The drive to force a public vote on the Sacramento Kings‘ arena deal pretty much blew up on Friday, when two of its leaders quit after revealing that lawyers for the team’s outgoing owners, the Maloof brothers, had provided $80,000 in funding for the campaign:
[Paul] Olson and Sacramento political consultant Tab Berg said in a joint press release that they were cutting ties with the campaign. Their resignations came two days after a complaint was filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission alleging that the signature campaign had not properly reported donations and expenditures.
“I have broken no laws, and I am not going to stand in front of those who refuse to take responsibility to try to throw my colleagues or I under the bus,” Berg said in an emailed statement that appeared alongside Olson’s comments.
So that’s good news for the Kings, since even if the campaign can recover from Olson and Berg’s departures, it’s going to be tough to recover from what Sacramento political consultant Doug Elmets calls “the taint of the Maloofs.” But because this is Sacramento, there’s bad news for the Kings as well: The team is having trouble buying the last piece of land it needs for the arena, and may have to ask the city to use its powers of eminent domain to force a sale. Which probably won’t be too hard — courts have been remarkably lenient about ruling private sports stadiums to be a “public purpose” in eminent domain cases — but it could be enough to slow things down a bit.
Thank you Doug Elmets for making us think of the taint of the Maloofs. Ugh!
But that leaves Julian Camacho as the leader of the STOP effort ? That guy is more of an issue-of-the-month activist.
Blaming the Maloofs can only last so long. If the team underperforms and the arena faces other bumps in the road, is the Bee still going to blame the Maloofs?. It’s worth pointing out that the Maloof law firm has other clients including Comcast and Clear Channel that may have a bone to pick with the Sacramento arena deal. The Maloofs may not even be involved. Like everything involving this whole saga- this is too anti-climactic for an ending.
Good point JJ. The fact that is the Maloof’s legal reps that contributed does not mean it is necessarily the Maloofs involved.
Having said that, this could also be great news for Jeff Loria… whenever someone starts a “impeach Loria” campaign in Miami, all he has to do is write a reasonably generous check to support it (which he can certainly afford to do given the staggering taxpayer subsidies he has been given) and, boom, the cause is broken permanently.
I mean, it’s a perfect strategy really. Kind of like owning the concession for both the “I heart Lorias” and “Lorias Out” tee shirts. No matter which side you take on the issue, you are with them…
I as a taxpayer support the new Kings arena. Jevin johnson did not work hard to save the kings from Seattle for u anti sports idiots to try to ruin things for everybody. Sac will get a new arena and we will cover 200mill…whixhvisnt even half. We got lucky
Hmm. Is “u anti sports idiots” a personal attack? It’s more of an impersonal attack, seems to me…
Who is Jevin Johnson?
He is a former MBA player who is now the mayor of Racramento.
Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Maloofs lawyers did it because they want the case (they have all the info, and would make a lot of money on the lawsuits, which might be winnable for them because they have the info), and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Maloofs funneled the money to the group through their lawyers (remember: they got 60+ million less then they would have from the Seattle group because the NBA blocked it. Causing the arena plan to be destroyed would be an amazing F-U in revenge for not getting the better offer, and force the NBA to panic because they didn’t get a new arena in Sacramento)
Let’s try some more translation.
“anti sports idiots” includes at least one person (my hand is raised) who spends entirely too much time watching sports
“everybody” = the minority of Racromentanites who care about the Kings
“lucky” = getting the non-“everybody” Racromentanites to contribute a large chunk of $200M to pay for something that “everybody” can enjoy
OPM is a wonderful thing when you’re on the receiving end.
@Keith and Ryan
Hahaha. Good show. Either way at the end of the day… I PROMISE YOU GENTLEMEN… that i, you and the rest of Sacramento will be paying 200mil of public support for OUR Kings… and we can all enjoy the game together.. unless you want to whine outside with signs…. sigh
California also has Raiders, A’s, Warriors and Chargers that all need new homes… some situations are different then others but i dont see anything wrong with the public putting up their portion… also these days cities pay less of the percentage when it comes to new stadiums then back in the 90’s boom when cities were paying more then half for the project… i just see cities really paying only 20-40%
For example the city of Oakland wants to do Coliseum City but neither the city or the teams themselves are goign to fund the project… so what do we do??? tell the Raiders and A’s to private build where they dont want too??? Or tell them to leave outta state??? Even if new owners came and bought the team they too will ask for public money if their is not enough political and private support. I
in other words… if Oakland has to spend 300 mil for the Raiders… i would divide that 300 mil in half, and offer the A’s and Raiders 150 mil each in either stadium upgrades or just our portion for any project in Oakland.. and make sure Oakland gets a commitment… the A’s and Raiders will have their minimal public subsidy.. and Oakland would show it cares about both teams.
“also these days cities pay less of the percentage when it comes to new stadiums then back in the 90′s boom when cities were paying more then half for the project…”
Actually, Judith Grant Long’s exhaustive research shows that the public-private share percentages have barely changed at all the last few decades.
Hrm, they have a $73 Kindle edition of Judith Grant Long’s latest tome… and apparently some author named Jennifer Coburn stole your title, Neil. Funny that Amazon grouped both FoS books together under Mrs Long’s book.
Unfortunately, you can’t copyright titles. Though I may have a case against Coburn for ripping off my tale of “a world of high drama, backstabbing and deceit.”
Well, WalMart regularly expands, too, and they also serve the public good, what with all those great prices, high quality merchandise, and thousands of great jobs. It’s high time the public started to pay for its share of the cost of WalMart stores.
Why is that logic wrong?
Oddly enough, if anything, I’d say momentum has increased for a June vote. I had thought this might damage the cause for a vote, but if anything, it seems to have drawn a “Wait a minute, this is still a risky deal”-reaction. I think they’re within weeks of blowing right past the necessary 22,000 signatures, with months left to gather them.
We deserve the right to vote (or is that “uote”?) on this.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/city-beat/2013/08/sacramento-arena-vote-campaign-says-its-more-than-halfway-to-signature-goal.html
speaking of high drama, backstabbing, and deceit…. Chris Hansen is willing to fund opposition groups to NBA ownership teams and their arena demands, pretty much sealing his position as an outsider with every current team owner/league official who has had to do battle with such groups.
Stick a fork in Hansen’s pursuit because he’s pretty much done in the league (even more than Ellison).
http://www.king5.com/news/Report-Hansen-revealed-as-donor-behind-effort-opposing-Sacramento-arena-219985591.html
Yeah, that’s just … wow. After all he did to make himself out as the nice, patient guy, Hansen really looks to have shot himself in both feet with a bazooka here.
Forgot a bazooka, this bomb was nuclear because the radiation will force all around him to leave. This forever kills any chances of Seattle getting an NBA and/or NHL team if he’s in the group; like Mark Cuban with the MLB, any group with him in it will be blacklisted from here on out, even if he’s barely involved. What he did was beyond stupid, and he will have to pay the consequences of it for the rest of his life.