The Sacramento Kings remain winless since Monday when reports came out that the Sacramento Kings owners have entered a “binding agreement” with an equity group from Seattle that would send the team up to the Pacific Northwest. Ironically, the Kings fell to Seattle’s former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder 105-95 at Sleep Train Arena to extend their losing streak to three games. Players were reportedly distracted by the news on Monday as they attempted to practice, and that distraction may have carried over into the games this week. Kings forward Jason Thompson has been with the team for five seasons now and this isn’t the first time he’s dealt with possible relocation, though it is the f

Another week, another Top Five Fridays. Our community contributors (mostly) gave us a reason to smile during a busy week for both the Sacramento Police Department and reporter Karen Wilkinson. And let’s not forget – the Kings are still leaving. Before you dive into your weekend, take a look at The Sacramento Press’s most popular articles of the week. Community Contribution:  5. How public radio helps indie artists by Alex Cosper Weekly columnist and owner of SacTV Alex Cosper turned his attentions this week to the role public radio plays in the success of indie artists, as well as our community as a whole. 4. No injuries after RT light rail train and car collide by Kati Garner Kati Gar

Details are still being kept quiet, but the Kings are officially planning to leave Sacramento. Announced early Monday morning via press release, the Maloof family said "that an executed purchase and sale agreement has been reached to sell the family's interest in the National Basketball Association (NBS) Sacramento Kings to a group led by investor Chris Hansen." No comments or details regarding the agreement is being released, as the transaction requires approval by the NBA's board of governors, the release states. Mayor Kevin Johnson was quick to react to the news, by tweeting that the deal isn't quite done. "Let me be clear. Though agreement btw Maloors & Seattle is out, deal is NOT d

It shouldn't matter this much, it's supposed to not hurt this much, I shouldn't care THIS much. Yet, I do, and I will for quite awhile. These are the things that have been processing through my head after waking up at 11 and receiving what had to have been a million text messages that stemmed from, "did you hear about our Kings?" to the oh so proper, " the Maloofs f#%^ us". I only needed to see the first one to say to myself, "they're gone". By now you know the story, it's been reported that Kings Owners Joe and Gavin Maloof have linked a deal to sell the team and in the process move them to Seattle ( Rosen 1, Keith 0 ) for over 500 Million $. This prompted me to think of many things duri

As it turns out, there appears to have been some truth to those rumors that the Kings will be headed north.  Yahoo! Sports is reporting the team's owners, the Maloof family, is finalizing an agreement with the Hansen-Ballmer led Seattle investment group. Hansen-Balmer built the Key Arena in hopes of bring the NBA back to Seattle following the loss of the city’s SuperSonics to Oklahoma. According to Yahoo! Sports writer Adrian Wojnarowski's Twitter account, no agreement has been signed yet, but the deal is about $500 million and the group wants the team relocated to the Key Arena for the 2013-2014 season. The reporter hasn't cited his sources, however, and neither have other news agencies

Media reports were buzzing from coast to coast about a plan being pitched in Virginia Beach to build a new arena and possibly make it the new home of the Sacramento Kings – but when the proposal was unveiled to the Virginia Beach City Council Tuesday, no mention was made of the Kings, leaving fans to breathe a sigh of relief. “They didn't present a financing plan, provided only a cost estimate and – most importantly to Sacramento basketball fans – didn't mention any potential sports teams as tenants,” Ryan Lillis reported in The Sacramento Bee Tuesday. Although the rumors remained unsubstantiated after the weeklong worry-fest leading up to the City Council presentation, questions linger

There has been much ado in recent days about a potential Sacramento Kings move to the coastal town of Virginia Beach, Va. – but as more information is revealed, a writer with an influential liberal think tank said it is starting to look like Sacramento is little more than a pawn in a larger corporate game. As the Virginia Beach City Council prepares to hear a presentation from a group of corporate executives interested in building a new arena in its region, Travis Waldron, a reporter from the liberal forum blog ThinkProgress, presents a different take on the situation and what may be happening behind the scenes. “Connecting the dots in the roll-out of this story,” Waldron wrote, “makes i

