Sacramento/Seattle Kings Update

[mobes23]

If the NBA truly cares about fans in the current NBA cities, then it needs to add that consideration into the purchase/sale process. Require that local buyers be solicited first or simultaneously with engagement of out-of-area buyers. Create a relocation process that involves giving notice to the current city and then gives the city meaningful opportunity to meet the requirements of the owner or the NBA.

Fans in both cities should have a team...I don't know there's meaningful difference between them. Sac has politicians that give a rip (compared to Seattle area politicians when the Sonics were taken), but that's the only difference I can see. Even that is difficult to know. In alternate reality world, I wonder how relations with KJ would've gone if Hansen successfully purchased the Kings and then tanked the team, relations with politicians, etc. in Clay Bennett style.

 

[BigGameDamian]

Aren't two of the Nordstrom brothers apart of this also? I thought I heard that. I thought I heard Antonio Harvey going on about it on Courtside. He was talking about how the Nordstrom brothers were involved but I didn't catch it all.

 

[Sedatedfork]

Aren't two of the Nordstrom brothers apart of this also? I thought I heard that.

Yes

 

[jlprk]

Hansen paid a $30M deposit and paid something like $15M for 7% of the Kings. If he gets that all back, then you're arguably right. Otherwise, not so much.

If you want to go a step further, he's also put something like $60M into land purchases for the arena, which he made expecting that he would receive a fair process in purchasing a franchise.

He may get the $30M back. How much of the $60M is bought land, and how much is options he took on buying land? Oh well, he can always build strip joints on it.

 

[Sedatedfork]

Kevin Johnson says Seattle should take the high road.

http://king5.mlnwap.com/article.html#!/10329/b30aa47c74b7d6314db03e43cc09f528

 

[mobes23]

One of the Seattle sports radio guys said that a reliable contact of his was solicited a couple days ago to be a minority member of the Ranadive ownership group. Supposedly that group was solid and didn't need additional money. Hard to know what to make of that, but I'd say it's no show stopper, but another sign that Sac's group/offer is not as solid as Stern and crew would have you believe.

 

[jlprk]

They solicited a Seattle minority owner? To garner mixed loyalty among Seattlites?

 

[mobes23]

Kevin Johnson says Seattle should take the high road.

http://king5.mlnwap.com/article.html#!/10329/b30aa47c74b7d6314db03e43cc09f528

It's hard to know what to make of that...is it just KJ being KJ and spouting off or is he worried that Hansen might be able to get the purchase approved or, for that matter, the relocation approved?

 

[Sedatedfork]

It's hard to know what to make of that...is it just KJ being KJ and spouting off or is he worried that Hansen might be able to get the purchase approved or, for that matter, the relocation approved?

It is kj being kj, and what you would expect the winner of the committee vote to say.

 

[mobes23]

They solicited a Seattle minority owner? To garner mixed loyalty among Seattlites?

He wasn't clear at all about who was solicited or where they are from. I'm pretty sure it wasn't anyone in the Hansen group. I'd expect the solicitation would've been under a nondisclosure agreement and really, the person shouldn't have said anything.

The point the radio guy raised is that it's strange the Ranadive group is still trying to get more owners in the group. They claimed they had plenty of money with the group that was announced. So, in the radio guy's estimation, they're either wanting to put less of their own money into the team or they don't have liquid cash to close the transaction right away.

 

[porkchopexpress]

If this ownership group does buy the King's and forfeited that TV revenue sharing, then I can't see them succeeding. It seems like they can barely afford the buy the Kings at a reduced rate. How are they going to be able to run the franchise while giving away 30M a year? That's over half of the teams payroll.

 

[mobes23]

It's hard to know exactly what the Sac ownership gave up. It's pretty clear that they gave up the portion of "sharing" in which the big market teams send cash to the smaller market teams. It's not so clear what they gave up beyond that (meaning sharing from NBA TV deals or local deals that Sac makes on its own) and we may never know.

It's also hard to know what is meant about the Sac owners covering "significant portions" of cost overruns. No one seems to think the arena will get built at the proposed cost, so covering those cost overruns could be a huge burden. I'd think this part will become public knowledge because the publicly funded arena deal pretty much guarantees that, eventually, we'll see all the deal terms.

 

[mobes23]

More news from the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.com/html/nba/2020948533_kings09.html)...apparently the Sac owner group is being encouraged to put 100% of their offer price into escrow (Seattle has already done this). It's not clear from the Times article if the encouragement is coming from the NBA or the Maloofs. I went to the Sac Bee website and it says the NBA is the one doing the encouraging...no real surprise given the NBA's actions throughout.

 

[jlprk]

If this ownership group does buy the King's and forfeited that TV revenue sharing, then I can't see them succeeding. It seems like they can barely afford the buy the Kings at a reduced rate. How are they going to be able to run the franchise while giving away 30M a year? That's over half of the teams payroll.

The Hansen group offered way, way too much, and Sacramento then upped the ante. A team can't make a profit with either offer. Hansen's lucky he lost.

