Maloofs decision expected within 48 hours

I would prefer they didn't ask for a vote, and just agreed to follow the instructions of the committee. Put it to a vote, and you never know for sure what will happen.
Yep, no matter what, I have little faith that the majority of the owners would say no.
 
Yep, no matter what, I have little faith that the majority of the owners would say no.

And go against what appear to be CLEAR indications that the relo committee will recommend not to move??? Really??? And send the message that it's ok to abandon a basketball crazy town that came up with corporate cash almost overnight, that is smack in the middle of a new/final push to get an arena deal with the best in the business putting a plan together backed by a former NBA star as Mayor? On the verge of creating a regional JPA that is uncontrollably spewing creative ideas on how to fund an arena? That has one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in America vouching for it as a viable market and licking his chops to be the owner of a team in the city or to help fund an arena plan to help the team stay??? Really?

aaaaannnd scene.
 
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in '94? that would be odd. they were like 5 years old at the time.

Correct. They were only 5 years old but a lot of media people get this wrong. They never filed for relocation so it doesn't count as the league blocking a relocation. The league blocked the SALE to a group that most likely would've moved to New Orleans.
 
From Amick:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sam_amick/04/28/maloofs.sacramento.kings/index.html?eref=twitter_feed



And there's some news about Burkle too. Sounds like KJ talked directly to Burkle recently.

I KNEW IT! If this is true they DIDN'T EVEN TRY!!!!

You tend to lose money when you don't even try to get sponsorship. The Maloofs really dropped the ball on this one. What did they expect? The sponsors to call them? Do they not have a sales staff here that is supposed to do this? Did they all get laid off like in 2005 or something?

YEARS since they have heard from the Maloofs? That's friggin crazy..
 
I hope somebody is building a case against them in case it gets legal, showing they sabotaged the business to attempt to move. That can't be legal. The other partners perhaps? They can't be happy about that.

The more that comes out... the more I think Maloofs will be politely asked to step aside as owners.
 
Gary said:
So then you DON'T know and are assuming.. You have no idea how hard they tried to get sponsors, or if they tried at all.

Posted the above about a couple weeks ago.. I was under the assumption that the Maloofs didn't really try hard enough to get sponsors, because of how much money is being thrown at them, and now the aligations that they weren't even going after sponsors?
 
Obviously they were trying so hard to get an arena built in Sacramento that they didn't have time to contact sponsors. That has to be what happened, right?

Yeah, over the past 5, waiting around for groups to bring you a plan - just so you can demand so much they don't pencil out takes a ton of time.

It should be noted, beside the Crandell story (who knows with that guy) that the bee had a story about a month ago from a person involved in the Natomas land swap (the Ose one) and he said the Maloofs demands were out of wack ... including a new VIP parking structure right next to the arena.

Between 04-07, they used the term "world class" a lot. And these were the same guys that were sure their casino made/and would make money because it was big and fancy.

Granted, they paid for studies and they set a rent number for the convergence. But for the most part, they sat back and waited for ideas/plans to be presented to them.

During that time, they were pricing out the die hard fans that sold the joint out for most of 15 years and apparently neglecting their sponsors ...

These guys are horrible business men.
 
FWIW, The Palms is really not that fancy. It is very Mediocre. It has some flash because of the Playboy connections and the old Real World suite. The actual Casino floor is very small and it will be very dated very soon. Bellagio, Wynn, Venetian, etc. Those are classy joints.

Any Vegas regular has no desire to go to the Palms.
 
FWIW, The Palms is really not that fancy. It is very Mediocre. It has some flash because of the Playboy connections and the old Real World suite. The actual Casino floor is very small and it will be very dated very soon. Bellagio, Wynn, Venetian, etc. Those are classy joints.
Their rooms are nice (best linens in regular rooms in Vegas) but at some point as the popularity of the hotel rose they became extremely overpriced. I used to stay there instead of the Gold Coast when I'd attend a week long event at the GC. I still get invites to stay at the Palms but their weekend deals can't compare to what Wynn and Encore are doing.

I do think the early success of the Palms is a testament that the Maloofs aren't complete idiots, at least George.
I really like the Wynn.
Almost got married there but wound up at Mandalay Bay instead, the venues were nearly identical but the cost was not. Ultimately though it was a matter of finding the right meal/reception option.
 
