Sacramento Kings moving franchise to the OC, CA.

Deal off:

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/13/4411658/maloofs-say-arena-plan-imperils.html

The Maloofs are the NBA's version of Frank McCourt. They're used to working with other people's money and are in way over their heads.

 

So after how many years of talking up what a great financial boon the arena would be, now the Kings hire an economist who says it will be terrible fir the team and will destroy the city's coffers. What a mess.

But at least we found an example of somebody finally telling the truth about how much arenas DON'T benefit the taxpayers that get defrauded and/or extorted into paying for them.

 

Yeah, that'll help the sale price right? Way to go Maloofs, way to just kill the value of your franchise, any possibility of public financing of your arena. Brilliant. Is it any wonder they've lost their casino and beer distributorship?

 

Stern isn't sounding like he'll try to block the Magoofs from moving the team.

 

Here's the print version of the story I posted earlier. My impression is the Maloofs want to have their cake and eat it too: An NBA team, plus an arena they don't have to pay for (Anaheim? Seattle? KC?). Stern is making Caspar Milquetoast look like a hardend, decisiive leader. If he's really interested in keeping the NBA in Sacramento, his first call on Monday morning is to Bud Selig for a tutorial on how he engineered the Dodgers deal. And if it's possible, it looks like KJ was the shining knight and played for a fool at the same time.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/14/4413343/kings-arena-deal-crumbles-as-maloofs.html

 

And yet assholes like this never seem to have a shortage of people giving them money to play with. Fucking baffling.

 

All we need is a federal law unconditionally forbidding the use of public money in any form for construction of professional sports facilities, and forcing franchises already playing in such facilities to assume all financing costs.

 

If they move into the new Kemper Arena (iI think that's the name, right?) in KC, they would join the Raiders as the only teams to abandon a market and then move back. That would be quite interesting.

 

No love for the ABA Pittsburgh-Minnesota-Pittsburgh Pipers of 1967-68-69?

 

How can the NBA not twist the Maloofs' arms to sell the team? From the sound of it, the arena deal in Sacramento is a state-of-the-art arrangement for all involved. If that league is going to continue to operate with 30 teams, it needs a way to keep the small markets viable. This deal seemingly did that.

Could the NBA buy the team from the Maloofs the way it did New Orleans and find a buyer in the next year or two -- the way it did New Orleans? Could just sign over Tom Benson's check to the Maloofs to get them to go away.

 

Sprint Center. Kemper still exists though not for too much longer.

 

I don't think KC is an option. AEG manages the Sprint Center and they were going to manage the Sacramento arena. I suspect the Maloofs burned those bridges.