The Bee on Las Vegas...
I'm putting both these articles here because they're inter-related...
http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/123201.html
Maloofs: No Kings move to Vegas
'We want to get it done in Sacramento,' co-owners say, shooting down speculation.
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:36 am PST Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Despite NBA Commissioner David Stern's comments that the league might allow a basketball team to locate in Las Vegas, the Maloofs said Tuesday it won't be the Kings.
Joe and Gavin Maloof said they are committed to staying in Sacramento, despite the ongoing difficulty of coming up with a viable plan for a new arena.
Joe Maloof said he thinks Las Vegas would be a good fit for an expansion team rather than an existing team.
"We have a great team going in Sacramento," he said.
"We've been here eight years. We've built a lot of friendships, and we want to get it done in Sacramento."
"We don't want to leave, and we've never thought about Vegas," echoed his brother Gavin.
Speculation about a Kings move to Las Vegas is running high as the Maloof family prepares to host much of the NBA All-Star Game extravaganza at its Palms casino in Las Vegas. Stern's comments came in an interview leading up to the event.
He told Newsday on Monday that he still objects to the idea of allowing a team to locate in Las Vegas while the gambling industry accepts bets on NBA games.
But for the first time, he said he wouldn't stand in the way if a majority of NBA owners decided they want to put a team there.
After Sacramento County voters in November crushed a proposal to raise sales taxes for a new arena, Stern swept into Sacramento and said he would come up with his own plan.
Since then, the NBA has gone quiet about Sacramento as Stern's representative, sports consultant John Moag, tries to figure out how to raise the $500 million or so needed to replace Arco.
Sacramento officials said Stern's revelation doesn't worry them.
"It certainly opens up another scenario, especially since the Maloofs' base of operations is Las Vegas," said Councilman Rob Fong, who worked on the previous arena plan.
"But I take Stern and the NBA at their word that they value Sacramento as a market. We certainly have our team. If, at some point, the NBA decides Las Vegas needs a team, they could put an expansion team there."
Supervisor Roger Dickinson, also a leader in the failed arena effort last fall, said Sacramento is a great NBA market. It just hasn't figured out a way to build a new arena. The possibility that Las Vegas might "be in play" doesn't affect that situation, he said.
John Dangberg, assistant Sacramento city manager, said he is in regular contact with Moag, and the sports consultant is working on ideas to pay for an arena and keep the Kings here.
"He's just working on his fact finding. What we're focused on now is just assisting," he said.
Joe Maloof said Tuesday he is a strong advocate of an NBA expansion franchise for Las Vegas.
That way, he said, owners of the 30 existing teams could divvy the franchise fee paid by the prospective owner, a sum he estimated at $500 million.
"It's a huge market. I think it's an international market. I think probably most of the owners would want to be there," he said.
Gavin Maloof said the Kings brand in Sacramento is valuable and can't easily be moved.
"When you have 340 or so sellouts, that took us a lot of hard work, time and effort."
Despite all the hype about Las Vegas, it can't offer an NBA owner any better digs than Arco. The Thomas & Mack Center -- which hosts Sunday's All-Star Game -- is considered dated and inadequate.
A task force has determined it should be replaced, but didn't provide a location or financing plan.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who has dubbed himself the "happiest mayor in the universe," said Tuesday he has no doubt he'll come up with a financing plan, which could involve a sales tax increase.
He'd like the new arena built on land across from City Hall.
"I'm running for my third four-year term, and I'm term-limited," he said. "It better be within four years, or you'll have one very unhappy Oscar."
Not all Las Vegas-area politicians share his unbridled enthusiasm. Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid said he doesn't favor using public funds for a new facility.
He pointed out that Clark County -- not the city of Las Vegas -- has jurisdiction over the fabled Las Vegas Strip, which is outside city limits.
"We've been the fastest growing community in the country for 17 years in a row, and because of that growth we have challenges that make building an arena less of a priority," Reid said.
"We have a health care delivery system that's stressed."
Until now, the idea that casinos would have to get rid of their NBA betting lines had been an insurmountable hurdle. At most casinos, NBA betting ranks third behind the National Football League and Major League Baseball.
According to Nevada gaming records, the casinos took in nearly $48 million in basketball bets last year, a nearly 27 percent increase over 2005.
By comparison, more than $100 million was wagered on the Super Bowl.
