Las Vegas pushes ahead for 20,000 seat arena

[Trueblood]

Interesting note towards the bottom talking about how they want to leave the team to their nephews. We discussed the possibility of them selling the team but if this is any indication, they want to keep the team in the family.

I would say that's more of a good thing as opposed to a bad one. If they wanted to sell, there would be very little shot of the team staying in Sacramento. I could see Larry Ellison jumping all over the chance to buy the Kings and move them to San Jose. I bet Ellison actually prefers San Jose to Oakland so if the bay area were to become a 2 NBA team region, he would prefer having any team in SJ as opposed to the Warriors.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/24/2911906/maloofs-qa-on-the-kings-ticket.html

 

[Peter_Gibbons]

The Maloofs said many times that the Kings are not the team to move to Vegas. Yet on seperate occasions I've heard Gavin in interviews heavily support the idea of the NBA in Vegas. So why would the Maloofs like the idea but don't want to be the team when their headquarters is in Vegas? Yes I know the Vegas economy is in ruins right now and the local population is small. But I just feel if its possible for any team some way or another, the Maloofs would want in.

 

[Superman]

The Maloofs said many times that the Kings are not the team to move to Vegas. Yet on seperate occasions I've heard Gavin in interviews heavily support the idea of the NBA in Vegas. So why would the Maloofs like the idea but don't want to be the team when their headquarters is in Vegas? Yes I know the Vegas economy is in ruins right now and the local population is small. But I just feel if its possible for any team some way or another, the Maloofs would want in.

There's no fan base in Las Vegas. Everyone that lives in the city and nearby is from somewhere else and has allegiances to other teams and franchises. They might live in Las Vegas for the night life and maybe the weather, but they don't consider it to be their city. So a team that moves there wouldn't be embraced, at least not right away. It would probably take a decade or more for the residents to really get behind the team. I wouldn't move my pro sports team to Vegas either. You might do good with sponsorships and corporate promotions and maybe even season tickets, but the crowd wouldn't be very good at the games, you wouldn't sell a lot of memorabilia, and your TV deals would be substandard.

That's without even mentioning the volatility that comes with putting 21 year old millionaires in Sin City eight months out of the year.