What articles are you seeing? I live here and haven't seen such stuff. Quite the opposite. More season tickets than in years. Another Rookie of the Year candidate drafted. Great excitement we haven't seen in years. All positive feedback from coaches and players and staff. What more do you want?
It sounds as if the original poster has gotten most of their information from Israeli sports sites, and who knows what is being said in those.
As of now, the facts on the ground are these:
1) There is no current plan for the relocation of the Kings, not to Seattle, not to anywhere. Neither the NBA nor Kings ownership have suggested that any relocation is being planned or considered. The Kings have not filed for relocation for the 2011-2012 season, though the deadline to do so will be in March 2011.
The bad news:
2) Arco Arena is an old venue, and needs to be replaced in the short term.
3) The Sacramento Kings do not have the financial ability to build an arena on their own, but the city of Sacramento has been completely unwilling to publicly finance an arena.
4) A recent, complicated land swap plan to finance an arena has recently been shot down by the Cal Expo board, one of the governmental parties to the plan. This is not the first arena proposal that has been killed by Cal Expo.
5) The NBA has essentially announced that it will no longer be actively involved in facilitating the development of an arena in Sacramento (though it may be debatable what role they have played since the first Cal Expo proposal, and whether their influence is even necessary).
The good news:
6) Developers are continuing to look for solutions that will allow for a privately financed arena, and there are at least two sites (the original site in Natomas and the Downtown Railyard complex) that are available for an arena if funding to build one can be secured.
7) The Kings ownership has consistently reiterated a desire to not move the team, and to get an arena built in Sacramento.
8) There are several obstacles to any suggested move. The NBA's relocation fee and a large debt that the Kings organization currently owes the city of Sacramento would amount to about $100 million dollars. The viability of all hotly-rumored relocation destinations is also in question. Seattle's Key Arena is older than Arco, has not been renovated in 15 years, and is one of the reasons the Supersonics left town. Both San Jose and Anaheim have modern arenas but lie in the exclusive rights zones of other franchises (two, in the case of Anaheim) - the Warriors, Lakers, and Clippers are unlikely to allow a move to either. Kansas City has a modern arena but is an even smaller media market than Sacramento, with two current professional sports franchises that the Kings would have to compete with. And the NBA is unlikely to approve a move to Las Vegas (which does not, at the current time, have a new arena under construction, though there are plans) due to gambling concerns.
The bottom line is that the Kings are in Sacramento for now. If an arena deal can be made, they will stay. If an arena deal cannot be made, they will eventually leave. There is no set deadline for when a deal must be in place to keep the Kings in Sacramento. The pessismistic belief is that the Kings will certainly file for relocation in March. The optimistic belief is that Kings ownership will work for two-three more years to get an arena deal done before giving up. But nobody really knows.
