This is Breton's 2nd article within a week slamming the Maloofs.
From what I've read though, the Maloofs did contact the NBA about their concerns well before the 3/6 vote. Stern confirmed receiving them and that they were all forwarded to the city.
No one is questioning why the city chose to continue with the vote knowing the Maloofs did not agree with many of the terms.
There are a couple things to consider here.
I think the biggest reason is that a term sheet had been signed and agreed to and it wouldn't be uncommon for parties to continue to negotiate small details. That being the case it made sense to take the vote and then address minor issues after the fact since the basic framework of the deal would (supposedly) remain unchanged by these further discussions. The other is that the concerns of the Maloofs may not have been communicated to the city via the NBA. That certainly seems to be what is implied.
Either way, saying the Maloofs "had concerns" or "did not agree with many of the terms" is a bit of an understatement. Looking at what they proposed it was basically eliminating liability and costs for the Maloofs while also asking for unreasonable things such as 100% of concessions despite not contributing to the staffing, tax exemption for the arena, not paying anything for police, fire, and emergency personnel on game days, no collateral on the loan etc.
I think the part that frustrates me the most is the attempted spin that they were doing this because it was a bad deal for themselves AND the city of Sacramento. Yet ALL of the changes they asked for (and presumably would have been willing to sign a deal if made) would have put the city (and AEG) in a much worse financial position. There is a difference between having some small disagreement with a few terms and minor issues and making unreasonable demands. I agree with KJ on this - it looks as though they were simply looking for reasons NOT to do the deal and furthermore were using those demands to blow it up.
Kevin Johnson took a stance of "the deal is done, we're not renegotiating" but I think if what was being presented was reasonable they could have worked something out. But seeing the Maloofs go from saying it was a fair deal, crying tears of happiness that it was done and joining KJ at half court in a celebration to trying to completely rewrite what had been agreed to made him simply dig his heels in and realize that they weren't going to be able to work things out.
And I'm completely sickened by the whole thing. I don't see any reason to criticize the city council for proceeding with a vote. I see every reason to slam the Maloofs for their words and actions that led to the deal being killed.
