Hansen agrees to price for Cook's piece of the Kings
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Sure, but here is the truth people in the northwest don't like to talk about: they sucked. They blew it and lost their team. Almost chased them out of town. They felt entitled, just as Kings fans did once. Its a fortunate thing really that that happened, and that Sacto and KJ have been on full alert.
a team leaving a big market for a much smaller one had almost never been done before, seattle felt like they had stern/BOG in a bind and he would just lay down and pay for a new arena because they wouldnt have the guts to just leave a big market like seattle after 41 years, they found out the hard way that you just dont mess with stern and try to bully him, you play nice like we are and do everything he asks, he wants it be known that he in charge.
Aside from a current limited partner matching the offer for Cook's 7%, wouldn't the ROFR be prioritized starting with the partner with the highest percentage? If so, of the group below, doesn't Joe Benvenuti owns the highest percentage (I think around 13%)?
Limited Partners:
Joe Benvenuti
Bob Hernreich
John Kehriotis
Dave Luccheti
Bob Cook (sold via bankrupcy)
Limited Partners:
Joe Benvenuti
Bob Hernreich
John Kehriotis
Dave Luccheti
Bob Cook (sold via bankrupcy)
There's also the PR side of it, where Hansen said that he would never steal a team away from another city.
Well, Mr. Righteous, we've got an awesome ownership group that wants to buy the team and keep it here, we've got an arena deal, we've got fans packing half of the City Council chambers in white t-shirts on the vote night. The owners want the team here. The city wants the team here. The fans want the team here. And all of us have stepped up, big time, to make that known and obvious. At what point does your pursuit of this team fall into the "stealing" category?
Well, Mr. Righteous, we've got an awesome ownership group that wants to buy the team and keep it here, we've got an arena deal, we've got fans packing half of the City Council chambers in white t-shirts on the vote night. The owners want the team here. The city wants the team here. The fans want the team here. And all of us have stepped up, big time, to make that known and obvious. At what point does your pursuit of this team fall into the "stealing" category?
Yeah, I kinda forgot about that part. For me, though, the bottom line has always been that if the Maloofs hadn't been doing business as usual in dealing with Hansen, he wouldn't have been able to make a bid for the team.
The whole thing reeks of smarm, though, and there's enough to go around for all the Maloofs AND Hansen.
The whole thing reeks of smarm, though, and there's enough to go around for all the Maloofs AND Hansen.
Yep, up to this point he was just a guy trying to bring the NBA back to Seattle. This latest move proves he's willing to do whatever it takes to do so.
I love that KJ and the new investment group have plotted this whole thing out and are ready for every obstacle. Will be interesting to see which Kings M.O. will swoop up Cook's 7%, or should I say Hansen's temporary 7%.
I love that KJ and the new investment group have plotted this whole thing out and are ready for every obstacle. Will be interesting to see which Kings M.O. will swoop up Cook's 7%, or should I say Hansen's temporary 7%.
personally, i don't have any particular objection to the way hansen has done business thus far. admittedly, very little was accomplished "in broad daylight," so there's not much to judge either way, but from his perspective, the kings were for sale if the bid was high enough, so he made an offer over market. i don't want to sound sympathetic, because i'm not, but the tiniest part of me kinda sorta almost feels bad for hansen/ballmer. the maloofs were aware of the local investment group that KJ's had on speed dial since last year, and they were also aware of david stern's preference that the kings remain in sacramento, but refused to approach local investors first regarding the sale of the team...
what's not clear to me is if the maloofs made the hansen group aware of the fact that a competing sacramento bid could very well derail their purchase of the kings, and by the time the hansen group was made aware of just how serious that threat was, they'd already slapped a supposedly non-refundable $30 million deposit down on the team. hansen/ballmer definitely didn't see ranadive/mastrov/burkle/jacobs bearing down on them, because nobody saw them coming... except for the maloofs, who were plenty capable of contacting kevin johnson about the investors he had lined up to bid on the team should it go to market...
what's not clear to me is if the maloofs made the hansen group aware of the fact that a competing sacramento bid could very well derail their purchase of the kings, and by the time the hansen group was made aware of just how serious that threat was, they'd already slapped a supposedly non-refundable $30 million deposit down on the team. hansen/ballmer definitely didn't see ranadive/mastrov/burkle/jacobs bearing down on them, because nobody saw them coming... except for the maloofs, who were plenty capable of contacting kevin johnson about the investors he had lined up to bid on the team should it go to market...
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