After a messy, drawn-out saga involving several potential moves, the long-term future of the Sacramento Kings looks near a resolution. As first reported by Sam Amick of USA Today and announced shortly thereafter by NBA commissioner David Stern and his successor Adam Silver in a press conference, the NBA's Board of Governors has voted not to authorize Joe and Gavin Maloof's pending sale of the Kings to a Seattle-based ownership group headed by hedge fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Initial reports state that the final vote came in 22-8 in favor of keeping the Kings in Sacramento.
While the Sacto-averse Maloofs have expressed little interest of selling the team to a local owner, it's expected that the Kings will stay in the city they've called home since 1985. In the press conference, Stern said that he believes the Maloofs will start talks with the local ownership group headed by tech entrepreneur and current Golden State Warriors minority owner Vivek Ranadive and organized by Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson. It's possible that the Maloofs were simply posturing in their earlier statements, as they've done several times throughout this process, or perhaps they were promised new perks to make the sale to Ranadvie and Co. more acceptable.
This is obviously great news for Kings advocates in Sacramento, who have worked extremely hard over the past few months to put together a deal to keep the Kings in town. Mayor Johnson sought out local owners, settled on a comprehensive arena plan, and made a special point of working with the league office to ensure that the city did whatever it could to put forth the best possible case for why they deserve to keep the franchise. While there are open questions as to how much new arenas paid for with public funds actually local economies, there's no argument that the Kings are a source of civic pride for Sacramento. In this case, the city came together in pursuit of a common goal, and it looks like they'll end up successful.
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