Stern has lost his marbles to allow this high price. When you're near retirement you lose motivation.

 

[KeepOnRollin]

Prospective NBA owners don't usually expect to make a profit while running the team. They expect to make their profit when they go and sell the team years later.

 

[mobes23]

Uh-oh, I feel a fine coming on. The following link shows a twitter exchange between a Sonics supporter and the owner of the Heat:

http://www.sportsradiokjr.com/pages/softy_page.html?feed=171936&article=11270575

The Heat owner, who is on the relocation committee, makes it clear that the only issue posed to them was whether Sac had done all it need to keep the team. Theoretically, the only question posed to the finance committee should have been whether Hansen/Balmer were acceptable owners, but of course the committee never took that vote. This makes me wonder if we ARE headed to a Hansen owned team in Sac.

 

[jlprk]

Prospective NBA owners don't usually expect to make a profit while running the team. They expect to make their profit when they go and sell the team years later.

That's unsustainable. The Schultz group couldn't last 5 years breaking even without becoming desperate to sell. Sure, they sold to Bennett at a surprising capital profit, but lack of an operating profit still forced them to sell.

 

[KeepOnRollin]

That's unsustainable. The Schultz group couldn't last 5 years breaking even without becoming desperate to sell. Sure, they sold to Bennett at a surprising capital profit, but lack of an operating profit still forced them to sell.

I am sure you have heard of the saying, the best two days of owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it.

 

[jlprk]

I haven't, but it's perfect for my brother's bad experience with his boat. It would also fit an RV sitting in the driveway for years. I'm glad to learn a useful expression. The source must be Aesop or Shakespeare or Grimm's Fairy Tales.

 

[mobes23]

Sounds like things are ramping up big time (http://blog.seattlepi.com/sonics/20...ushing-kings-owners-to-take-sacramento-offer/). The article is worth reading because the analysis is pretty interesting and I think generally correct.

The new news in the link is that an aid to KJ said the NBA is pushing the Maloofs big time to sell the team to the Ranadive group. This would force the Maloofs to accept a lower return and breach their contract with Hansen, which the NBA can't really do. I'm just happy knowing that Stern is miserable right now.

 

[THE HCP]

this is gonna get ugly! Hope it gets sloppy and goes to court.

 

[maxiep]

Trust me, it's gonna be the Seattle Bucks!

Payback for the Pilots?

 

[mobes23]

Keeps getting more and more interesting....Breaking: King 5's Chris Daniels reports Chris Hansen raises offer for Kings to $625 million. That's a $75MM increase over the previous offer. I'd love to have video of Stern and KJ right about now.

No news other than that yet, but I'll post when I hear more.

Edit: here's a link....http://www.king5.com/news/arena/Chris-Hansen-75-million-to-Kings-offer-206957551.html

 

[mobes23]

Per the Sac Bee: "The NBA leadership always said that their decition would not be dictated by a bidding war," Johnson said in an emailed statement.

Other scoop: Hansen group has also agreed to guarantee that they would be a revenue sharing payer.

 

[mobes23]

Hansen's statement just posted on his sonicsarena blog:

In an effort to further demonstrate the extent of our commitment to bring basketball back to Seattle, we have elected to voluntarily increase our proposed purchase price for the Sacramento Kings NBA Franchise by $75 million — from an enterprise value of $550 million to $625 million. In conjunction with our revised offer, we have also guaranteed to the NBA that the Franchise would be a revenue sharing payer in all years in Seattle.

We would also like to take the opportunity to again point out just how far ahead our Arena project is:

-The ownership group has acquired 100% of the property necessary to construct the Arena.

-We have 100% of our private financing for the Arena committed and in place.

-After being approved by the City and County Councils the Arena MOU/legislation was signed into law by the Seattle Mayor and King County Executive on October 16, 2012. The referendum period expired 30 days later.

-We engaged our Arena architects two years ago and have completed our detailed design schematics and costing.

-We have filed for our Master Use Permit and are well underway with the Environmental Review Process, which we expect to conclude late this year.

While we appreciate that this is a very difficult decision for the league and owners, we hope it is understood that we really believe the time is now to bring the NBA back to Seattle, and that it is paramount that we do everything we can to put Seattle’s best foot forward in this process.

— Chris Hansen

 

[mobes23]

Sounds like the revised Hansen offer would give the Maloofs about $65MM more than the Ranadive offer. Obviously, the $625 million total amount would also be pretty attractive to the current NBA owners.

My prediction: the May 15 vote is delayed so that the Ranadive group once again has more time to play catch up.

 

[Haakzilla]

...the Sonics still exist in the hearts of many Seattle faithful, as evident by these artistic glass pieces!

Available exclusively at --> Wunderland Pipes & Gifts

 

[blue9]

artistic

Ha! Maybe if made by a 5 year old.

 

[mobes23]

While we're all obviously fans of bong art, y'all know there were huge developments today, right? Hansen and Balmer just threw down $75 million more. It's crazy stuff.

 

[Sedatedfork]

Imaginary Purchase Price!