Sacramento Kings moving franchise to the OC, CA.

Stern may have shorttimer's disease, but I think he still has the bones to force the Maloofs out at any price.

 

The article in the Sacramento paper this morning made it sound like the Maloofs were likely to sell the team to the Ranadive Group, and that a deal could be done within the next 24-48 hours. I won't believe that until it actually happens, but I get the sense that the Maloofs are so cash-strapped that they may have to sell the team, even if it's not the deal they wanted.

 

Yeah, that was my take, too. The league didn't say they couldn't sell, just that they couldn't move. Why Hansen doesn't want them in Sacramento is anyone's guess. A bidding war usually drives the price up, not down.

 

The Ranadive ownership group isn't solid at this point. Read that another Indian-born investor joined this week.

 

The Maloofs do have a $200 million line of credit with the league. Not sure how deep they are into it, but maybe Stern is threatening to go full Soprano and call in the whole amount.

 

The quote I read yesterday was that the whole purchase price was already in escrow; not just promised.

 

My "fourth-favorite" comment indicated a circa-2008 Seahawks-Mariners-Huskies Football-Sonics pecking order.

I suppose during the Shawn Kemp/Payton/George Karl heyday, the Sonics were a No. 2 (at best). Would it be fair to say they never surpassed the "Dawgs" of Don James, or the "Refuse To Lose" Mariners?

 

Is something so badly broken about the Sacramento market or arena that no billionaire would want to own a team based there?

 

When the Sonics were good, they were huge in the city. I was in my early teens in those years and everyone at school had Sonics gear. The Huskies have always been big, especially when James was there but I am not sure any one season (not even 1995-96 Sonics who lost to the Finals or the Seahawks that went to the Super Bowl) will ever top the Refuse to Lose Mariners.

 

Looks like the Maloofs are selling to the local group led by Vivek Ranadive, with about 30 other investors.

It's a terrible deal for Sacramento. A $258 million subsidy, well over half the price of the arena, from a city that is front and center in the foreclosure crisis and every other budget problem known to California. But, yay Kings, and yay to any other team that wants to extort taxpayers, because now Seattle stays alive as the "give us what we want or we'll go there" destination.

 

It depends how you look at it. Everything you said is true, but that team is ridiculously important to the city. The city desperately wants to be perceived as a "major-league" city, even though it's either not, or borderline at best, and that's from someone whose parents are former Kings season-ticket holders.

As a fan, I'm happy, but obviously a city that is in terrible financial shape is paying a shitload of money to keep the team.

 

Eh, the debate over the importance of pro sports to the economic and social life of a city will rage on forever. I don't agree with the financing for most stadium/arena deals in the past decade or more, but it is what it is.

Look, if Seattle had ponied up $500 million or whatever to build a new arena five years ago, Clay Bennett would have re-sold the Sonics (and probably be scrambling to buy the Kings right now) and the team would never have relocated.

Hell, I wish the Thrashers had stayed in Atlanta (simply because it would fun to have a game to attend every once in a while), even though that move had nothing to do with the arena lease.