Sacramento Kings moving franchise to the OC, CA.

The city of Virginia Beach has set up a press conference Tuesday to talk about "arena developments." Among those involved are:

• Peter Luukko, president and chief operating officer of Comcast-Spectacor
• Michael Evans, president Live Nation Arenas and Wilson Howard, president of Live Nation’s southeast division
• Warren Harris, director of economic development for the City of Virginia Beach

So there's that.

 

Sure, just as the Bee article gave me a shred of hope that this wasn't happening...

 

The Maloofs arent talking, so that's proof something is in the works.

 

And if they were talking, they'd be lying...

I hope Stern blocks the move. He won't, but it would be great if he did.

 

Because ... why?

 

The market can support a team. It won't support the owners.

 

It's a leap of faith to think or assume any small market can support a team. Oklahoma City had the chance to prove it and made the most of that opportunity.

Maybe Virginia Beach will prove everyone wrong and be selling the place out five years from now. We'll see...

 

Oklahoma City also got a team with local owners, and one that emerged as a championship-caliber team in fairly short order. I'll be curious to see what happens with attendance after the team has been there a while, and starts sucking.

But it's a good point that even if Hampton Roads gets a team and supports it right away, they're still stuck with the Maloofs, who at some point are going to fuck things up and alienate the fan base.

 

I'm not sure Okie City deserves credit for inheriting Kevin Durant, but you're dead-on about local ownership.

If the Kings were for sale and an owner from Virginia Beach wanted to buy the team and move them there, that's a lot different than what we have now.

If the Maloofs are the owners, Virginia Beach will be lucky to keep the team for five years.

 

The Maloofs will be lucky to keep the team five more years. Anybody with a calculator and an IQ above room temperature can see that their financial position has turned to shit.

 

Yep. OKC is pistol-hot right now but see if the arena is still packed in five years when (suppose) Durant takes off for the Lakers and the team is slugging along at 35-47.

Also, does anybody suppose the Seattle SuperSonics wouldn't be selling out wall-to-wall with a young, exciting, title-contender team?