Between 04-07, they used the term "world class" a lot. And these were the same guys that were sure their casino made/and would make money because it was big and fancy.

To me, this would explain some of their more hair brained marketing ploys like the gold uniforms and getting rid of Kayte and Koz for Jim Gray and Bill Walton. A bunch of flashy, style no substance fashionable moves that would never connect with the Sacramento fan base.

The Maloofs are the type of people I avoid in my regular life.

Edit: Should management change, I hope we have Kayte on speed dial - if she'll take us back and all.
 
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"Their rooms are nice (best linens in regular rooms in Vegas) but at some point as the popularity of the hotel rose they became extremely overpriced."

Hmmm, where I have I see that before????

Build up a product. Raise the price to make the investment back. Keep raising the prices and end up driving out a large chunk of regulars ... new wears off ... deman falls, prices remain too high .... sounds like something I've seen before.

Also, I'd like to point out that while the Maloof coolaid was still flowing ... a lot of people assumed that we were just doing Kayte a favor because she's have bigger and better things going for her this year ... so far, not so much.
 
To me, this would explain some of their more hair brained marketing ploys like the gold uniforms and getting rid of Kayte and Koz for Jim Gray and Bill Walton. A bunch of flashy, style no substance fashionable moves that would never connect with the Sacramento fan base.

The Maloofs are the type of people I avoid in my regular life.

Edit: Should management change, I hope we have Kayte on speed dial - if she'll take us back and all.

i'm not a fan of koz but kayte was great. that asian woman that had her spot prior was cute but obviously didn't know anything about basketball.
 
Yeah, over the past 5, waiting around for groups to bring you a plan - just so you can demand so much they don't pencil out takes a ton of time.

It should be noted, beside the Crandell story (who knows with that guy) that the bee had a story about a month ago from a person involved in the Natomas land swap (the Ose one) and he said the Maloofs demands were out of wack ... including a new VIP parking structure right next to the arena.

Between 04-07, they used the term "world class" a lot. And these were the same guys that were sure their casino made/and would make money because it was big and fancy.

Granted, they paid for studies and they set a rent number for the convergence. But for the most part, they sat back and waited for ideas/plans to be presented to them.

During that time, they were pricing out the die hard fans that sold the joint out for most of 15 years and apparently neglecting their sponsors ...

These guys are horrible business men.

They didn't have much choice on the prices. The NBA has gotten more expensive, and the arena is not a revenue generating facility. Let's say you wanted them to slash their prices by 1/3 to get the "diehard fans" (that term btw would generaly suggest they would still be there) back in the arena. They have been averaging 11,000 fans or whater. So 11,000 fans x 1, or let's say every "diehard" came back in the building if you slashed it back by 1/3, so fill it back up, and its 17,000 x 2/3 (the cheaper tickets). That would mean they earn 11,000 this way, or 11,390 with the cheaper tickets.

Unless the "diehard fans" are so price sensitive that even a 10% drop in prices would flood them back into the building, making the ticket prices cheaper wouldn't push them that far into the black.
 
FWIW, The Palms is really not that fancy. It is very Mediocre. It has some flash because of the Playboy connections and the old Real World suite. The actual Casino floor is very small and it will be very dated very soon. Bellagio, Wynn, Venetian, etc. Those are classy joints.

Any Vegas regular has no desire to go to the Palms.

We should force them to build a new casino since it's becoming dated.. If not then "we", as the customer, are going to move to a different casino. :)
 
They didn't have much choice on the prices. The NBA has gotten more expensive, and the arena is not a revenue generating facility. Let's say you wanted them to slash their prices by 1/3 to get the "diehard fans" (that term btw would generaly suggest they would still be there) back in the arena. They have been averaging 11,000 fans or whater. So 11,000 fans x 1, or let's say every "diehard" came back in the building if you slashed it back by 1/3, so fill it back up, and its 17,000 x 2/3 (the cheaper tickets). That would mean they earn 11,000 this way, or 11,390 with the cheaper tickets.

Unless the "diehard fans" are so price sensitive that even a 10% drop in prices would flood them back into the building, making the ticket prices cheaper wouldn't push them that far into the black.

They averaged 14,000 fans this past year. Contributing factors: Bad Economy. Poor record. Constant rumors of team leaving town alienates even loyal fans. Outdated facility.

