Kreidler: Anaheim man will tell it as it is

VF21

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#1
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/13923957p-14760961c.html

Mark Kreidler: An Anaheim man will tell it as it is
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, December 1, 2005


Finally! It took awhile, but we've got a voice in the Kings/arena conversation that is both clear and concise, with no hidden agenda, no cards held under the table and no particular reason to lie.

Of course, that voice comes from Anaheim. But you can't have everything.

"It isn't about us, it's about Sacramento," Michael Schulman, chairman of Anaheim Arena Management, was saying by telephone Wednesday. "It's going to be their reaction that'll lose the Kings.

"The Maloofs will get to a point where they'll feel they need to move, and when that happens, we will be on the list. I think we'll be high on the list."

Pause.

"Or, Sacramento will build an arena, the Maloofs will stay there, and we'll wait for another team that is looking to move."

Wow. Don't you hate it when the guy from out of town nails the situation?

If it wasn't abundantly clear before, let's be clear on it now: Without a new arena (no matter who pays for it), the Kings will leave. That's axiomatic - and, by the way, it'd be true whether the Maloofs or anyone else were the owner.

But take this conversation a step further now: Anaheim is an open player in the game. Schulman, whose company runs the Arrowhead Pond, made no pretense about that Wednesday, just as he shot straight a day earlier in telling The Bee's Andrew McIntosh that "the door is wide open" for the Kings to take their act south.

"If the opportunity comes, we'll be ready to jump on it," Schulman told me.
"But I don't think Sacramento should worry about us.

"It's not that we're better. It's a question of whether Sacramento is still a viable venue for the franchise."

About Anaheim, there's almost no question. The Arrowhead Pond already has the NHL's Mighty Ducks, and Schulman runs that club, too, as part of his duties for the billionaire Samueli family of Corona del Mar.

Schulman says the Pond stands fully ready to absorb an NBA franchise as soon as yesterday. He puts the regional market at between 5 million and 6 million people, and that's separate and apart from the L.A. market for the Lakers and Clippers. There are whispers of a sweetheart lease for an NBA team - a dollar a year or something or like that, with splits of proceeds from parking, the Pond's 82 luxury suites and the like. The television market is there.

Sure, it isn't perfect. The Kings would become one of a host of pro teams competing for attention in the region; the Maloofs wouldn't own the arena; and the Pond, though it has aged gracefully, is already 12 years old.

But almost every recent business venture of the Maloofs - production company, record company, etc. - is located in Southern California. Moving the Kings would consolidate the family's budding entertainment empire between there and Las Vegas. It also puts the brothers closer to the Hollywood environs in which they've spent more and more time recently.

Shoot, this isn't even a stretch. This is a perfectly sensible, perhaps even desirable, alternative if the Maloofs and the Sacramento region continue their arena stalemate - and Schulman, among others, won't waste any time playing coy. Anaheim is in it to win a team, later if not sooner.

You'll find people around town willing to believe that Joe and Gavin Maloof have had moving on their minds for years. That is a fairly cynical interpretation of events.

I think it's closer to the truth to say the Maloofs' feelings about Sacramento have evolved over years, through a series of arena-project failures and a few public image lashings. They'd still rather make an arena deal work here first - but it's just remarkably naïve to think they don't have Plan B in pocket.

Repeat to yourself: They're not from here. They are businessmen. Is it really so far-fetched to think a franchise that already has moved from Rochester to Cincinnati to Kansas City to Sacramento might grow wings one more time?

Some of the local project failures you can blame on city leaders, some on the Maloofs and their people, some (like the Natomas plan) on outside forces. At a point, Joe and Gavin almost completely lost the public-relations contest - unforgivable, considering the resources they should be able to bring to bear - and wound up portrayed as the greedy rich guys trying to get a new playpen built for them.

In fact, Sacramento and the region ought to be considering, straight-up, what it's going to do when Arco falls down. It ought to be considering how best to proceed on a new gathering place for the McCartney concerts and other bookings that fill the building on the 300-plus nights the Kings don't use it.

Down in Anaheim, the Pond is clicking right along. Schulman says it finished last year as the fourth-highest-grossing concert venue in the United States. It also has burnished its image as a regional draw, not a local one. Fully half of the business the Mighty Ducks do is with ticket-buyers who live outside of Orange County.

"It's a huge community," Schulman said. "Look at what it has done with baseball, with the Angels. It's a massive population and a very high-level population."

And it is fully in play. About that much, at least, nobody need be confused.

About the writer: Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#2
I think it's closer to the truth to say the Maloofs' feelings about Sacramento have evolved over years, through a series of arena-project failures and a few public image lashings. They'd still rather make an arena deal work here first - but it's just remarkably naïve to think they don't have Plan B in pocket.

Repeat to yourself: They're not from here. They are businessmen. Is it really so far-fetched to think a franchise that already has moved from Rochester to Cincinnati to Kansas City to Sacramento might grow wings one more time?

Some of the local project failures you can blame on city leaders, some on the Maloofs and their people, some (like the Natomas plan) on outside forces. At a point, Joe and Gavin almost completely lost the public-relations contest - unforgivable, considering the resources they should be able to bring to bear - and wound up portrayed as the greedy rich guys trying to get a new playpen built for them.

In fact, Sacramento and the region ought to be considering, straight-up, what it's going to do when Arco falls down. It ought to be considering how best to proceed on a new gathering place for the McCartney concerts and other bookings that fill the building on the 300-plus nights the Kings don't use it.
Once again, Kreidler is putting it out there in pretty plain terms. Let's hope SOMEONE - ANYONE - finally starts to listen.
 
#3
Plain and simple, Kreidler has done it again; top-notch writing about a subject we all should be keenly aware of. What an outrageous fiasco.

My own feeling is the Kings will not be here after the 2006-7 season if an arena deal is not announced before the end of this season.
 
#4
The bee should put out an ad on the front page that says get the maloofs a new arena or something. I mean really, with everything Breton and Grasswitch have said they owe it to sacramento to help people decide to get a new arena. Kreidler hit the nail on the head though. Man the friggin city council and environmentalists are ripping my heart out of my chest by basically trying to get the kings to leave.
 
#5
VF21 said:
In fact, Sacramento and the region ought to be considering, straight-up, what it's going to do when Arco falls down. It ought to be considering how best to proceed on a new gathering place for the McCartney concerts and other bookings that fill the building on the 300-plus nights the Kings don't use it.
Geez, I've been saying that to everyone I have ever discussed this issue with. And it just seemed to go right over their heads or they said Arco is fine. (I guess they've never been anywhere, BUT Arco or they've never looked around too closely when they're in Arco.