Except they're pretty much broke (for rich guy standards). But yeah, that could be the case. I can't say I've paid all that much attention to it over the years.
I'm more confused after reading this article...... http://www.oregonlive.com/nba/index.ssf/2013/03/sacramento_mayor_kevin_johnson_1.html
This is a nice read http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/03/23/2526939/campaigning-for-the-kings-sacramento.html
whats odd is I swear I read somewhere it was a "billion dollar deal", but the #'s don't seem to ad up.
http://www.komonews.com/news/Sacramento-mayor-announces-preliminary-arena-deal-199714091.html?m=y&smobile=y&clmob=y&c=n
This shit is getting crazy! So the city of Sacramento voted to build a new arena last night and were all talking about how now the kings will stay in Sac...... This morning this news drops!!!! In a bit of disconcerting news, it appears Seattle's Chris Hansen has circumvented the bidding process on minority owner Bob Cook's 7% share of the team. Cook's shares are being held by a bankruptcy court and bids were expected to come in later this month. News10's Nick Monacelli reports that as of Tuesday, Hansen's $15.1 million offer was the only serious one on the table and that the lawyers have agreed to sell to him pending judge approval, thus preventing the auction process. If approved, this deal will give Hansen control of 72% of the Kings franchise pending league approval. Hansen already has a sale agreement with the Maloof Family and Bob Hernreich for 65% of the team at a reported franchise valuation of $525 million. Hansen did not pay the same valuation for Cook's 7%. That would have been about $36.75 million. At last month's state of the city address, Mayor Kevin Johnson stated a desire for the 20+ local investors who had pledged $1 million to keeping the Kings in Sacramento to bid on Cook's shares. It's unknown what will happen with regard to the local investors now as there is a no shop clause on the current deal with Hansen. UPDATE: Monacelli tweets that Mayor Kevin Johnson's local group will submit an offer in the next few days. The no shop clause prevents solicitation of offers, but not their review. Monacelli also reports that the trustee seeks to have the sale haring on April 15-16th, shortly before the NBA's Board of Governors meeting on April 18th, where a vote to either approve the sale and relocation of the Kings or not will take place. Both Sacramento and Seattle will present their cases to the NBA relocation committee next week on April 3rd. Sent from HCPs Baller-Ass iPhone 5.......FAMS!
I'd love for Seattle to not get a franchise because of the EFFORTS of local investors and local government, something sorely lacking when the Sonics were jacked by OKC.
I just skimmed all that stuff and it said that 20 Sacramento investors promised $1M each. Is there a contract holding them to the rest? You can criticize both Sacramento and Seattle for the same thing. Both had years of lead time. But Seattle had just built a new stadium, KeyArena, and was looking at many years of debt repayment on that, plus the new stadium. Also, Bennett refused to put in any private money, requiring a $500M arena all paid by taxpayers (Hansen is now paying most of it himself, which is why Seattle politicians have changed their positions), while the Maloofs have been willing to put in some of their own money. Seattle had a better reason to say no than Sacramento.
The facts are pretty different when you compare Sacramento now to Seattle then. Arguably, the Sonics were done the second that Clay and the OKC group bought the Sonics...it was just a matter of time before they blew things up and moved the team back to OKC. After the move, the OKC owners admitted their plan from the beginning was to take the Sonics to OKC. Not that it makes up for the crappy work done by Seattle/State of Washington politicians. The three things I'd love to know are (1) how comparable are the offers made by the two groups, (2) are the two groups escalating/planning to escalate offers as April 3 nears, and (3) how much stock do the owners place in the fact that definitive documents (both for sale of the team and construction of the arena) are complete in Seattle and only at the non-binding term sheet stage in Sac? I'd think (3) might tip the scale in Seattle's favor if the deals are similar because a lot could unravel during the process of negotiating final agreements. News in Seattle today is that Chris Hansen just bought the 7% share of the Kings that was in bankruptcy court and that no other material offer was made for it. Not sure what it means from an NBA approval perspective, but it does make the Sac group look a little disorganized.
To say there is bad blood between the city of Sacramento and the Maloofs is putting it mildly. The Maloofs dealt with the city in total bad faith. The reason no local Sac group stepped up earlier is because Kevin Johnson negotiated a deal just last year to keep the Kings in Sac with the new stadium the Maloofs demanded. The brothers signed the MOU and then at the last second backed out of the deal. So this counter-offer to buy the team is the city's response to the Maloofs being double-crossing, lying douchbags.
Ric Bucher Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has gathered a strong contingent to bid for keeping the Kings where they are, but their level of commitment won't be certified until they make the same non-refundable payment of $30 million to the Maloofs that the group from Seattle already has made, a source said. Should the league's owners reject the Seattle group in favor of the Sacramento group without meeting that term, the source said, the Maloofs are almost certain to file an anti-trust suit against the league. The Sacramento group also has to deal with several different entities owning parcels of the land upon which the proposed arena would be built. Working through how much the land is worth and a sale price for each parcel is not a quick process; nor is the required cash-out by Warriors part-owner Vivek Ranadive to join the Kings' group. I also have to wonder, considering the potential benefit for the Warriors in having all of Northern California to themselves, how motivated they'll be to expedite the process if doing so enhances the chance of the Kings staying. For what it's worth, the league office is playing this "straight down the middle," according to one source, showing no preference toward either side. Sent from HCPs Baller-Ass iPhone 5.......FAMS!
Well played Maloofs. Getting 2 non refundable $30M payments. They should invite more cities to join in and get a few more of those.
