NBA Votes Against Sacramento Kings' Relocation To Seattle

[DG_ThenNowForever]

But are the Raptors successful in Toronto? Post Carter/McGrady, they have no national (or international, I guess) presence. I think it's a side effect of ditching the purple.

[LMU]

But are the Raptors successful in Toronto? Post Carter/McGrady, they have no national (or international, I guess) presence. I think it's a side effect of ditching the purple.

I'm sure Paul Lukas would disagree with that statement.

[IceCap]

But are the Raptors successful in Toronto? Post Carter/McGrady, they have no national (or international, I guess) presence. I think it's a side effect of ditching the purple.

Oh don't get me wrong. The Raptors have been a hot mess since Carter left. The team has no direction, and a minimal presence outside of the GTA.

That being said they're owned by MLSE, which has more money then G-d, and they serve their purpose for filling in dates at the ACC. They also draw in the well-off-but-not-affluent-enough-to-get-Leafs-tickets Toronto crowd, so the attendance is respectable. Not great, but certainly not terrible. So despite being a terrible dumpster fire on the court they're in no danger of moving.

Losing the purple did suck though.

But are the Raptors successful in Toronto? Post Carter/McGrady, they have no national (or international, I guess) presence. I think it's a side effect of ditching the purple.

I'm sure Paul Lukas would disagree with that statement.

Paul didn't get the memo. You're only allowed to irrationally hate one colour. He shot his load with black.

[The_Admiral]

He shot his load with black.

Bad mental picture. Bad, bad, bad, bad mental picture. Don't trade your pineapple for India ink, kids.

Anyway yeah the Raptors are fine on the ledger; they're just run by idiots, and operate at a low murmur of mediocrity that's totally acceptable to the modern NBA.

[Barnitosupreme9]

But are the Raptors successful in Toronto? Post Carter/McGrady, they have no national (or international, I guess) presence. I think it's a side effect of ditching the purple.

They're 12 in attendance. Not amazing or anything, but pretty good.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

The latest from the Seattle Times:

Kings minority owner abandons plan to buy team

John Kehriotis, who owns 12 percent of the Sacramento Kings, said last month he would attempt to buy the team and build a privately financed arena in Sacramento.

Among the many recent subplots of the Seattle/Sacramento battle over the Kings had been the claim of a current minority owner that he intended to try to make a bid for the team.

But that apparently won't happen. It was reported Friday that the minority owner John Kehriotis is abandoning his attempt to bid on the team and build a privately financed arena north of downtown.

Kehriotis owns 12 percent of the Kings and said last month he would try to exercise his right of first refusal to buy the team. But KCRA-TV reported that he "couldn't pull together the investors" to make the bid.

Kehriotis has not been part of the ownership group that has been assembled by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson that is making its own bid for the team.

That group is led by four major investors who also are backing a plan for a new $447 million downtown arena.

The Sacramento City Council approved a term sheet for the arena this week, which will be part of the presentation by Johnson and others in the ownership group when they meet before a select group of NBA owners Wednesday in New York.

There's a lot of moving parts in Sacramento, so I'm not sure what effect one investor has on the others; the article itself says this guy wasn't part of the Kevin Johnson group. However, it feels like there's less room to manuever on the Sacremento side; they need everything to go as well as possible in order to pull their deal off.

April should be an interesting month.

[mattwswfc]

http://blog.seattlepi.com/sonics/2013/04/02/chris-hansen-44000-requests-for-sonics-season-tickets/

Something a little more to sweeten the pot for Hansen and Seattle!

Your move Sacramento...

[IceCap]

http://blog.seattlepi.com/sonics/2013/04/02/chris-hansen-44000-requests-for-sonics-season-tickets/

Something a little more to sweeten the pot for Hansen and Seattle!

Your move Sacramento...

Jim Balsillie sold thousands of season tickets when he tried to buy the Predators. Ended up hurting him more then helping him.

[Lights Out]

darren rovell @darrenrovell

The 44,000 season ticket requests for a Seattle basketball team is a totally bogus # w/o a reasonable price point.

darren rovell @darrenrovell

Another ridiculous Seattle basketball # put out yesterday: 268 businesses and individuals “interested” in suites. At what price??

