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Friday, May 24, 2013
Kings to stay in Sacramento – for now
by Suzanne Hurt, published on May 2, 2011 at 9:32 AM
Storyline: Kings
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The owners of the Sacramento Kings have decided to keep the team here for at least the next season, they announced Monday morning.
The team's owners, led by the Maloof family had a deadline of 2 p.m. Monday to file a request to move the team.
In an announcement emailed shortly after 9 a.m. Monday, the Maloofs said fan support and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's push to get a new arena built were instrumental in the decision.
"The fans’ spirit and energy, specifically our season ticket holders, has been remarkable and we are truly thankful for their loyalty," they said in the prepared statement. "We also are greatly appreciative of the support from our corporate sponsors as well as other local businesses that have come forward in recent weeks."
National Basketball Association officials have indicated they will support the team moving next year if a new arena cannot be built to replace Power Balance Pavilion.
"However, if an arena plan cannot be finalized in a timely fashion, the NBA’s relocation committee has assured Maloof Sports and Entertainment that it will support an application to move the franchise to another market starting in 2012-13,” the statement said.
The team's owners have no plans to hold a press conference, said a Kings spokesman.
Johnson said Friday local officials hoped a regionally coordinated effort to build a new arena would make enough of a difference that the National Basketball Association and the Maloofs would not move the team to Anaheim for at least a year, giving the region a chance to move forward with the city's arena effort.
Johnson has scheduled a press conference for 11 a.m. at City Hall, 915 I St.
The decision to keep the team in the state capital came after an NBA fact-finding visit here in the last two weeks.
Last week, billionaire Henry Samueli, whose company manages Anaheim's Honda Center, upped the ante when he offered to personally invest more than $70 million for improvements at Anaheim's Honda Center and provide a personal loan of at least $75 million to the Maloofs.
The Sacramento Press will report on the mayor’s press conference later today.
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Really hard to see how this isn't just our fair city being held hostage for another year; the ransom being a new arena complex we probably don't need.
One would think that the city would be looking for ways to fill any void left by the kings leaving; not by begging them to stay -- but by instead capitalizing on what makes Sacramento a destination. In my mind, an NBA team has never been one of those things.
The Purple Stain won EVEN FEWER games this season than the season before -- which had been The Worst Season In Franchise History.
After all the embarrassingly cornball histrionics and the stultifying phumphering and plodding bureaucracy and false alarms and raised hopes and dashed expectations and vacillations from ecstasy to panic and back again . . . the Kings are indeed staying in Sac. Look for them to open the 2011-2012 campaign by losing the first 10 in a row. Don't think it's not gonna happen, either.
If we REALLY want a stadium, let's have a small sales tax hike that ENTIRELY goes to the stadium and that "sunsets" after a few short years.
The city needs to do it like it has done many other large projects that cost millions like the current airport expansion (Billion plus) , $751 million “Capitol Improvement Program” in 1987, both the Hyatt and Sheraton, and the convention center expansion in 1992. None of these projects went to a vote of the people.
All these were done by raising bonds and backing it with public money. The bonds were paid off with funded user fees (where ticket buyer pay a few extra dollars each visit), hotel, car rental, parking, and concessions.
Example: Vancouver games. What the public spent: "C$580 million was the taxpayer-supported budget to construct or renovate venues throughout Vancouver and Whistler."
How the region benefited: "$2.5 billion of Gross Domestic Product, and as well created 45,000 jobs and contributed an additional $463 million to the tourism industry while venue construction by VANOC and 3rd parties added $1.22 billion to the economy." There are some reports that round this out to be near $10 billion boon to the economy as it stands today and counting.
I think we could do a better job and looking at how this arena will actually benefit us in the future, being shortsighted does us no good. Some might say why Sac and Tahoe for the Olympics? I say why SLC?
Wishful thinking, perhaps, but we could use more of it.
Last but not least, everyone should congratulate the fervor and tenacious effort of MAYOR KEVIN JOHNSON for making it clear that not only are we a viable NBA city, but, there are fans most willing to fight for their team. We need to remember the thousands of jobs they just saved keeping them here.
dreaded "mainstream". I don't think the prevalence of this virulent "NIMBY" attitude so many Sacramentans have toward the idea of "those people" in their downtown has ever been fully grasped by the Maloofs or anyone in their camp, much less the legions of Rosevillians and Rocklinites who constitute the majority of the Kings' customer base.
This "disconnect" should have been the crux of the discussion all along. If there had never been a pro sports team to begin with, and the arena had been billed as "Urban Revitalization"-this or "Jobs Growth Creation"-that -- or better still "Green"-something -- they'd be having RV shows there as we speak.
I'm not sure if just saying that we're all from Rocklin - which I am not, but who cares - makes that so either.
What's the deal? Comparing stereotypes that don't even match seems to make for a bad starting place for this discussion.
Patrons of the arts pedal their fixies to see Ira Glass at the Mondavi blastin' the Neutral Milk Hotel like this: "der-dee-der-dee-der".
Thanks, folks. Please make sure to tip your waitresses.
- - "Fan support and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's push to get a new arena built were instrumental in the decision"
BS!!
They are staying in Sacramento for another year because THE NBA TOLD THEM they would be!
We know damn well had the NBA committee approved the move, The Magoofs would have the loading vans at the Arco Arena next weekend, and then heading down south.
This PR release is simply an attempt at some damage control, knowing that they will now need to reley on the fans they had used as a scapegoat for their own financial downfalls.
Now, they are having their hands held by the NBA, and I love it!