Will the Sacramento Kings end up moving to Seattle? (how much, new home)

[Jericho79]

Hey there, Seattle residents. I recently heard that Seattle is proposing the construction of a brand-new arena in order to lure the NBA's Kings from Sacramento.

I'm also aware that there's currently a huge tug of war between Seattle groups and Sacramento groups over ownership of the Kings.

Seattle Arena legal hurdle cleared, Kings fight focused on arena? | KING5.com Seattle

Seattle group raises bid for Sacramento Kings by $25 million | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News

If the Kings indeed relocate to Seattle, they will be reincarnated as the new SuperSonics, and their new home will be a better-than-KeyArena NBA arena in SoDo.

Will the Kings end up relocating to Seattle? And will the proposed arena in SoDo ever get built?

[Hemlock140]

No and yes. I think the league will do their best to keep them in Sacramento, and Sac will match or beat any offers from here. I think the arena is still 4-5 years off, when the next team is sold, but not this time. I also think it may be a different ownership group, and maybe a different location, because I think Chris Hansen will be very discouraged and set a deadline for another team to be available, then will sell the proposed arena property when that date passes.

[Botev1912]

I think Sacramento will move to Seattle because they don't have money to keep the team. They only talk to delay the process and haven't even made an offer yet. At the same time Chris Hansen has already spent so much money and he won't give up at the finish line. The arena will be built if Seattle gets a team. Otherwise no.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

No and yes. I think the league will do their best to keep them in Sacramento, and Sac will match or beat any offers from here. I think the arena is still 4-5 years off, when the next team is sold, but not this time. I also think it may be a different ownership group, and maybe a different location, because I think Chris Hansen will be very discouraged and set a deadline for another team to be available, then will sell the proposed arena property when that date passes.

You were partially right. It wasn't just the league that enabled Sacramento to keep their team. It was the citizens, fans, business leaders, and the Mayor, Kevin Johnson (Ex All-Star Basketball Player) that kept the team in Sacramento. Seattle wasn't the first city to try to "steal" our team; Anaheim and Virginia Beach made unsuccessful attempts as well. Sacramento has sold out every game in 17 out of 26 seasons despite having mediocre players for many of those years.

The league's relocation committee of 8 voted unanimously to keep the team in Sacramento. The final vote was 22 of out 30 owners who voted for Sacramento.

The league voted for Sacramento because the Sacramento investor group paid just $10 million under the Hansen/Ballmer offer. Sacramento and the NBA were not going to play into an extended bidding war with the Billionaire Seattle group. Seattle's public offering was $200 million for a new arena; Sacramento's public offering was $258 million, also the league now recognizes the need to respect the fans and cities as well as wealthy owners. It recognizes that smaller markets are important to the NBA as well as larger markets.

Sacramentans Kings fans are excited we have new California owners!

[Chimérique]

Here’s what the Seattle media does not tell you. Hansen made his money in California and wanted to use that money to “steal” Sacramento’s only major league franchise and move it to the northwest. He could have been successful because the Kings owners (Maloofs) who are from New Mexico and Las Vegas lost a huge chuck of their portfolio on their mis-managed Vegas casinos and were eager for a huge payout.

The Maloofs had negliented and under-funded the Kings for the last 7 years, and alienated its treasured fanbase. Hansen reportedly would have paid a record $625 million for a belegured and neglected team.

Through the leadership of Sacramento’s mayor, Kevin Johnson. Mr. Johnson helped form 20 Sacramento business leaders who are now minority owners which convinced the city council to support arena building efforts in Sacramento. This lead to larger investors who believed in Sacramento and convinced the NBA to keep teams from relocating.

One of the key owners is an urban project developer from Sacramento who will be developing the new arena. In the end, the new owners consist mostly of California owners and California money. Specifically, Silicon Valley money, and Southern California money, with Sacramento money and Sacramento leaders who believe in their city.

[509]

Maybe, the golden age of ripping off taxpayers for private sports palaces is done.

The public is fed up with using municipal bonding for private projects. That is one issue that the left and right agree on politically, however, the elites love the tax benefits for them. So when it comes to tax reform and the discussions to raise federal revenue. This will probably be discussed.

