Where does it say it is too late for Ellison to come in?
Everything is speculation at this point, unless it comes from the mayors mouth. However, if we're to believe that KJ has been working on this deal for months, not days, and that he is set to announce his team of Burkle and Mastrov, how does Ellis showing up at the last minute help make things better? KJ would have to start over with working Ellison into the team with Burkle/Mastrov, which I don't see all three willing to share the spotlight our control. If you take Ellison by himself, then you have to drop Burkle and begin hammering out an agreement on the arena from the start. That doesn't make sense to me at this point in time.
Now CD's latest tweet regarding Ellison partnering with minority owner Cook makes more sense. This would mean that KJ and Ellison would just be meeting to fill each other in on what they're doing. But Ellison wouldn't be part of KJ's team per se.