http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/32503.html
Commissioner Stern has taken prominent role in other arena efforts
By Mark Kreidler - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:47 am PDT Monday, October 2, 2006
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1
Among the myriad names and faces associated with the most recent effort to build a new arena that would house the Kings, one of the most prominent has gone missing: NBA Commissioner David Stern.
The history of the National Basketball Association, with Stern aggressively pushing for improved facilities and lease deals for his teams, suggests that will change sometime between now and the Nov. 7 election for the arena sales-tax proposal -- on the ballot in Sacramento County as Measures Q and R.
But is that the good news or the bad?
Through the years, Stern has established himself as a commissioner willing to go into a city and engage public debate on arena issues, but increasingly his results have been checkered. In the recent case of Seattle, Stern's strident approach appears to have backfired almost completely.
"I think David Stern thought he was coming to Seattle to boost the Sonics' chances, and instead he undermined them," said Nick Licata, president of the Seattle City Council.
Still, Stern is viewed as an indispensable ally by owners around the league, including Joe and Gavin Maloof, who in 2004 first asked the commissioner to help them in their effort to leave Arco Arena for a new facility.
"He (Stern) is directly involved," said Kings president John Thomas. "It's safe to say that there is nothing going on in the NBA that David does not know about, and he is always available to his teams and his owners."
How heavily Stern becomes involved is often a matter of timing. Both Thomas and NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre said last week that there are no current plans for Stern to visit Sacramento to stump for the sales-tax proposal, with McIntyre adding, "That could change."
Behind the scenes, though, Stern's communication with the Maloofs is constant. It was Stern's decision to send one of his most trusted associates, Harvey Benjamin, to help broker the agreement that resulted in Measures Q and R.
"That is a direct reflection of the commissioner's involvement in the issue," said Joel Litvin, the NBA's president of league and basketball operations.
Publicly, the commissioner, who already has said several times that Arco Arena needs to be replaced, has seldom been afraid to take a hard-line approach. He won't hesitate to at least vaguely threaten the movement of a franchise if a new arena is not built.
"He has intervened in a lot of other cities, and the speech is generally the same," said Licata, who is among the leaders of the opposition to public funding for the Sonics. "It's basically, 'If you guys don't acquiesce, we'll pull the team out of town,' although he never puts it in exactly those words."
Stern once famously tweaked the venerated fans in Boston, saying in 1993 of the old Garden, "If the city of Boston can't provide the Celtics with (a) first-class facility, then we're going to have to think about where the Celtics should be located -- or relocated."
The Celtics wound up in a new building, sharing space at the Fleet Center with the National Hockey League's Bruins. But Stern's campaigns haven't always gone so swimmingly.
When Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and his investor group struggled to gain support for a new lease deal for the SuperSonics, they called in Stern. Stern responded by making a trip to Seattle in February, when he asked Washington state legislators to approve using public money to renovate KeyArena and establish a new lease with the team.
By April, though, little progress had been made, and Stern's mood darkened considerably. In a conference call with reporters, he said Seattle "is making it pretty clear what they want us to do, and we'll accommodate them. ... What I mean is that they're not interested in having the NBA there."
Stern's words drew a pointed response from the office of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, once a strong supporter of a new deal. While Nickels wanted the Sonics around for decades to come, a spokeswoman said, "We have a lease through 2010, and we fully expect that the lease will be honored."
In July, Schultz, explaining that he believed he could never receive public approval on a new deal, sold the Sonics for $350 million to a group from Oklahoma City, leaving open the possibility that the franchise will leave Seattle after 40 years there.
Stern has often said he considers franchise movement "a failure," since it is generally preceded by the breakdown of negotiations in the teams' current cities. But over the past several years, the Grizzlies left Vancouver for Memphis, the Hornets went from Charlotte to New Orleans, and the Sonics have been put into play as a potential relocation.
In fact, three West Coast cities -- Seattle, Portland and Sacramento -- are facing arena-related issues at the same time. Like the Sonics, the Trail Blazers were briefly put up for sale this summer, before owner Paul Allen withdrew them from the market.
"I think it's fair to say it is pure coincidence that each of these issues has occurred within the last year or so. That's happenstance," said the NBA's Litvin, who last week issued a statement urging a signed memorandum of understanding among the Maloofs and Sacramento city and county representatives.
"We always have a concern where there is an arena 'situation,' and I use that term broadly, because these cases are all so different," Litvin said. "(But) there is certainly nothing to suggest that it's anything more than coincidence."
Stern was heavily involved in Portland, where he attempted to join the Blazers and their arena, the separately owned Rose Garden, into a single entity for sale. But he withdrew the NBA from that process in April amid acrimony and finger-pointing, including a scathing letter to the arena's operators in which Stern laid the blame at their feet and warned of "grave consequences for the city of Portland."
More recently, Stern has turned his attention to Orlando, where the Magic hopes for a new, $385 million arena as part of a $1.1 billion package of entertainment and sports projects funded primarily by a hotel tax. The team currently plays in the TD Waterhouse Centre, which opened in 1989.
"Flat out, the (current) Orlando arena is the last of its kind," Stern said in a video presentation to Orange County, Fla., commissioners. "Every other NBA arena either has been replaced or there are plans in place for replacements."
About the writer: The Bee's Mark Kreidler can be reached at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com.
