Sacramento Kings moving franchise to the OC, CA.

You are right. I'm just saying ruling out a city because a pro sports league failed there 30 years ago is too simplistic. That said, there may be plenty of good reasons for the NHL not going to KC, I don't know enough about it say.

 

Biggest reason: There's not a local millionaire or billionaire around to woo an NBA or NHL team. There's no Balsillie-type person who's angling to bring a franchise like that to the area, and until that changes, I don't see anyone moving into the Sprint Center.

 

Well, it helped just a teensy bit that the Nordiques won the Cup instantly after arriving in Colorado, and have remained consistently quite good ever since. They still haven't had two losing seasons in a row in Colorado.

Problem with most of these franchises in marginal markets, they've been allowed to get bad and stay bad (and some have never been good at all).

When the team just sucks year after year after year, you never build a fan base. Why should you?

 

Well, there are possibly two of them, but you don't want one of them running your franchise.

 

What I find interesting is that as I understand the Anaheim lease the Maloof's will pay eight percent of gross, split concessions and parking 50/50 and receive no revenue from luxury boxes from Samueli (in Sacramento they could sell 30 boxes). And the Maloof's will also have to pay a relocation fee of fifty million or so. And the Maloof's still appear to think they can make more money in Anaheim, largely from extra TV money, I guess.

It makes you wonder how long the arena in Newark will remain empty after the Nets move to Brooklyn. Seems to me like the economics would be the same for a Memphis or Charlotte to move into that building.

Are the economics of cable television such that small market teams will migrate to larger cities? With a decent teams you pretty much can sell out anywhere but cable pays per subscriber and a small market does not have enough boxes to compete.

 

Newark is an attractive option, especially with SNY having a slot open for a winter sport.

 

The arena in Newark isn't empty. The Devils and Seton Hall play there. The old arena in East Rutherford will be without a major tenant, I believe.

 

The Devils and Seton Hall play in the Newark Arena but they found dates for the Nets. So they could find dates for the NBA again.

 

The Maloofs don't think about or care if they can make money in Anaheim, because it isn't likely to be them in control. They are after the cash payment that they can slide over to their failing operation at the Palms. They are horrible, putrid, clueless businessman who have squandered everything Daddy gave them, and they need the cash now and I would bet they sell the team within two years because they will need even more cash.

 

The Lakers left Fox for Time Warner, creating an opening for an NBA team on the regional Fox channel in LA. So the Kings will get millions more in rights fees than they would have in Sacramento. The OC demographics and corporate base should allow for higher ticket prices than in Sacramento as well.

 

The plan calls for the Meadowlands arena to become a concert/entertainment venue and for sporting events (Devils, Seton Hall, etc.) at the Newark arena.

 

The regional Fox channel already televises the Clips, Kings, and Ducks, along with Pac-10/12 (UCLA/USC) hoops, no?

How much room is there going to be for the "Royals?"

I presume FSN has an "overflow" channel so they'll never get completely bumped, but my bet is they'll be knocked down onto the overflow channel pretty frequently.

FSN isn't in the business of giving away money for nothing, so I would certainly suspect their schedule placement will be somewhat less than prime. I know NBA viewership dwarfs hockey, but the Royals will be coming in with a reputation as a perennial doormat.

They actually might be better signing on with Time Warner as the JV team on the Lakers' channel.