On Tuesday August 28, 2012 it is rumored Virginia Beach City Counsel will hear a presentation from Comcast-Spectacor to build a new Sports/ Entertainment arena in Virginia Beach.

It is also rumored the Maloofs are looking to move the Sacramento Kings to Virginia Beach if their city council approves the new arena deal.

According to a USA Today article, Eric W. Rose, the Maloofs’ spokesman, said: “It is becoming clearer that the foundation of Think Big is built on fabrication and deception. The name of the organization should be changed to Think Big Fraud,”

Wouldn’t the allegations of  "the foundation of Think Big is built on fabrication and deception" warrant our city council to show concern, raise questions and provide the residents of Sacramento the truth as to why the Maloofs backed out of the deal?

Does Sacramento want to keep or seek a sports team under any means necessary including behaving unethically?

Does our city counsel condone poor sportsmanship as long as it allows us to keep an NBA team?

Should our Mayor and Think Big share in the responsibility of the failed deal?

Should they represent our city in negotiating future deals when they appear to be thieves and attempted to steal and sell the Kings from underneath the Maloofs? (see below Sports Illustrated article)

On the February 12, 2012 letter Think Big sent to Chris Steve Hansen, it begins, “ On behalf of the 99% of us who make up the wonderful mosaic that is the great City of Sacramento, we have one message for the top 1/10th of the 1% who is engaged in actions detrimental to our community: KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR KINGS."

Does Think Big represent 99% of us?

When Anaheim showed interest in the Sacramento Kings, it appears Sacramento attempted to strong arm the King owners and threaten Anaheim in efforts to keep the Kings in Sacramento.  

When Seattle showed interest in the Sacramento Kings, Think Big sent a wild-wild-west-meet-us-at-high-noon-for-battle-letter to Chris Hansen ironically accusing Seattle of engaging in “predatory behavior.”
http://www.thinkbigsacramento.com/assets/Public-Reports/Open-Letter-CH.pdf

Did we behaved ethically in trying to keep the team and reach a deal? Is Think Big giving us a one-sided description of what went wrong? Are they credible?

Should we look into the actions of Think Big before pressing forward in search of a Baseball team to ensure another deal will not go sour?

I appreciate and respect a mayor strong enough to fight for our city. But shouldn’t we fight ethically and with integrity?

It is written in a Think Big press release “Central Florida is a long way from Sacramento, but the story has traveled. Everyone you meet at All-Star Weekend wants to hear about how Sacramento has managed one of the great municipal recoveries in sports history, yanking a team back home after another city had a contract ready to sign, seal and steal. “ http://www.thinkbigsacramento.com/assets/Press-Releases/Sacramento-Miracle-Talk-of-Town-in-Orlando-022612.pdf  Why then does it appear the Maloofs are continuously looking to relocate?

It appears a story has again traveled that the Maloofs can not work with someone they do not trust. http://insidebiz.com/news/sources-sacramento-kings-may-move-virginia-beach-arena-deal-works

While Virginia Beach city counsel meets to discuss building a new arena which could possibly house our Sacramento Kings why isn't our city counsel meeting to determine if Sacramento -while thinking big- used unethical strong arm tactics to attempt to sell and steal the Kings from the Maloofs?

Are we thieves? Did we fight to keep the Kings by any means necessary? Were we going to dribble our integrity for a game of sports? Do you think our actions were foul?

Why would the Maloofs want to stay in a city that attempted to steal their team? Why is Think Big spreading rumors the Maloofs do not care about Sacramento when it seems we did not care about the Maloofs and attempted to keep the team by thievery? 

Thank You

Rhonda Erwin
Sacramento City Resident

Below is the Sports Illustrated Article highlighting Sacramento Mayor Johnson attempt to steal the Sacramento Kings from the Maloofs.

After reading it  perhaps we should ask ourselves why would the Maloofs want to stay in Sacramento?

“SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Before the mudslinging became a routine public affair here, the harsh words between city officials and the Maloof family that owns the Kings were typically kept behind closed doors.

And so it was in the late morning of March 29 inside a conference room at Old City Hall, where Mayor and former NBA point guard Kevin Johnson dished his dirt while speaking to about 25 members of the Kings' A-list team sponsors. Despite all the excitement surrounding the handshake deal for a new downtown arena made more than a month before, Johnson -- who raised some $10 million from these same business leaders the year before as a way of showing the league how badly the Maloofs had mismanaged this market -- had a warning for the group.

He told them that a bit of bad arena news "might be coming out of L.A.," as one source who was in the room remembered, a clear foreshadowing of the Los Angeles Times report published just hours later that detailed the Maloofs' concerns about the deal and raised the possibility yet again that they might be on the move. Johnson … said the Maloofs "should be ashamed to show their faces in Sacramento," the source said, then offered an unsolicited reminder that his Plan B was still very much in play: Ron Burkle.

A year after Johnson partnered with the L.A.-based billionaire to put pressure on the Maloofs to sell the Kings, sources say he remains in constant contact with Burkle and is still hopeful that he will eventually take over the team and keep it in Sacramento. Burkle, the Pittsburgh Penguins' owner who was ranked 107th on Forbes' list of richest people in America last year (net worth of $3.2 billion), was a major part of Johnson's pitch to stop the Maloofs from moving to Anaheim.

This push to force the Maloofs out was already underway on Thursday, when 26 Sacramento business owners sent a letter to NBA commissioner David Stern urging him to "strongly encourage" the family to sell. That message came directly from Johnson's camp for the first time on Sunday, by way of a 1,853-word letter sent to members of Johnson's regional initiative, "Think Big Sacramento

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/sam_amick/04/16/sacramento.kings/index.html#ixzz24iZIglVk
 

Editor's note: Edits have been made to names in this article after publishing.