With no news at all about where the Sacramento Kings are likely to end up, and no real way to research it since the only people who might know are the 30 NBA owners and they ain’t talking, what’s there left to write about?
- How NBA commissioner David Stern is “anguishing” over the decision of where to place the team, though he doesn’t actually have a vote. And that Kings officials have been told to prepare marketing and season ticket plans for next season and otherwise “sit tight,” which doesn’t actually tell us anything.
- Pretty pictures of what a new Sacramento arena might look like. Apparently it comes with its own blimp!
The NBA relocation committee is likely meeting today or tomorrow, after which we probably still won’t know anything. Sit tight, people.
There is the whole rumor from Tim Montemayer tweets that they are discussing expansion but Hansen doesn’t want to wait a year while that gets put together. They’re not exactly in an easy to read format and, well, they’re tweets from a sports radio guy who also retweets Joel Osteen.
https://twitter.com/TheMontyShow/status/327090902608797696
There will be lot’s of rumors in the next few weeks. But giving Seattle an expansion team seems plausible.
They are now saying the full BOG will take up this issue on Monday, at which point they have not less than 7 days to vote, and not more than 30.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/25/5371103/stern-nba-owners-committee-recommendation.html
There is one thought that does not cross my mind when I look at a purple arena slathered in Kings logos: “This isn’t just about basketball!”.
Oh, okay. Riverdance?
A tweet from a writer from the Sacramento Bee said it best:
https://twitter.com/NickMiller916/status/327114025278259200
And here’s a very weird video of KJ inaugurating said Scientology Church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VElqRZn0p78
A tweet from a writer from the Sacramento Bee said it best:
https://twitter.com/NickMiller916/status/327114025278259200
And here’s a very weird video of KJ inaugurating said Scientology Church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VElqRZn0p78
The blimp may be closer to the action than the upper deck seats.
No rendering of the stacks of money being transferred from taxpayers to the NBA? I guess that picture isn’t pretty enough to be posted on the site.
Oh, Tommy, this arena is projected to produce $7B over 30 years! Haven’t you heard?
That’s $233M/year, or a ROI of 52.1%. Not bad for a $447M investment, eh?
Heck, why would we NOT do this?? We’re going to be RICH!
So if we take a poll on whether the Kings will stay in Sacramento or relocate to Seattle, what would you guys say? Personally, I would think that they are moving to Seattle. But at the same time, it’s hard to say what will happen.
It’s hard to say. I’m predicting the Kings move to Seattle and Sacramento will become a top candidate for an expansion team. It’s really hard to turn away the Seattle group who has been working on this for several years versus a Sacramento group that has cobbled something together in a short amount of time. If Sacramento got this group together and this arena proposal together a year ago, they would probably keep the team. Sounds like a day late and a dollar short.
I’d say Seattle, because there are way too many uncertainties in Sacramento’s funding plan, as well as in the process of building the arena itself.
If KJ hadn’t been so dumb, he’d have kept his foot on the accelerator last April, instead of comparing the Maloofs to Kim Jung Il.
Also, I think they need to find a good, solid, legal reason that Hansen cannot own a team. Something about him where people slap themselves in the forehead and say, “Well, of COURSE he can’t own a team; those criminal convictions make it impossible!”.
And one last thing, the NBA cannot now force the Maloofs to negotiate exclusively with Ranadive’s group. There is no legal way they can. The Maloofs can voluntarily do that, but they don’t have to.
I’m not sure the NBA has a long history of only signing off on the most rock-solid of arena plans…. they approved a very similar deal for sacramento last year. If they believe Sacramento can pull it off, they may decide that’s a better option than yanking a team out of that market, as much as they’d like the Seattle market share.
Seattle still has over 4 years of arena MOU approval, assuming opposition doesn’t change that. Maybe the NBA just needs to have strong markets that want teams to help the league keep a status/cachet .
However, ChefJoe, they now have a deal to compare with Sac’s, and it’s a more solid deal.
