NBA Votes Against Sacramento Kings' Relocation To Seattle

[bosrs1]

Trust me, I'm a developer! - George Maloof

This is relevant to the discussion:

Not as relevant as this. Check out around the 1:30 mark (though watch the whole thing as it's a pretty concise summation of the screwjob perpetrated by the Maloofs now with Hansen's help).

[bosrs1]

The plot with the Kings, specifically the Maloofs, thickens daily. Turns out about the time the Maloofs were torpedoing the Sacramento plan to build an arena funded by $255 million in public funds and $70 mil in private funds provided by other parties (not the Maloofs) last April, they were in preliminary negotiations with the developers trying to build a 3 stadium/arena complex in Henderson, Nevada. The Maloofs killed a perfectly good plan in Sacramento because they wanted to move the team to their "home" in the gambling capital of the world (ironically also the town where the blew most of their father's fortune). And they were apparently were deep in the negotiation phase with the developers when they pulled out late last year to finish courting Hansen. An act which has now helped torpedo the Henderson complex as well.

These guys are leaving a pile of arena deals any other owner in the country would jump at littering the landscape. Two in Sac, Anaheim completed the renovations for them that they'll never use on the public's dime, Virginia Beach where the state has already worked out how to pay for it, and now Henderson (Vegas) where all that was needed was the Kings for the developer's financing partners to commit to build. All of it is just more ammo to use against them in April for Sacramento. These guys are scorching the Earth across the US which can't be what the league wants.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/henderson-arena-deal-failed-because-sacramento-kings-went-elsewhere-developer-says-189767601.html

[dfwabel]

As poor decisions the Maloofs have made in regards to the Kings, I have no reason to believe the Henderson developer, Chris Milam since in July 2010, he said, "We have a NBA team under contract."

Plus, the Henderson deal included a swap of federal land which Milam was the only bidder and the same project wanted the Nevada Legislature to grant them a TIF in 2011. Oh, and the Chinese company Milam was dealing with, they make surveillance equipment.

[Lights Out]

The Maloofs are quite clearly the worst owners in the history of sports. Not only have they wasted all their money, screwed over a great market and supportive fanbase, and run a completely dysfunctional low-budget mess of an organization, they've also strung other cities along in their desperate attempts to spite Sacramento while wasting other people's money in the process.

Dolan, Sarver, and Sterling look like Mark Cuban, Jerry Buss, and Mickey Arison compared to this piece-of-trash family.

[bosrs1]

The Maloofs are quite clearly the worst owners in the history of sports. Not only have they wasted all their money, screwed over a great market and supportive fanbase, and run a completely dysfunctional low-budget mess of an organization, they've also strung other cities along in their desperate attempts to spite Sacramento while wasting other people's money in the process.

Dolan, Sarver, and Sterling look like Mark Cuban, Jerry Buss, and Mickey Arison compared to this piece-of-trash family.

Oh it gets worse. Apparently not only were they wooing/being wooed by Vegas last spring but they were also entertaining the idea of Mexico City enough that they had the Mexico City Kings potential owners come to a game and sit in the Maloofs courtside seats. Again while claiming to Sacramento fans and officials that they had no interest in selling the team and wanted to be in Sac.

In case you've lost track, which wouldn't surprise me given the sheer number of cities, that's Anaheim, Henderson (Las Vegas), Virginia Beach, Mexico City and Seattle the Maloofs have explored either moving to or selling to in the last 48 months (that we know about) while ignoring and refusing to work with the city they currently call home despite Sacramento coming up with $10 million in corporate sponsorship the Maloofs "couldn't find" as well as now a pair of viable and in one case funded arena deals and NBA approved replacement owners should the Maloofs want to sell.

A "piece of work" doesn't begin to describe how :censored:ty a group of people and owners the Maloofs are. They make racist run-my-team-as-a-hobby Donald Sterling look like a freaking saint.

[rams80]

When did the Maloofs turn into the ABA?

[bosrs1]

When did the Maloofs turn into the ABA?

Right here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZow0Enq1vU

*note: This ad aired right when the brothers were coming hat in hand to the city asking for a public subsidy for a new arena the first time back in 2006. They subsequently pulled their support from the ballot initiative after everyone pointed out the idiocy of their actions and it was soundly defeated as you'd expect.

[bosrs1]

Interestingly Hansen/Ballmer has filed this afternoon for relocation of the Kings to Seattle for the 2013-14 season. With the transfer of that 30 million dollars on Feb 1 the Hansen/Ballmer group appear to be exerting defacto control of the Kings now pending the league's BOG blessing of the transfer.

http://www.usnews.co...-for-relocation

[Jimmy!]

