Sources tell ESPN a committee of NBA owners voted against moving the Kings to Seattle

[JimLeavy59]

Two sources told ESPN.com the Maloofs have informed their fellow owners that if their deal to sell and relocate the Kings to Seattle is not approved by league owners next week, they will not sell the team to a Sacramento-based group that promises to keep the Kings in Sacramento.


Instead, the cash-strapped Maloofs have made a "backup" agreement with the Hansen-Ballmer group to sell it 20 percent of the team for $125 million to allow the Maloofs to continue to operate the franchise.


That new "backup" plan comes on the heels of Hansen's announcement on Friday that he had upped his offer to buy the Maloofs' 65 percent of the Kings to $409 million (from $358 million) for a total valuation of $625 million.


Sources said that new proposal also included a $115 million offer to owners as a relocation fee, which would amount to about $4 million per team. By comparison, in 2008 when the Oklahoma City Thunder moved from Seattle, they paid a $30 million total fee to the other owners.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9265605/sources-maloof-family-cuts-new-deal-sacramento-kings

The NBA needs to just let this team go to Seattle. If they don't this could get messy.

 

[dave]

Just expand and water down the league some more.


Seattle Sonics
Kansas City Dolts

Not sure why St. Louis never enters this conversation. They are a good pro sports city.

 

[FedEx227]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9265605/sources-maloof-family-cuts-new-deal-sacramento-kings

The NBA needs to just let this team go to Seattle. If they don't this could get messy.

Huh? The NBA is out of this now. It's the Maloof's that are holding everything up for no reason. There's a group from Sacramento that had previously agreed to buy the team provided the NBA could guarantee they'd stay in Sacramento. The NBA has said they can stay, so the group went to write the check and the Maloof's are pulling their offer off the table.

That doesn't mean the NBA HAS to move it to Seattle. It means the Maloof's a gigantic pieces of shit.

 

[JimLeavy59]

I guess the Maloof's are now planning an anti-trust suit against the NBA. Which would be backed by Hansen.

 

[JeremyHight]

So the Maloofs are given two options:

1.) Less money, but the team will stay in the city.

2.) More money, but the team will move.

The Maloofs think it is simple... take the more money. But the NBA commission disagrees. Why? Because the Sacramento group says it will not take the money given by the revenue sharing done in the NBA. What do the Maloofs care about this revenue sharing money, it will just mean less money for their pockets, why would they ever want that deal?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Not sure why St. Louis never enters this conversation. They are a good pro sports city.

That would require somebody from St Louis putting up the money to buy a team. Pretty simple.

 

[JimLeavy59]

The best part of David Stern's tenure as NBA commissioner will be the end.

I personally think the league is heading for a not needed expansion to 32, it seems like the league is trying to stall until the current TV deal is up.

 

[JimLeavy59]

So Stern was impressed that Sacramento group said they would create jobs? Stern is full of shit.

 

[Golden Taters]

So Stern was impressed that Sacramento group said they would create jobs? Stern is full of shit.

"I'm going to keep this short, I have a game to get to in Oklahoma City." -David Stern.


:ccbrink:

 

[KNUBB]

David Stern should make his last contribution to the NBA be buying the Kings :shifty:

Worked out well enough in NOLA

 

[JimLeavy59]

I hope David Stern takes Chris Hansen out to dinner because I'm sure he'd like to be wined and dined after he's been fucked.

 

[calgaryballer]

Hansen will now get to buy an expansion franchise for just as much money! Hooray for pro sports! The NBA gets a watered down product and the people of Seattle get fucked again

 

[FedEx227]

Man, the Seattle propaganda machine really got everyone didn't it?

Here's the scenario:

The Maloofs for years have denied arena proposals in Sacramento and multiple previous offers by Sacramento investors. They publicly said the team wasn't for sale while at the same time making an illegal agreement to sell the team to a Seattle group (Chris Hansen). They are total pieces of shit who destroy anything they touch. Go look at their other business ventures.

Unlike Seattle (follow the timeline, the exact same thing that Sacramento is going through Seattle did too, the hypocrisy is unbelievable), the city of Sacramento and Kevin Johnson went to Stern and asked what he could do to keep the team in town. Stern wanted him to put an ownership group together and guarantee the building of a new arena. Johnson did that and thus the owners voted to keep the team in Sacramento which is well in their rights.

The Maloofs can still sell the team to Hansen, the NBA just denied the relocation. Hansen probably doesn't want a team in Sacramento so he'll back out. Again, follow the Seattle timeline and follow this timeline. You'll see Sacramento did everything Seattle should've done to keep their team.

The people of Seattle did not get fucked again. They were trying to take a franchise the same way they lost theirs and cried about for years. If anything it's poetic justice for their galling hypocrisy.

 

[JeremyHight]

Who the fuck cares what Sacramento did to keep their team? All that matters is that they will still get 70% attendance at their new publicly funded stadium, while much better basketball towns are left out in the dark.

Congrats, Sac! You can go back to not caring about the Kings now.

 

[FedEx227]

Do you guys admit that Seattle stopped caring about basketball? Or does fan fatigue from an uncertain future and shitty ownership only count against Sacramento and not Seattle?

Let's also ignore the 15-20 years where Sacramento had one of the leagues top attendance records, but no, totally guys.

 

[FedEx227]

2002
Sonics: 90.5
Kings: 100

2003
Sonics: 91
Kings: 100

2004
Sonics: 91.6
Kings: 100

2005
Sonics: 96.5
Kings: 100

2006
Sonics: 94.9
Kings: 100

2007
Sonics: 83.5
Kings: 100

2008
Sonics: 78.2
Kings: 81.7

2009
Kings: 72.6

2010
Kings: 76.5

Somehow one of these is a great basketball fan base and the other doesn't care about their team.

 

[NAHSTE]

Who the fuck cares what Sacramento did to keep their team? All that matters is that they will still get 70% attendance at their new publicly funded stadium, while much better basketball towns are left out in the dark.

Congrats, Sac! You can go back to not caring about the Kings now.

:ukiddingme:

The propaganda machine working wonders.

 

[JeremyHight]

First off, your 2007 number is wrong, it is 93.5, not 83.5. Source: http://espn.go.com/nba/attendance/_/year/2007/sort/homePct

Second,

2011
Kings: 80.2

2012
Kings: 83.8

2013
Kings: 79.4

Seattle had one season under 90%, their final season when the team was being moved and attendance dropped. On the other hand, Sac has had 6 consecutive seasons under 90% (their highest not even reaching 84%). Yet you think Sac should have a team over Seattle.

 

[FedEx227]

Yes. Because they deserve to have a fresh start with owners that aren't among the biggest pieces of shit in the world. This moving and turmoil between the Maloofs and Sacramento has been going on for awhile. I'm not about to say that 6 seasons under 90% after 15+ of 100% means they don't care about basketball anymore. The timeline proves that the cities struggle with Maloofs coincides with the sudden "not caring about basketball".

Again, in both scenarios the cities were given an ultimatum. Sacramento did what they were told. Seattle didn't. It's not that hard to understand. Now Seattle is taking over the OKC role (SECRETLY SELL US YOUR TEAM SO WE CAN MOVE IT!) while Sacramento is doing everything Seattle should've done to keep their team.

 

[Rayman]

Seattle becoming to the NBA what LA has to the NFL.