Good breakdown by the bee. We’re all stuck in a complete stalemate.
City – There is nothing they can really do. They can’t make the Kings bargain or sell. It will be really tough to build an arena in Sacramento without an anchor tenant and doing so might cost the city over 67 million they don’t have. KJ has to keep moving the pieces around, but I think his options are fairly limited.
The league – Their options are also limited. They can’t make the Maloofs take the arena deal. They can’t make the Maloofs sell to another owner. In terms of keeping a team here, contraction is off the table. The argument for contraction is the market can’t sustain a team. If the league broke that tool out of the box to remove black sheep owners and then put another owner into the same market a few years later, the Maloofs would have a slam dunk lawsuit under several legal theories.
Stern has been very clear that “The Maloofs have the right to keep playing at Arco.” With the unsaid remainder that they don’t have the right to do anything else.
The league really has a problem. Public money for arenas is drying up all over the country. After the Seattle mess, the league stepped in. The city agreed to fund 2/3 of the project and the NBA said it was a great deal for everybody, and the Maloofs threw that money back into the city’s face. That’s a huge problem for the league. At the same time, it’s probably not enough to rip control away from the team. The application of the “best interest of the league” clause has been really spotty in court.
At this point, you have to assume the Maloofs need to wait another 2-3 years of playing before sparse crowds before trying to force their way out. At which point, the league’s efforts to restrict their movement will seem unfair and unreasonable to a jury of non-sports fans in San Francisco (most likely where the federal case would be moved). If not a lawsuit, that’s the threat, and the Maloofs hope 16 owners just throw their hands up and give in. They clearly want to leave, it’s only a matter of when. It’s essentially become the movie Major League, they’d like to break even by keeping salary low but they don’t care if you don’t come to the bad games because that helps them as well. If they are patient and pay off the loan on Acro with Samuelli’s money, I think they are clearly gone.
On the flip side, Stern has to hope they try to: (1) push their way out of town next season; and (2) dump Arco back onto the city in the process. While both are probably their legal right, that’s probably enough to take the team away. The a franchise borrowed 70 million to make it work here, and the subsequent owners let the collateral go to hell, blew up a deal to keep the team here and boost the local economy, and took the option to destroyed the city’s general fund on the way out the door – Stern will have the votes to take the team back. Allowing that to happen is not in the best interest of the league.
So if the Kings rush, we might get new owners and to keep the team. And if the Kings are patient, smart, and get a big enough loan from Samuelli, the team is already gone and just marking time here. You can joke all you want about the Maloofs not being smart or good at business, but at this point their anti-trust lawyer is calling the shots on relocation. Between the national TV deal and revenue sharing, they should be able to limp along for 2-3 years regarless of attendance. If they play their cards right, the team can leave. If they don’t, the league can try to take the team away if they can muster enough votes.
Fans – They’ve done enough damage to the market this spring that, even if you try to support the team trying to keep them here, absent a contending team with a super low payroll, it’s not going to be enough to block a move. At the same time, if nobody comes to the games, the Maloofs case against the league gets stronger. You love the Kings, but they are probably already gone and any money you spend supports the owners that are doing everything in their power to kill basketball here and perhaps destroy the local economy. No easy or clear choices here either.
So, we wait. Next March is interesting. It might either be the end or a new beginning. After that, it just gets progressively grimmer each season.
And many local fans won’t have any clue. Grant is the only local sports talk show at this point, and he’s no longer taking any calls on the issue until there is “news.” Because were in a stalemate, there isn’t going to be much news. He didn’t even address the fact that Stern said the team made a mistake by not taking the deal this week, which is pretty big news. George Maloof said the team wants to stay, so that’s just the way it is. If you’d like to call to get other fans excited about the draft or free agency, that’s great. But if you’d like to point out that the team is slowly headed out of town, you can’t. And this is getting no national press.