An acceptable compromise may be to restrict betting on games played by a Nevada franchise.
Casinos had similar wagering restrictions on the University of Nevada, Reno, and UNLV basketball and football, but those were lifted in 2001 by Nevada's Gaming Control Board.
Joe Maloof predicted the NBA will eventually find middle ground.
"Sooner or later, there has to be a compromise, because I don't think the casinos as a whole would ever remove NBA betting from their books," he said.
About the writer: The Bee's Mary Lynne Vellinga can be reached at (916) 321-1094 or mlvellinga@sacbee.com.
http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/123323.html
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Marcos Bretón: Don't take the bait - Vegas is NBA mirage
By Marcos Bretón - Bee Sports Columnist
Last Updated 12:26 am PST Wednesday, February 14, 2007
NBA Commissioner David Stern is like the guy in the movie "Jaws" who tosses blood and severed fish heads into the ocean, sparking a feeding frenzy of sharks.
The only difference being: The guy in "Jaws" was shocked and frightened when the sharks took the blood. Stern banks on it.
He has done it again, this time causing a media frenzy by seemingly changing his position and opening the door for the possibility of an NBA team in Las Vegas days before the league holds its All-Star event in Sin City.
The NBA All-Star Weekend is an annual festival of hype for Stern to trump the state of the league. Why not start the fun with a superficial image of a sexy hot spot that is aching for an NBA team?
Why not shake up -- or subtly frighten -- cities such as Sacramento, where frustrated NBA owners want a new arena and have had no luck extorting one?
Why not dangle a Las Vegas franchise that could be impossible or impractical to realize because -- beyond the hype -- Vegas isn't half the market Sacramento is?
Probably because it's a lot more palatable to discuss hypotheticals when reality in the NBA is the opposite of hot and sexy.
Reality is half-empty arenas in Memphis and Charlotte; of league blunders such as moving to New Orleans; of disasters such as the bloated New York Knicks.
Reality is cities such as Seattle telling Stern to take a hike when he made threats of moving the Seattle SuperSonics unless taxpayers built a new Seattle arena.
Reality means Carmelo Anthony, the NBA's leading scorer, was suspended for weeks for his role in a brawl and was only a last-minute addition to the All-Star Game.
Reality is that the judges for the All-Star dunk contest -- Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant and Julius Erving -- are far more compelling than the no-names competing.
Reality is that on many nights, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith talking about games on TNT is more entertaining than the actual games.
Is it any wonder Stern would pour this particular bucket of bloody fish into the water?
It's a great diversion. It gets national play and -- whether it's intentional or not -- it cuts to the marrow in critical NBA markets such as Sacramento.
Let's face it, Las Vegas has been the concealed weapon pointed at Sacramento as local arena efforts failed. "Las Vegas" have been the words terrified Kings fans have whispered or screamed, depending on their fragile states of mind.
After all, Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof are Vegas casino titans.
Consequently, many locals have never believed the Maloofs when they stated -- as they do again in today's Bee -- that they want to remain in Sacramento.
The palpable fear of Sacramento's team becoming the Las Vegas Kings has been like a gift that keeps on giving for the Maloofs: They could appear like good guys in public, while in private, the threat of them leaving always hovered over the negotiating table with Sacramento officials.
The Maloofs didn't have to say they would move to Las Vegas because plenty of other people said it for them.
In today's Bee, Joe Maloof says his family has an interest in helping Las Vegas get an expansion team.
Expansion team? This league has too many teams already, the talent pool is already too diluted, there are already too many empty seats in other NBA arenas.
Where is the reality in such an idea when the NBA is already bloated and when there is no suitable arena in Las Vegas and no plan for how to finance one?
Besides that, Las Vegas is actually a smaller media market than Sacramento when one looks beyond the glitz of the Vegas Strip.
Oh, and there is another thorny little issue:
Does Stern, who has big concerns about NBA players carrying guns to nightclubs, really want to move an NBA team to the mecca of nighttime mischief?
In an interview with Newsday for a story that sparked the NBA-in-Vegas story line, Stern conceded the city is "nowhere near" getting an NBA franchise.
That little detail got lost in all the noise, but this shouldn't:
If the NBA doesn't work in Sacramento with its passionate support of the Kings despite mediocrity on the court, then it doesn't work.
Don't buy the hype.
About the writer: Reach Marcos Bretón at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@ sacbee.com.