They've got a great fanbase, the 20th largest market in the US to themselves, plenty of corporate support. The only thing they lacked were real owners. The Maloofs ran the Kings like a money losing college frat.

Fanbase and market size don't mean THAT much.

Legitimate question time. If there was strong interest in other local parties in buying the team last year, or the year before, and a solid offer was on the table, why didn't the Maloofs sell them then? What's the difference between a strong offer and arena deal in 2011 or 2012 versus what Hansen's group is offering now?

Hansen isn't in Sacramento, it's as simple as that. The Maloofs are the kind of petty pricks who would spite Sac because they had the gall to derail the Maloofs plans to move to Anaheim in 2011 (they still blame Ron Burkle and Kevin Johnson for that). On top of that the Maloofs are nearly broke which is why they didn't want to stick to the arena deal they initially agreed to in 2012 as they can't continue to own the team long term. That and they likely feel they can get maximum value from Hansen since he is willing to overpay for the club. If they'd made an offer locally in Sac it would not have been for as much. Which may be their end game. They've now got Hansen to commit to a significant overpayment for the team (and to basically throw away a non-refundable 30 million dollars to the brothers yesterday on top of it), and now may be in the middle of a bidding war between Seattle and Sacramento interests for the team upping their eventual take further.

I keep coming across this nationally, people just don't seem to realize the Maloofs really are this :censored:ed up. Sacramento has viable ownership options, viable publicly funded arena plans (hell they had an agreed to arena plan), and yet no Sac interest was ever given the option to purchase the team. Every time Sac interests inquired about purchasing the Maloofs party line was the team wasn't for sale right up until December of last year. All the while the Maloofs were working with Hansen under the table. The Maloofs didn't even notify their minority partners they were selling the team (as required by the ownership agreement). This whole thing has been shady from the beginning ostensibly because keeping it quiet was the only way it would go sailing through. The Maloofs knew Sac had options but the spiteful douchebags didn't want to give Sac the time of day.

Read an article about Sacramento's long-term debt, close to $2 billion. Any Sacto locals know if the previously agreed arena plan is part of that debt or in addition to?

[bosrs1]

Read an article about Sacramento's long-term debt, close to $2 billion. Any Sacto locals know if the previously agreed arena plan is part of that debt or in addition to?

Not really a surprise. Like most cities they're being drowned by their own employees and former employees retirement benefits. They'll undoubtedly end pensions like many other cities are starting to do.

[dbadefense1990]

Read an article about Sacramento's long-term debt, close to $2 billion. Any Sacto locals know if the previously agreed arena plan is part of that debt or in addition to?

Not really a surprise. Like most cities they're being drowned by their own employees and former employees retirement benefits. They'll undoubtedly end pensions* like many other cities are starting to do.

* unless you work for a public city union, which in turn, the mayor blames you for budget woes and raise your taxes to keep bloated public pensions going

[Jimmy!]

Read an article about Sacramento's long-term debt, close to $2 billion. Any Sacto locals know if the previously agreed arena plan is part of that debt or in addition to?

Not really a surprise. Like most cities they're being drowned by their own employees and former employees retirement benefits. They'll undoubtedly end pensions like many other cities are starting to do.

Pensions aside, there's still over $800 million just in debt alone. Is the arena deal part of that or in addition to it?

[bosrs1]

Read an article about Sacramento's long-term debt, close to $2 billion. Any Sacto locals know if the previously agreed arena plan is part of that debt or in addition to?

Not really a surprise. Like most cities they're being drowned by their own employees and former employees retirement benefits. They'll undoubtedly end pensions* like many other cities are starting to do.

* unless you work for a public city union, which in turn, the mayor blames you for budget woes and raise your taxes to keep bloated public pensions going

Not sure what makes you think that will continue to fly. In San Diego I know they city recently voted to kill public pensions for everyone except police and fire and replace them with 401(k) style plans. Passed by a huge margin (over 2/3rds of voters). San Jose is working toward a similar goal. I'm sure you'll see most California cities at least follow suit. Pensions are an endangered species in California as they should be.

As for the arena, not sure if it's in addition or included. But either way it shouldn't matter since the public portion of the arena funding has included in the plan how they're going to be paying it off long term. So it would be a cost neutral proposition long term.

