's up a creek. Sure the Hansen deal is signed and is a bigger number, but the Arena deal is not set in stone (has to pass environmental reviews etc) which gives the NBA an out. Plus, Bennet of all people is head of the relocation committee. He's a no vote if there ever was one.

[Beomoose]

Seattle Times cites some iffy sources to say the idea of granting an expansion to one of the cities may be gaining traction and may be the reason the NBA is dragging its ass addressing the deals. I'm skeptical, Darth Stern is still quite vocal in shooting down the Expansion idea.

[moly99]

Putting aside the talent dilution and TV sharing issues, an expansion team removes the ability to use relocation to Seattle as leverage in arena projects in places like Milwaukee.

[Infield Infidel]

There's always Kansas City, which is using the OKC template. Build arena and wait

[wibi]

Dear NBA

 

Eat a Dick

 

Love the fine folks of the PNW

 

http://espn.go.com/n...-kings-stay-put

[Infield Infidel]

Is any other team potentially moving? Memphis? Charlotte?

Seems like the only way PNW or KC get a team is expansion. Not happening any time soon.

[Beomoose]

Have to wait until Stern retires is my guess, he's on a personal crusade against expansion so he can hold the relocation threat over other towns.

 

Conspiracy theory: The NBA probably knew about today's SI cover ahead of time, and this vote was delayed without any reason given last month. So they pushed it to the day they knew the Basketball coverage would be all about Collins instead of this decision.

[PBDWake]

New story up on Deadspin, via the Sports Business Journal.

 

The two big primary drivers behind the NBA voting to keep the Kings in Sacramento?

1) A publicly funded stadium, which we knew about

2) The new ownership group promised to forgo any revenue sharing they would receive, which we did not.

 

Quoting an anonymous source, the magazine said the group led by Vivek

Ranadive agreed to accept fewer revenue-sharing dollars while the team
was still playing at Sleep Train Arena. Once the team moves into the
proposed downtown arena, the Kings would take no money at all.

The NBA created a new revenue-sharing structure last season in which
wealthier franchises direct more of their profits to the struggling
franchises. The magazine said the Kings, who had the league's worst
attendance in the just-concluded regular season, would expect to collect
about $18 million a year under the new arrangement.

 

Wow. This is... embarrassing. Deadspin sums it up succinctly here:

Here's where we pause to remind you that one of the planks of the NBA's
recent lockout was the league's supposed desire to increase competitive
balance, a desire which a more robust revenue-sharing program was meant
to sate

...

All that posturing about competitive balance was bullshit, of course. We knew it then
and we know it now, this deal is just the latest reminder. The Kings
aren't staying in Sacramento because the NBA gives a shit about the city
or the fans, but because it will give the league a fancy new arena and
the other owners a few extra million dollars with which to line their
pockets.

 

You can read more here

http://deadspin.com/...cause-493151454

[SumnerH]

Is any other team potentially moving? Memphis? Charlotte?

Seems like the only way PNW or KC get a team is expansion. Not happening any time soon.

 

The PNW has a team.  This is about Seattle, not the greater region.

[Beomoose]

Hansen ups his bid, and may have made similar revenue-sharing concessions.

 

Seriously both cities have groups willing to build new arenas, dump a shitload of money into the sport, and are willing to make revenue-sharing concessions not seen since the ABA was brought into the NBA. There's a giant new TV deal in a couple years which would probably be all the more giant-er with another team. And an Expansion Draft could be a great salary dump for some existing teams. So How about an Expansion, O Dark Lord?

[Kooz]

Hansen ups his bid, and may have made similar revenue-sharing concessions.

 

Seriously both cities have groups willing to build new arenas, dump a shitload of money into the sport, and are willing to make revenue-sharing concessions not seen since the ABA was brought into the NBA. There's a giant new TV deal in a couple years which would probably be all the more giant-er with another team. And an Expansion Draft could be a great salary dump for some existing teams. So How about an Expansion, O Dark Lord?

 

As a fan I'd hate to see quality of play take a hit. One more hungry mouth to feed and not enough Bigs to feed it with.

[Infield Infidel]

http://espn.go.com/n...acramento-kings

 

Hansen not only upped his offer, he has also offered to almost quadrupled the relocation fee OKC paid, which might make the owners think again

 

As has been the case, the Maloofs want to sell to Hansen, but the league wants the Ranadive deal.