Sac’s arena deal last year was weak enough to where if they had proceeded with it, we’d have already encountered the first problem: The parking would not have netted $250M. They face the exact same issue this year. Not yet, but if they proceed with Sacramento, they will.
And the BOG knows this.
Anyway, now looking at May 13; 1 day after Mother’s Day, and 8 days before the lottery.
KJ seemed to have bought the myth that the team wasn’t for sale and if he got wind of that, all he had at the time was Burkle. And the word was that the Maloofs were not going to sell to Burkle. Of course, the Maloofs were going to say that the team is not for sale but if you offer anybody a high enough price for an asset, they will sell- especially if one of the buyers is worth $15 billion and could pay for the team in an all cash deal. And I too don’t think KJ’s behavior helped. The guy is a political opportunist and a PR junkie- he used the Maloofs in his Kings pep rallies and joined the media in casting them as villains after last April. Why would the Maloofs want to be used this way? Also, Hansen and Ballmer have binding offers for 72% of the team and have put real money in acquiring land. I don’t see the same commitment from Team Ranadive.
Hansen had to buy the land or Seattle politicians would have fought harder for a site of their choosing. There’s a road in the middle of where Hansen wants an arena and he had to buy property from 5 different owners. There’s no way the local government would have thought that site was workable if it wasn’t owned by Hansen.
“I don’t think either one of them can win it.” —Chicago sportswriter Warren Brown before the 1945 World Series
Still not a baseball fan Neil… too slow. Although due to this site I now have learned that the 1945 World Series was the origin of the Curse of the Billy Goat.
Sounds kind of how Sac fans (and David Stern, likely) feels about the Maloofs although I’m not sure who would curse whom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Billy_Goat
Billy Goat Tavern owner Billy Sianis was asked to leave a World Series game against the Detroit Tigers at the Cubs’ home ground of Wrigley Field because his pet goat’s odor was bothering other fans. He was outraged and declared, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more,” which has been interpreted to mean that there would never be another World Series game won at Wrigley Field. The Cubs have not won a National League pennant since this incident and as of 2012 have not won a World Series in 104 years.
Yeah, but ChefJoe, if KJ had found someone as committed as Hansen is, they, too, would have bought some land. Instead, they’re kind of looking for some free land.
You go to that company that now owns the old railyard, and you plunk down some cash and say, “We want those 10 acres, right there.”
Is it Inland that owns that land? Inland would have accepted that.
One more item not even mentioned in the term sheet: Compensation to individuals or companies that own businesses in the Downtown Plaza. I’m pretty sure there are lots of leases in there. Who compensates them for being forced out? We don’t know — it’s not mentioned in the term sheets.
That’s not hundreds of millions of dollars, but it will be something.
Not an issue in Seattle, by the way.
Nope MikeM, still an issue in Seattle. Hansen bought certain properties, but there may well have been sweeteners with moving expenses, etc. There’s still active businesses with leases in the buildings he’s bought. Certainly not sure about many.
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2012/08/28/the-show-will-go-on-for-showbox-sodo.html
Sacramento’s arena site being a mall probably means there’s an organizational framework for how that mall is closed or shops are moved to accommodate mall business (like renovation). I think that probably helps.
MikeM:
Hey, at $233m p/a, why not build five arenas and be so rich you can actually just burn money to heat them?
Naw, five arenas would be Seattle; the Kingdome, Mariners Stadium, Seahawks Stadium, Key Arena, and now the new arena proposal. So that would make five without counting Husky Stadium, the Husky’s basketball arena, the Tacoma Dome, and smaller arenas in Everett and Kent. We got your arenas here in Seattle step right up. Somehow, these arenas are not bringing prosperity to all.
The Kingdome isn’t bringing prosperity to anyone these days, that’s for sure.
Here’s the most-recent footage of the Seattle Kingdome I can find:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-0FURbcPLw?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]
I’m sure that there are still some Kingdome bondholders out there still getting interest payments. I’m sure the Kingdome is making them prosperous. In Sacramento, Arco Arena I is an office for the CA Department of Consumer Affairs but I wouldn’t call the state’s employees prosperous.