[dbadefense1990]

Read an article about Sacramento's long-term debt, close to $2 billion. Any Sacto locals know if the previously agreed arena plan is part of that debt or in addition to?

Not really a surprise. Like most cities they're being drowned by their own employees and former employees retirement benefits. They'll undoubtedly end pensions* like many other cities are starting to do.

* unless you work for a public city union, which in turn, the mayor blames you for budget woes and raise your taxes to keep bloated public pensions going

Not sure what makes you think that will continue to fly. In San Diego I know they city recently voted to kill public pensions for everyone except police and fire and replace them with 401(k) style plans. Passed by a huge margin (over 2/3rds of voters). San Jose is working toward a similar goal. I'm sure you'll see most California cities at least follow suit. Pensions are an endangered species in California as they should be.

If San Diego and San Jose reflect ending the current pension system, then Los Angeles is everything but it. To keep hiring police and fire and keep their pensions going, we're being asked for another 1/2 cent sales tax jump in March (Measure A), this after approving a 1/4 cent state-wide sales tax jump (Prop 30, and even then, there's still talk of college tuition jumps before the school year ends). There have also been talks of privatizing the parking system in Downtown LA (go tell Chicago people how that worked out). And I'm not even going into detail of the notorious pension-fighting, lazy teacher-defending UTLA.

[Gothamite]

California screwed itself years ago when they allowed the voters to strangle tax revenues. The Prop process is a terrible way to govern.

[bosrs1]

California screwed itself years ago when they allowed the voters to strangle tax revenues. The Prop process is a terrible way to govern.

Won't get any argument from me on that. I've often wondered if I could get Prop FU passed. Basically Prop FU would call for the end of the proposition system.

[bosrs1]

So some news about the Kings today. Stern was asked

"Asked David Stern if Kevin Johnson came through with everything in his upcoming proposal if he’d prefer to keep the Kings in Sacramento:

"That’s what I tell the owners, it’s up to them," Stern said. "That’s why owners exist, not just little old commissioners.""

Sacramento sources immediately interpreted that to mean Stern would recommend the team stay in Sac, Seattle interpreted it to mean that he'd leave it up to the owners. The reality is we won't know if he makes a recommendation until after the fact.

Also it looks like Stern will give KJ is day on the 18th of April and that the owners won't be voting before then on the move. So any hope Seattle had of rushing this through appears gone. Additionally Stern was asked about expansion and threw water on the idea. Meaning either Seattle or Sacramento is going to be left out in the cold for the foreseeable future or until the Bucks are ready to move (in about 5 years).

[CubsFanBudMan]

KJ apparently announced that they lined up the competing local bid as promised. Mastrov & Burkle sorted out how they'll chop things up (team vs. arena). More apparently tomorrow:

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/ken-berger/21787761/sacramento-mayor-kevin-johnson-delivers-local-owner-for-kings-tells-seattle-not-our-team

[bosrs1]

KJ apparently announced that they lined up the competing local bid as promised. Mastrov & Burkle sorted out how they'll chop things up (team vs. arena). More apparently tomorrow:

http://www.cbssports...le-not-our-team

Apparently Burkle will have an ownership stake in the team, but Mastrov is the primary on that front with Burkle taking the arena. Also looks like there is a third silent equity investor as well. Not bad considering Sac only had a month to put this all together. Reportedly they submitted their full bid to the NBA board this morning as well. Now the waiting game begins leading up to April 18.

[illwauk]

Read an article about Sacramento's long-term debt, close to $2 billion. Any Sacto locals know if the previously agreed arena plan is part of that debt or in addition to?

Not really a surprise. Like most cities they're being drowned by their own employees and former employees retirement benefits. They'll undoubtedly end pensions* like many other cities are starting to do.

* unless you work for a public city union, which in turn, the mayor blames you for budget woes and raise your taxes to keep bloated public pensions going

Not sure what makes you think that will continue to fly. In San Diego I know they city recently voted to kill public pensions for everyone except police and fire and replace them with 401(k) style plans. Passed by a huge margin (over 2/3rds of voters). San Jose is working toward a similar goal. I'm sure you'll see most California cities at least follow suit. Pensions are an endangered species in California as they should be.

As for the arena, not sure if it's in addition or included. But either way it shouldn't matter since the public portion of the arena funding has included in the plan how they're going to be paying it off long term. So it would be a cost neutral proposition long term.

Forgive the off-topic quip, but what the hell makes police and fire so special that their unions get to be protected from this Teapublican-induced wave of "public unions are the anti-christ of taxpayers" sentiment?