[mattwswfc]

darren rovell @darrenrovell

The 44,000 season ticket requests for a Seattle basketball team is a totally bogus # w/o a reasonable price point.

darren rovell @darrenrovell

Another ridiculous Seattle basketball # put out yesterday: 268 businesses and individuals "interested" in suites. At what price??

Even if the number is exaggerated, then take 30,000 off and you still have a pretty good season ticket base. Out of curiosity, how many ST do the Kings have off hand? And what is the average number of ST in the NBA?

[Lights Out]

This could be the death of Seattle's bid:

In what may be a surprise development to some given Seattle’s head start on the arena building process, sources say that in Wednesday’s meeting and in the coming weeks, Chris Hansen’s group will reveal that they have “very little chance” of opening an arena before the 2017-18 season due to expected challenges under environmental law.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/03/whos-winning-the-race-to-open-a-new-kings-arena/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Gothamite]

darren rovell @darrenrovell

The 44,000 season ticket requests for a Seattle basketball team is a totally bogus # w/o a reasonable price point.

darren rovell @darrenrovell

Another ridiculous Seattle basketball # put out yesterday: 268 businesses and individuals “interested” in suites. At what price??

Wow, Rovell made a decent, considered point? I need to go lie down.

[bosrs1]

This could be the death of Seattle's bid:

In what may be a surprise development to some given Seattle's head start on the arena building process, sources say that in Wednesday's meeting and in the coming weeks, Chris Hansen's group will reveal that they have "very little chance" of opening an arena before the 2017-18 season due to expected challenges under environmental law.

http://probasketball..._medium=twitter

Coupled with Stern's comments on the price matching no longer being an issue (ie: Sacramento is offering as much $$$ as they needed to), it really seems to come down to arena and revenue. And Sacramento's arena while starting from behind does have California's expedited EIR process to fall back on meaning it could quickly take the lead. What was a Seattle slam dunk 3 months ago is now a very hard decision for the NBA.

darren rovell @darrenrovell

The 44,000 season ticket requests for a Seattle basketball team is a totally bogus # w/o a reasonable price point.

darren rovell @darrenrovell

Another ridiculous Seattle basketball # put out yesterday: 268 businesses and individuals "interested" in suites. At what price??

Even if the number is exaggerated, then take 30,000 off and you still have a pretty good season ticket base. Out of curiosity, how many ST do the Kings have off hand? And what is the average number of ST in the NBA?

Don't know how many they have currently, but they have over 10,000 full season pledges from their recent ticket drive (and unlike Seattle they were picked through and weeded out any faux bids). And that's from individuals not businesses. The implication being that many Kings fans are just waiting for real owners to come back into the fold and have been staying away due to the Maloofs.

[63Bulldogs63]

This could be the death of Seattle's bid:

In what may be a surprise development to some given Seattle's head start on the arena building process, sources say that in Wednesday's meeting and in the coming weeks, Chris Hansen's group will reveal that they have "very little chance" of opening an arena before the 2017-18 season due to expected challenges under environmental law.

http://probasketball..._medium=twitter

Coupled with Stern's comments on the price matching no longer being an issue (ie: Sacramento is offering as much $$$ as they needed to), it really seems to come down to arena and revenue. And Sacramento's arena while starting from behind does have California's expedited EIR process to fall back on meaning it could quickly take the lead. What was a Seattle slam dunk 3 months ago is now a very hard decision for the NBA.

darren rovell @darrenrovell

The 44,000 season ticket requests for a Seattle basketball team is a totally bogus # w/o a reasonable price point.

darren rovell @darrenrovell

Another ridiculous Seattle basketball # put out yesterday: 268 businesses and individuals "interested" in suites. At what price??

Even if the number is exaggerated, then take 30,000 off and you still have a pretty good season ticket base. Out of curiosity, how many ST do the Kings have off hand? And what is the average number of ST in the NBA?

Don't know how many they have currently, but they have over 10,000 full season pledges from their recent ticket drive (and unlike Seattle they were picked through and weeded out any faux bids). And that's from individuals not businesses. The implication being that many Kings fans are just waiting for real owners to come back into the fold and have been staying away due to the Maloofs.