Absolutely correct, Jason. The bond retirement date is 2016.
Good catch.
I’m sort of thinking that facility isn’t producing sufficient revenues to cover that debt, seeing as how it was retired 16 years before the bonds are scheduled to be.
So, if the terms of the Kingdome bonds are similar to the Sacramento arena bonds, we’ll be paying this off until 2053 and the term sheet calls for a 35 year lease so in 2053 we could be paying off bonds for a team that left in 2048, or earlier if they found a loophole in their lease.
I don’t have a link for this, but it was some nonsense that I was reading earlier. Stern said yesterday that “…one city is going to be disappointed…” Expansion, not that it was a real option to begin with, is totally off the table. The BOG meets on 4/29, and with the seven day whatnot; the earliest we could get an answer on this, one way or the other, is on 5/6. We’ll get an idea on 4/29. The owners don’t go against the BOG very often, the last time in 1994 when the T’Wolves were looking to move to New Orleans. Probably not a bad idea on the Board’s part, that time. It takes a village, after all.
The Board of Governors is a major owner or representative from each team Mike. There are select committees that focus on certain issues and can make recommendations to the whole board.
The Kingdome bonds are still being paid off… partly because the hotel/motel and car rental taxes that were paying it have been diverted to fund playgrounds/youth sports and arts/heritage programs. It probably also didn’t help that, being blown up, it probably doesn’t generate any revenue from rent/concessions/parking taxes/etc.
I know it’s from a biased interview source, but the guy’s story is interesting. Of course, you have to believe several BoG committee members know how to text.
http://www.cowbellkingdom.com/podcasts/ck_podcast_ep90.mp3
Mike, this was the tweet from Thursday when Stern was talking with the AP Sportswriters in NY.
https://twitter.com/APSE_sportmedia/status/327488281132544000
“The Kingdome bonds are still being paid off… partly because the hotel/motel and car rental taxes that were paying it have been diverted to fund playgrounds/youth sports and arts/heritage programs. It probably also didn’t help that, being blown up, it probably doesn’t generate any revenue from rent/concessions/parking taxes/etc.”
This makes no sense at all.
Over the years the few revenue streams still going into paying the Kingdome bonds have been divided. From back when they were figuring out if they could afford a Sonics arena in 2008 we had this table.
http://www.leg.wa.gov/JointCommittees/LFOKC/Documents/2008-07-16KingRevenueStreams.pdf
Until 2013, 70% of the funds go to art and heritage programs, and 30% goes to the Kingdome.
From 2013-2021 the funds are used first to pay the Kingdome bonds, and then to pay the Qwest field bonds
Currently, 75% of the proceeds are directed to Kingdome bonds and 25% to youth sports activities and facilities.
When the Kingdome bonds are paid off (~late 2014), it will be up to the county what to use this for, but it must be used for stadiums and youth playfields.
If revenues from that original tax hike have risen to unexpected levels, then, sure, I can see that. But the fact is, the bulk of those funds goes to repaying bonds for a stadium that no longer exists.
In a few years, I’m betting that tax hike will expire.
Mike, only 30% of the hotel/motel taxes are going to pay off those bonds. The 2% collections is still good for $20 mil a year but only 6 mil are paying off those bonds. Of course, when we finally do pay off the Kingdome, it sounds like the tax won’t go away and we’ll start plugging away at a portion of the nearly 12 year old Clink bonds . It’s all in that chart.
But, you’re right… the 2% hotel/motel tax will stop being redirected to the county-funded stadia come 2021. It’s not slated to go away, just be available to the cities. We’re WA… we have no state income taxes so our government strives to never see a good tax revenue stream be retired.
Right now is the conference call among the owners of the NBA’s finance and relocation committees? Ranadive or Hansen? Downtown Plaza or SoDo? Are they having lunch delivered to their offices while they are on the call?
Looks like the NBA committee wants to keep the Kings in Sacramento. One tweet said unanimous recommendation.
Committee voted against Hansen; now to put pressure on Maloofs to sell to the Sacramento group.