Not sure how much bonding authority Seattle has left after all their fancy projects. They might be out of bonding capacity in three to four years.

[Adrian71]

The plan for the SoDo arena, though, was for revenue from the arena to pay off the bonds, with the rest of the cost being paid by the private investment group. That hardly seems like a taxpayer boondoggle. Meanwhile, as I understand it, taxpayers are going to be on the hook for the entire cost of the new Sacto arena. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this; it's not an issue I've followed all that closely.)

Even more than that, the NBA left money on the table by saying no to Seattle. Either David Stern has it in for Seattle, or the NBA owners don't want to set a precedent of having to fund most or all of the cost of building their own arenas.

I don't follow basketball, but what happened to the Sonics doesn't seem all that different from what happened to the Houston Oilers and the original Cleveland Browns in the NFL. In both cases, Houston and Cleveland were granted new franchises for the ones their teams' unscrupulous owners stole. It seems like the NBA could at least do that much for Sonics fans.

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Here’s what the Seattle media does not tell you. Hansen made his money in California and wanted to use that money to “steal” Sacramento’s only major league franchise and move it to the northwest. He could have been successful because the Kings owners (Maloofs) who are from New Mexico and Las Vegas lost a huge chuck of their portfolio on their mis-managed Vegas casinos and were eager for a huge payout.

The Maloofs had negliented and under-funded the Kings for the last 7 years, and alienated its treasured fanbase. Hansen reportedly would have paid a record $625 million for a belegured and neglected team.

Through the leadership of Sacramento’s mayor, Kevin Johnson. Mr. Johnson helped form 20 Sacramento business leaders who are now minority owners which convinced the city council to support arena building efforts in Sacramento. This lead to larger investors who believed in Sacramento and convinced the NBA to keep teams from relocating.

One of the key owners is an urban project developer from Sacramento who will be developing the new arena. In the end, the new owners consist mostly of California owners and California money. Specifically, Silicon Valley money, and Southern California money, with Sacramento money and Sacramento leaders who believe in their city.

So - is your goal to resurrect a thread from a month ago just to start something? After David Stern begins the announcement with "I'll keep this short, I've got a game to go to in OKC"? Really?

The Hansen group played the game the NBA set up. The NBA thought it was fine to move Seattle's team but gave Sacramento endless amounts of time to save theirs with Clay Bennett was in charge of the relocation committee. It is what it is but Stern's comment made it very clear this was personal.

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by Seacove

So - is your goal to resurrect a thread from a month ago just to start something? After David Stern begins the announcement with "I'll keep this short, I've got a game to go to in OKC"? Really?

The Hansen group played the game the NBA set up. The NBA thought it was fine to move Seattle's team but gave Sacramento endless amounts of time to save theirs with Clay Bennett was in charge of the relocation committee. It is what it is but Stern's comment made it very clear this was personal.

Don't worry, he's just as obnoxious in the Sacramento forums as well. Actually worse. You're only trying to steal his team rather than being a traitor who doesn't agree with blindly throwing money indiscriminately at his team.

And I agree, a lot of it is personal. When the Maloofs backed out of the last arena deal, it pissed the NBA off. Very personal on both sides with the Maloofs saying they would not sell to the Sacramento group if the Hansen deal was blocked, which they ultimately did of course. So now figure Sacramento will be adding on another $250 to the $2 billion in debt it already has, the new marina is going bankrupt and that'll also place a couple million in annual debt payments on the books. Meanwhile, there's the $9 million budget deficit, or a cumulative total of $240 million in budget deficits in recent years, that will continue to be ignored.

It is odd to me that the NBA blocked the Seattle move... clearly it was the better deal for the NBA as the Hansen group was willing to pay huge relocation bribes.

[Seacove]

Honestly, I don't think anyone in Seattle saw any thrill in taking Sacramento's team. It was just the scenario the NBA created. In a perfect world, I would like them to build a beautiful new arena in Seattle Center that was geared for NHL. Clean up that area, revitalize it and tell the NBA they lost out on Seattle.