The Current number pledged as I write this reply is 10,864 individuals pledging for season tickets. I know I have kept away in recent years because of the maloofs. I can see where casual fans would be put off. They never adjusted ticket prices according to talent. You can't charge 2000-2005 prices for whats on court. I know a lot of people feel betrayed by the maloofs as I do too. The best end result for the nba is to let the Kings stay in Sacramento, and then Silver announce when he takes over as commish the expansion of Seatle.

[omnivore]

This just makes it more likely that the NBA expands eventually to Seattle, despite denials of not wanting to. I can't see them telling billionaires on either side "sorry, we don't want your money." This is just an unprecedented situation in the four sports not counting Jim Basille and the Hamilton mess in the NHL. Too many heavy hitters with cash the NBA guys would love to pocket. Someone is getting an expansion team at the end of all of this.

[Mac the Knife]

Someone is getting an expansion team at the end of all of this.

Why would the NBA do that? It surely wouldn't be in their best economic interests, short term or long. Expanding (presumably to 32 teams) would bring roughly $20 million in quick cash to each of the NBA's existing 30 teams (presuming they can get $300 million per expansion franchise - not exactly a given but possible), but would force them to divide their cash cow (television revenue) 32 ways instead of 30, basically in perpetuity. Plus, expanding would cost the NBA leverage in other cities where, sooner or later, they'll need to use the relocation threat ("What? You don't want to build a new arena for the team? Well, I think there's a group from Sacramento that might want to buy the franchise and relocate them.")

[rams80]

Someone is getting an expansion team at the end of all of this.

Why would the NBA do that? It surely wouldn't be in their best economic interests, short term or long. Expanding (presumably to 32 teams) would bring roughly $20 million in quick cash to each of the NBA's existing 30 teams (presuming they can get $300 million per expansion franchise - not exactly a given but possible), but would force them to divide their cash cow (television revenue) 32 ways instead of 30, basically in perpetuity. Plus, expanding would cost the NBA leverage in other cities where, sooner or later, they'll need to use the relocation threat ("What? You don't want to build a new arena for the team? Well, I think there's a group from Sacramento that might want to buy the franchise and relocate them.")

Rebuttal: There's no imminent or medium-term arena issue in the league (outside of the Kings), so you don't need a convenient market for moving threats, expansion to 32 is not necessary, and whatever hit to the TV deal is made up by having two loaded owners entering the league rather than 1.

[bosrs1]

Someone is getting an expansion team at the end of all of this.

Why would the NBA do that? It surely wouldn't be in their best economic interests, short term or long. Expanding (presumably to 32 teams) would bring roughly $20 million in quick cash to each of the NBA's existing 30 teams (presuming they can get $300 million per expansion franchise - not exactly a given but possible), but would force them to divide their cash cow (television revenue) 32 ways instead of 30, basically in perpetuity. Plus, expanding would cost the NBA leverage in other cities where, sooner or later, they'll need to use the relocation threat ("What? You don't want to build a new arena for the team? Well, I think there's a group from Sacramento that might want to buy the franchise and relocate them.")

Rebuttal: There's no imminent or medium-term arena issue in the league (outside of the Kings), so you don't need a convenient market for moving threats, expansion to 32 is not necessary, and whatever hit to the TV deal is made up by having two loaded owners entering the league rather than 1.

That and the Sacramento group and arena are dead if the Kings leave (or Sac isn't immediately granted an expansion team). KJ is termed out after his current term and there won't be the political will to get another arena done if this arena deal doesn't placate the NBA right here, right now.

[Gothamite]

Rebuttal: There's no imminent or medium-term arena issue in the league (outside of the Kings), so you don't need a convenient market for moving threats,

The Bucks? Maybe?

[Lights Out]

Why would the NBA do that? It surely wouldn't be in their best economic interests, short term or long.

Why not? By giving an expansion team to the "losing" city/group, the league guarantees that they'll have two passionate ownership groups with tons of money who can contribute to the league's profits. How is that bad for the NBA?

Plus, if both Sacramento and Seattle have teams, then the NBA has a presence in two great basketball markets instead of choosing one and losing out on the other.