A Sacramento tourism group spends $10k to run a pro-Kings ad in Times Square for 72 hours (Video)

Visitors to New York City’s Times Square will be in for a strange, and curiously-local advertising campaign starting on Tuesday, trumping up the city of Sacramento as rightful idealistic owners of the Sacramento Kings. It’s a needed clarion call, as the NBA’s Board of Governors prepares to meet on Thursday and Friday to discuss the bidding war between two different ownership groups in Sacramento and Seattle, with rumors flying all over that early NBA discussions centered on the fate of the Kings will begin on Wednesday.

Here’s the clip:

And here’s the explanation, from the Sacramento Bee:

The video will be shown every five minutes for 72 hours; it will include testimonials from Kings fans, business leaders and others. Officials estimate it will be seen by 4.8 million people.

Yep, “4.8 million people” FROM VIRGINIA. You’re not exactly reaching either New York City or Sacramento’s prime demographic by tossing this clip the way of visiting families that are hustling off to M&M’s World.

Originally, when reading a headline about a Times Square video billboard ad set to run incessantly through the New York City landmark for several days in a row, I assumed that this was the work of the actual city of Sacramento, in a gross misuse of tax-payer funds. Instead, it turns out that this was funded by the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sports Commission (SCVB). And, even more surprisingly, it only cost $10,000 for the 864 total showings over 72 hours.

Mike Testa, a member of the SCVB, shares in my surprise, pointing out that the price “was frankly less than we thought.”

(No wonder that massive Cup Noodles sign was able to stay in the heart of Times Square for so long, even when two actual Cups of those delicious Noodles run for about a buck.)

The NBA’s Board of Governors, as mentioned above, will discuss the two proposals at length on Thursday and Friday, though there is no guarantee that a decision on the fate of the franchise (and the two cities involved) will be reached at the end of the working week. Out of 30 NBA teams, 23 franchises have to vote in favor of a particular transaction in order for any sale to move forward.