I'm putting both these articles here because they're inter-related...
http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/123201.html
Maloofs: No Kings move to Vegas
'We want to get it done in Sacramento,' co-owners say, shooting down speculation.
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:36 am PST Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Despite NBA Commissioner David Stern's comments that the league might allow a basketball team to locate in Las Vegas, the Maloofs said Tuesday it won't be the Kings.
Joe and Gavin Maloof said they are committed to staying in Sacramento, despite the ongoing difficulty of coming up with a viable plan for a new arena.
Joe Maloof said he thinks Las Vegas would be a good fit for an expansion team rather than an existing team.
"We have a great team going in Sacramento," he said.
"We've been here eight years. We've built a lot of friendships, and we want to get it done in Sacramento."
"We don't want to leave, and we've never thought about Vegas," echoed his brother Gavin.
Speculation about a Kings move to Las Vegas is running high as the Maloof family prepares to host much of the NBA All-Star Game extravaganza at its Palms casino in Las Vegas. Stern's comments came in an interview leading up to the event.
He told Newsday on Monday that he still objects to the idea of allowing a team to locate in Las Vegas while the gambling industry accepts bets on NBA games.
But for the first time, he said he wouldn't stand in the way if a majority of NBA owners decided they want to put a team there.
After Sacramento County voters in November crushed a proposal to raise sales taxes for a new arena, Stern swept into Sacramento and said he would come up with his own plan.
Since then, the NBA has gone quiet about Sacramento as Stern's representative, sports consultant John Moag, tries to figure out how to raise the $500 million or so needed to replace Arco.
Sacramento officials said Stern's revelation doesn't worry them.
"It certainly opens up another scenario, especially since the Maloofs' base of operations is Las Vegas," said Councilman Rob Fong, who worked on the previous arena plan.
"But I take Stern and the NBA at their word that they value Sacramento as a market. We certainly have our team. If, at some point, the NBA decides Las Vegas needs a team, they could put an expansion team there."
Supervisor Roger Dickinson, also a leader in the failed arena effort last fall, said Sacramento is a great NBA market. It just hasn't figured out a way to build a new arena. The possibility that Las Vegas might "be in play" doesn't affect that situation, he said.
John Dangberg, assistant Sacramento city manager, said he is in regular contact with Moag, and the sports consultant is working on ideas to pay for an arena and keep the Kings here.
"He's just working on his fact finding. What we're focused on now is just assisting," he said.
Joe Maloof said Tuesday he is a strong advocate of an NBA expansion franchise for Las Vegas.
That way, he said, owners of the 30 existing teams could divvy the franchise fee paid by the prospective owner, a sum he estimated at $500 million.
"It's a huge market. I think it's an international market. I think probably most of the owners would want to be there," he said.
Gavin Maloof said the Kings brand in Sacramento is valuable and can't easily be moved.
"When you have 340 or so sellouts, that took us a lot of hard work, time and effort."
Despite all the hype about Las Vegas, it can't offer an NBA owner any better digs than Arco. The Thomas & Mack Center -- which hosts Sunday's All-Star Game -- is considered dated and inadequate.
A task force has determined it should be replaced, but didn't provide a location or financing plan.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who has dubbed himself the "happiest mayor in the universe," said Tuesday he has no doubt he'll come up with a financing plan, which could involve a sales tax increase.
He'd like the new arena built on land across from City Hall.
"I'm running for my third four-year term, and I'm term-limited," he said. "It better be within four years, or you'll have one very unhappy Oscar."
Not all Las Vegas-area politicians share his unbridled enthusiasm. Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid said he doesn't favor using public funds for a new facility.
He pointed out that Clark County -- not the city of Las Vegas -- has jurisdiction over the fabled Las Vegas Strip, which is outside city limits.
"We've been the fastest growing community in the country for 17 years in a row, and because of that growth we have challenges that make building an arena less of a priority," Reid said.
"We have a health care delivery system that's stressed."
Until now, the idea that casinos would have to get rid of their NBA betting lines had been an insurmountable hurdle. At most casinos, NBA betting ranks third behind the National Football League and Major League Baseball.
According to Nevada gaming records, the casinos took in nearly $48 million in basketball bets last year, a nearly 27 percent increase over 2005.
By comparison, more than $100 million was wagered on the Super Bowl.