It’s all over mainstream media: Virginia Beach is making a pitch to steal Sacramento’s beloved Kings, and team owners, the Maloofs, are buying in – but a spokesman for the Maloofs said in an email yesterday not to believe all the hype. “The franchise is not going to discuss which cities have approached the organization and are not going to comment on every rumor,” Maloof spokesman Eric W. Rose said in the email. “The sole focus of everyone within the Sacramento Kings organization continues to be to put a winning team on the court as we look forward to what promises to be an exciting 2012-13 NBA season.” Wait. What? Notice that Rose makes no commitment with his statement beyond the curre

Tuesday August 21, 2012 My retired uncle and his retired best friend went to Arco Arena to purchase their half season Kings tickets. They were in the first group. They walked on the floor choosing their seats and glad to be in a position to support Sacramento and the Kings. They spent a little over $700.00 each to purchase the upstairs half season tickets. Today, after reading, Inside Business, The Hampton Business Journal’s article, ‘Sources: Sacramento Kings may move to Virginia Beach, arena deal in the works’ I phoned my uncle asking him how he felt of the Kings leaving to Virginia Beach. Shocked, my uncle stated “They never told us of the proposed plans. If so I would not have purch

It’s a question that’s been on the mind of everyone who has been following Sacramento’s arena debacle: How did Isaac Gonzalez get ahold of that email cache that changed our understanding of how the negotiations between the city and the Maloofs actually played out? On Tuesday, Gonzalez addressed the question during a Sacramento Press live chat with Carmichael Dave Weiglein. The context: About halfway through the chat, Weiglein asked Gonzalez to clear up questions about leaked emails and letters that circulated between the Maloofs, their attorneys and NBA representatives, which Gonzales obtained from an unnamed source and made public. The emails outlined issues the Maloofs had with the “h

When news broke that Mayor Kevin Johnson's "Plan B" for the arena was officially dead, The Sacramento Press reached out to a group of local writers and thinkers who've been following the issue to get their thoughts. First on the list was Dave Weiglein, better known as Carmichael Dave, the unofficial mascot of the Kings fanbase, and the organizer of last year's impressive, but ultimately quixotic grassroots campaign for a new arena, "Here We Build."  He's currently producing his own Internet radio network at www.thecdnetworks.com. Next week we'll have interviews with James Ham of Cowbell Kingdom, Isaac Gonzalez of ranSACedmedia, and Cosmo Garvin of Sacramento News & Review. Carmichael Dave

Mayor Kevin Johson announced today that a Plan B for an arena inthe downtwon railyards was dead. Here's a sampling of the local buzz on the topic: <[ View the story "Sacramento arena 'Plan B' fouls out" on Storify] Sacramento arena 'Plan B' fouls out Despite ongoing efforts by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, the Think Big Sacramento organization and Kings' fans across the region, the much-hoped for arena Plan B died when arena operator AEG pulled out of the game. Here's a snapshot of recent conversation about the death of the dream: Storified by Melissa Corker · Tue, Jul 03 2012 14:55:28 @KJ_MayorJohnson: #NBAKings #Arena 'Plan B' is dead, economics don't make sense w/o Kings.Ryan L

After two days of intense private negotiations, Mayor Kevin Johnson announced Friday that there will be no deal between the city and the Maloofs for a new arena. Citing irreconcilable differences, Johnson said all negotiations with the Sacramento Kings team owners are over and no further discussions are planned. Kings spokesman Eric Rose confirmed in an email statement Friday that they could not reach an agreement with the city. “We know this door is closed,” Johnson said at a press conference Friday, “but, as mayor, I’m going to do all I can to keep an NBA team in town.” Here is how the story unfolded Friday morning in the Twittersphere: <[ View the story "Twitter feed from mayor's

