The NBA’s relocation comittee (a group of 7 NBA owners) have unanimously voted to keep the Sacramento Kings in California, and denied the planned sale and move to Seattle.
Hedge fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had previously agreed to buy majority control of the team from the Maloof family that owns them. The group latest offer was to buy 65% of the team for a price of $550 million. Hansen and Ballmer planned to move the team to Seattle, and to build a new arena to house the franchise.
However a new group, put together at the last minute by Sacramento mayor and former NBA point guard Kevin Johnson made an 11th hour counter offer and has apparently secured the Kings’ future in Sacramento.
Johnson first pledged $258 million in public funding towards a new downtown arena complex to keep the Kings in Sacramento. He then organized a group of investors that was led by Vivek Ranadive, a minority owner of the Golden State Warriors and owner of a computer software company. The group is also said to include Qualcomm’s founders the Jacobs family. It is this group that will now have to negotiate with the Maloof family on a final purchase price for the NBA franchise.
While the NBA’s board of governors is expected to vote on this issue at the May 15th league meeting, the fact that this recommendation was a 7-0 unanimous vote seems to indicate that the BOG vote is a mere formality at this point. David Stern’s strong public support for the Sacramento bid also seems to indicate that barring a last minute, behind the scenes change of plans, this vote is a mere formality.
When asked about the possibility of NBA expansion to take advantage of the proposed Seattle arena project, Stern indicated that the league was not planning to expand at this time.
It would appear that it is time to go back to the drawing board for Ballmer and Hansen, and anyone else who has plans to bring an NBA franchise to Seattle and replace the Supersonics who departed to Oklahoma City after the 2007-08 season.
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