An acceptable compromise may be to restrict betting on games played by a Nevada franchise.
Casinos had similar wagering restrictions on the University of Nevada, Reno, and UNLV basketball and football, but those were lifted in 2001 by Nevada's Gaming Control Board.
Joe Maloof predicted the NBA will eventually find middle ground.
"Sooner or later, there has to be a compromise, because I don't think the casinos as a whole would ever remove NBA betting from their books," he said.
About the writer: The Bee's Mary Lynne Vellinga can be reached at (916) 321-1094 or mlvellinga@sacbee.com.
http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/123323.html
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Marcos Bretón: Don't take the bait - Vegas is NBA mirage
By Marcos Bretón - Bee Sports Columnist
Last Updated 12:26 am PST Wednesday, February 14, 2007
NBA Commissioner David Stern is like the guy in the movie "Jaws" who tosses blood and severed fish heads into the ocean, sparking a feeding frenzy of sharks.
The only difference being: The guy in "Jaws" was shocked and frightened when the sharks took the blood. Stern banks on it.
He has done it again, this time causing a media frenzy by seemingly changing his position and opening the door for the possibility of an NBA team in Las Vegas days before the league holds its All-Star event in Sin City.
The NBA All-Star Weekend is an annual festival of hype for Stern to trump the state of the league. Why not start the fun with a superficial image of a sexy hot spot that is aching for an NBA team?
Why not shake up -- or subtly frighten -- cities such as Sacramento, where frustrated NBA owners want a new arena and have had no luck extorting one?
Why not dangle a Las Vegas franchise that could be impossible or impractical to realize because -- beyond the hype -- Vegas isn't half the market Sacramento is?
Probably because it's a lot more palatable to discuss hypotheticals when reality in the NBA is the opposite of hot and sexy.
Reality is half-empty arenas in Memphis and Charlotte; of league blunders such as moving to New Orleans; of disasters such as the bloated New York Knicks.
Reality is cities such as Seattle telling Stern to take a hike when he made threats of moving the Seattle SuperSonics unless taxpayers built a new Seattle arena.
Reality means Carmelo Anthony, the NBA's leading scorer, was suspended for weeks for his role in a brawl and was only a last-minute addition to the All-Star Game.
Reality is that the judges for the All-Star dunk contest -- Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant and Julius Erving -- are far more compelling than the no-names competing.
Reality is that on many nights, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith talking about games on TNT is more entertaining than the actual games.
Is it any wonder Stern would pour this particular bucket of bloody fish into the water?
It's a great diversion. It gets national play and -- whether it's intentional or not -- it cuts to the marrow in critical NBA markets such as Sacramento.
Let's face it, Las Vegas has been the concealed weapon pointed at Sacramento as local arena efforts failed. "Las Vegas" have been the words terrified Kings fans have whispered or screamed, depending on their fragile states of mind.
After all, Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof are Vegas casino titans.
Consequently, many locals have never believed the Maloofs when they stated -- as they do again in today's Bee -- that they want to remain in Sacramento.
The palpable fear of Sacramento's team becoming the Las Vegas Kings has been like a gift that keeps on giving for the Maloofs: They could appear like good guys in public, while in private, the threat of them leaving always hovered over the negotiating table with Sacramento officials.
The Maloofs didn't have to say they would move to Las Vegas because plenty of other people said it for them.
In today's Bee, Joe Maloof says his family has an interest in helping Las Vegas get an expansion team.
Expansion team? This league has too many teams already, the talent pool is already too diluted, there are already too many empty seats in other NBA arenas.
Where is the reality in such an idea when the NBA is already bloated and when there is no suitable arena in Las Vegas and no plan for how to finance one?
Besides that, Las Vegas is actually a smaller media market than Sacramento when one looks beyond the glitz of the Vegas Strip.
Oh, and there is another thorny little issue:
Does Stern, who has big concerns about NBA players carrying guns to nightclubs, really want to move an NBA team to the mecca of nighttime mischief?
In an interview with Newsday for a story that sparked the NBA-in-Vegas story line, Stern conceded the city is "nowhere near" getting an NBA franchise.
That little detail got lost in all the noise, but this shouldn't:
If the NBA doesn't work in Sacramento with its passionate support of the Kings despite mediocrity on the court, then it doesn't work.
Don't buy the hype.
About the writer: Reach Marcos Bretón at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@ sacbee.com.