Commissioner Stern has taken prominent role in other arena efforts
By Mark Kreidler - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:47 am PDT Monday, October 2, 2006
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1
Among the myriad names and faces associated with the most recent effort to build a new arena that would house the Kings, one of the most prominent has gone missing: NBA Commissioner David Stern.
The history of the National Basketball Association, with Stern aggressively pushing for improved facilities and lease deals for his teams, suggests that will change sometime between now and the Nov. 7 election for the arena sales-tax proposal -- on the ballot in Sacramento County as Measures Q and R.
But is that the good news or the bad?
Through the years, Stern has established himself as a commissioner willing to go into a city and engage public debate on arena issues, but increasingly his results have been checkered. In the recent case of Seattle, Stern's strident approach appears to have backfired almost completely.
"I think David Stern thought he was coming to Seattle to boost the Sonics' chances, and instead he undermined them," said Nick Licata, president of the Seattle City Council.
Still, Stern is viewed as an indispensable ally by owners around the league, including Joe and Gavin Maloof, who in 2004 first asked the commissioner to help them in their effort to leave Arco Arena for a new facility.
"He (Stern) is directly involved," said Kings president John Thomas. "It's safe to say that there is nothing going on in the NBA that David does not know about, and he is always available to his teams and his owners."
How heavily Stern becomes involved is often a matter of timing. Both Thomas and NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre said last week that there are no current plans for Stern to visit Sacramento to stump for the sales-tax proposal, with McIntyre adding, "That could change."
Behind the scenes, though, Stern's communication with the Maloofs is constant. It was Stern's decision to send one of his most trusted associates, Harvey Benjamin, to help broker the agreement that resulted in Measures Q and R.
"That is a direct reflection of the commissioner's involvement in the issue," said Joel Litvin, the NBA's president of league and basketball operations.
Publicly, the commissioner, who already has said several times that Arco Arena needs to be replaced, has seldom been afraid to take a hard-line approach. He won't hesitate to at least vaguely threaten the movement of a franchise if a new arena is not built.
"He has intervened in a lot of other cities, and the speech is generally the same," said Licata, who is among the leaders of the opposition to public funding for the Sonics. "It's basically, 'If you guys don't acquiesce, we'll pull the team out of town,' although he never puts it in exactly those words."
Stern once famously tweaked the venerated fans in Boston, saying in 1993 of the old Garden, "If the city of Boston can't provide the Celtics with (a) first-class facility, then we're going to have to think about where the Celtics should be located -- or relocated."
The Celtics wound up in a new building, sharing space at the Fleet Center with the National Hockey League's Bruins. But Stern's campaigns haven't always gone so swimmingly.
When Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and his investor group struggled to gain support for a new lease deal for the SuperSonics, they called in Stern. Stern responded by making a trip to Seattle in February, when he asked Washington state legislators to approve using public money to renovate KeyArena and establish a new lease with the team.
By April, though, little progress had been made, and Stern's mood darkened considerably. In a conference call with reporters, he said Seattle "is making it pretty clear what they want us to do, and we'll accommodate them. ... What I mean is that they're not interested in having the NBA there."
Stern's words drew a pointed response from the office of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, once a strong supporter of a new deal. While Nickels wanted the Sonics around for decades to come, a spokeswoman said, "We have a lease through 2010, and we fully expect that the lease will be honored."
In July, Schultz, explaining that he believed he could never receive public approval on a new deal, sold the Sonics for $350 million to a group from Oklahoma City, leaving open the possibility that the franchise will leave Seattle after 40 years there.
Stern has often said he considers franchise movement "a failure," since it is generally preceded by the breakdown of negotiations in the teams' current cities. But over the past several years, the Grizzlies left Vancouver for Memphis, the Hornets went from Charlotte to New Orleans, and the Sonics have been put into play as a potential relocation.
In fact, three West Coast cities -- Seattle, Portland and Sacramento -- are facing arena-related issues at the same time. Like the Sonics, the Trail Blazers were briefly put up for sale this summer, before owner Paul Allen withdrew them from the market.
"I think it's fair to say it is pure coincidence that each of these issues has occurred within the last year or so. That's happenstance," said the NBA's Litvin, who last week issued a statement urging a signed memorandum of understanding among the Maloofs and Sacramento city and county representatives.
"We always have a concern where there is an arena 'situation,' and I use that term broadly, because these cases are all so different," Litvin said. "(But) there is certainly nothing to suggest that it's anything more than coincidence."
Stern was heavily involved in Portland, where he attempted to join the Blazers and their arena, the separately owned Rose Garden, into a single entity for sale. But he withdrew the NBA from that process in April amid acrimony and finger-pointing, including a scathing letter to the arena's operators in which Stern laid the blame at their feet and warned of "grave consequences for the city of Portland."
More recently, Stern has turned his attention to Orlando, where the Magic hopes for a new, $385 million arena as part of a $1.1 billion package of entertainment and sports projects funded primarily by a hotel tax. The team currently plays in the TD Waterhouse Centre, which opened in 1989.
"Flat out, the (current) Orlando arena is the last of its kind," Stern said in a video presentation to Orange County, Fla., commissioners. "Every other NBA arena either has been replaced or there are plans in place for replacements."
About the writer: The Bee's Mark Kreidler can be reached at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com.
