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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Sports Sacramento Fails to Finalize Arena Deal as NBA Deadline Approaches

Posted by Goldy on Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 4:58 PM

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson had promised to release details today of a public-private deal to build a new downtown basketball arena for the Kings. He didn't meet his self-imposed deadline. It's a delay that could prove fatal to the city's long shot efforts to keep the Kings from moving to Seattle.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has set an April 3 deadline for Sacramento to make its final pitch, but it won't be much of one without an arena deal in place. Mayor Johnson remains confident that he can push his yet to be finalized arena deal through city council in the 13 days remaining. If so, politics sure do work differently in Sacramento than they do in Seattle.

On the bright side for Sacramento Kings fans, the city revealed a third major investor in its effort to outbid the Seattle group. Vivek Ranadive is a multimillionaire software executive who once coached his daughter's little league basketball team to the national championships. That's sweet.

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Comments (8) RSS

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It's shameful that Seattle is attempting to do to Sacramento what OKC did to us. We should not be participating in David Stern's callous city vs. city manipulation.

Posted by I Got Nuthin' on March 21, 2013 at 5:01 PM

@1 we didn't make this a monopoly. Congress did.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 21, 2013 at 5:26 PM

It'd be one thing if Seattle was stealing a team from the only place it's ever been and from a place where it won a championship. But Sacremento stole the team in the past. This team was the Rochester Royals, Cincinnati Royals, Kansas City-Omaha Kings, and Kansas City Kings. It's hard to be high and mighty about someone stealing your team when it's already been stolen before.

Posted by arbeck

on March 21, 2013 at 5:36 PM

The Sonics owners dishonesty wasn't in buying the team and moving it to OKC, but in claiming that that wasn't the plan all along. They pretended they were keeping the team here while they were actually assembling a relocation.

Chris Hanson is doing something completely different, simply trying to buy a team which is failing in its current location and move it to a more beneficial location. It has happened many times to this team and many others.

Posted by fletc3her on March 21, 2013 at 6:24 PM

Kevin Johnson is just as full of crap as his wife, Michelle Rhee is. He's got no plan.

Posted by StuckInUtah on March 21, 2013 at 7:37 PM

Any #logical or #sane person would conclude that a new investor coming in would make them revise their bid, hence the delay.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on March 21, 2013 at 11:01 PM

All those Minnesota Lakers and New Orleans jazz fans are rooting for Sacramento right now.

Posted by Farts Weird on March 21, 2013 at 11:49 PM

" It's a delay that could prove fatal to the city's long shot efforts to keep the Kings from moving to Seattle."

Pure conjecture, except that it proves that you are a propagandist for Hansen's proxies (Dow, et al) in the Democratic Party. Be sure to wipe off when done.

Posted by hmmmmm on March 22, 2013 at 7:59 AM