Mayor Kevin Johnson said another meeting with the Maloofs is in the works, but stopped short of promising that the arena deal will be revived – or that a new deal will be struck. “Sitting down doesn’t do anybody any harm – but it won’t be dragged out,” Johnson said. “I don’t want anyone to have false hope.” Johnson told media Tuesday at his weekly press conference that the city’s position on the arena deal remains the same, but the city will still explore all options. “In terms of plan B, we continue to do our internal analysis,” Johnson said. “Our goal is to report back (to the City Council) on May 8.” The sticking point in negotiations between the city and the Maloofs is the revenue

Mayor Kevin Johnson and the owners of the Sacramento Kings, the Maloofs, have crossed paths a few times since the handshake deal for a new downtown arena splintered – and both the arena and discussions with the team owners are expected to be key topics at his weekly press conference Tuesday morning. Here's our Twitter coverage of what they mayor had to say: < n The conference occured after tense words were exchanged in the media between Johnson and George Maloof after the tentative agreement for an entertainment and sports complex fell apart last week – but that didn’t stop Johnson from reaching out to the team owners Friday. According to Joaquin McPeek, spokesman for the Mayor’s Office,

There may no longer be an arena deal, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said he isn’t giving up on an entertainment and sports complex for Sacramento – not until the city has considered all options, including building an arena without an anchor tenant. “This is not over, in my opinion,” Johnson said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “It doesn’t do us any good to continue to point fingers and blame. We don’t have the deal we thought we had, so we need to figure out what plan B looks like.” Options to be considered, Johnson said, may include scaling back the original project to cut costs or to build the facility in stages, adding features over time. Building a venue without an anchor tenant i

Despite the battle between the city and Sacramento Kings’ team owners over a new entertainment and sports complex, City Councilman Steve Cohn is adamant that plans for developing the railyards site for an intermodal transit facility will continue uninterrupted. “Yes, there is absolutely an intermodal without the arena,” Cohn said Thursday at a workshop on the project at City Hall. More than 100 people attended the workshop hosted by the city to discuss the site orientation of the proposed arena at the downtown railyards along with current and future transportation facilities at the site. Until the recent arena deal fell apart, the intermodal project at the downtown railyards was slated

Think Big Sacramento Executive Director Chris Lehane said Monday that Friday’s spat with the Maloof family does not spell the end for an arena deal in downtown Sacramento, but that it was a setback that can be overcome. “First of all, we’ve continued to believe that a downtown-based entertainment and sports complex makes tremendous sense for the city and the region for jobs creation and economic development,” Lehane said. “All of that continues to exist, and I think we need to explore alternative ways to move forward.” Lehane said one option would be to follow the model of Kansas City, in which an arena was built without having a professional sports team as a partner. Another way could b

Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork (STOP) announced Monday that they will continue gathering signatures on a petition that would require large public expenses on a project in the downtown railyards such as an arena to be approved by a public vote. “We’re going to get this thing qualified for the ballot,” said spokesman Richard Tolmach. “A lot of people are stepping up and want to help us.” The group began gathering signatures over the weekend, and Tolmach said there are currently about 1,000 signed petitions. To qualify for placement on a ballot, the petition must have about 21,000 signatures. Placement on the November ballot was previously a top priority – and STOP would have needed

City officials had the last word of the day Friday on the failed arena deal between the city and the owners of the Sacramento Kings – and that word was “disappointed.” “We are profoundly disappointed that the entertainment and sports complex project is not moving forward,” City Manager John Shirey said Friday. “We had great hopes, and there was great jubilation just a few weeks ago that a deal had been struck.” Assistant City Manager John Dangberg and City Councilmen Rob Fong and Steve Cohn joined Shirey for an impromptu press conference Friday in response to the sudden failure of a deal between the city, the Maloofs, arena operator AEG and the NBA to build a new arena in Sacramento. “T