I didn't mention high ticket prices because I know that there were plenty of promotions this season, but at $51.80 average ticket price the Kings were still well above the NBA average of $48.08.

So, aside from having a bright future and an exciting young nucleus, I think that every possible factor that could drive down attendence was in effect this past season, and the Kings were not (quite) at the bottom of the league in overall attendence and ahead of several other teams in terms of % attendence. I think that correcting even one of these problems would drive attendence back up, but I suppose that ticket prices might not be the biggest factor....

With that said, even if 17,000 fans pay the same $ amount for tickets at a discounted rate as 11,000 fans at a higher ticket price, full capacity is going to bring in more money from parking, concessions, etc. And a capacity crowd is a selling point for future games; a dead crowd and half empty arena does note create the kind of atmosphere that make a fan want to come back....
 
In a market like Sacramento, where tickets are typically privately held and sold in sets of two and four ... you have to have a season ticket base. If you rely on walkups, unless you are good, you are going to get destroyed.

The Maloofs priced out a lot of long time fans who were with the team during the dark years, they rode the housing bubble (which isn't coming back), and didn't respond for a couple of years when both the ecconomy changed and the band wagon fans stopped coming.

Cost impact the bottom line - but not supply and demand for tickets. Until this season, they slashed a lot of bad seats ... but had a lot of seats that were very over priced. Not my take, they couldn't sell them.

You can play with the numbers all you like ... the fact is in a market like this, you need to raise and lower the prices a lot faster. They didn't and that's why they got pounded.
 
In a market like Sacramento, where tickets are typically privately held and sold in sets of two and four ... you have to have a season ticket base. If you rely on walkups, unless you are good, you are going to get destroyed.

The Maloofs priced out a lot of long time fans who were with the team during the dark years, they rode the housing bubble (which isn't coming back), and didn't respond for a couple of years when both the ecconomy changed and the band wagon fans stopped coming.

Cost impact the bottom line - but not supply and demand for tickets. Until this season, they slashed a lot of bad seats ... but had a lot of seats that were very over priced. Not my take, they couldn't sell them.

You can play with the numbers all you like ... the fact is in a market like this, you need to raise and lower the prices a lot faster. They didn't and that's why they got pounded.

Kinda ironic that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have the lowest ticket prices in MLB and they still dont sell out.
 
I didn't mention high ticket prices because I know that there were plenty of promotions this season, but at $51.80 average ticket price the Kings were still well above the NBA average of $48.08.
Quite a number of tickets were sold at about half their usual face value this year. I bought some of those deals. Even sat in the lower bowl for a couple of games. And once they got rid of Thomas, they became much more agressively discounting the tickets and changes to variable pricing, based on the opponent. They should have fired him from the market position much sooner. He was especially against discounting ticket prices, because he felt that wasn't fair to ticket season holders.

A while back I read an aritcle about the Spurs and their arena. One of the points the team made about their arena was that the sales of luxury suites they have in their current arena helps them keep down ticket costs for the average fan. Of course, the team has maintained a good relationship with the community, including the business community.

I wonder if the "average" league ticket price is with or without surtaxes? I believe the Kings ticket surtax is $2, to help pay the bond debt to the city.

The Maloofs should definitely have blown up the former, very high-priced team much sooner. We carried that huge payroll for a long time after that team was gone. From the peak payroll season of 01/02 or 02/03, it wasn't until we traded Brian Skinner that the team finally got under the luxury tax. The Maloofs were not happy about having to pay the luxury tax for a few years. High payroll, plus the luxury tax. The numbers just added up badly. The team has been in the red to some degree every year in Sacramento, except for the playoff years. Those playoff games help the bottom line a lot.
 
This is going to be one of those "I read this somewhere" notes but I read somewhere that each playoff game is worth $500,000 to $2,500,000 depending on the arena. For the Kings this can be the difference between a profitable year and a losing year. At the worst, in a 4 games and done series and if they made the lowest amount, it would be an extra $1,000,000. I believe this takes into account bonuses the team gets to split up depending on how deep they go into the post season. The pot gets bigger the farther you go of course. I don't know what of this goes to the players and what to the team but certainly beer and nacho sales go to the team.
 
This is going to be one of those "I read this somewhere" notes but I read somewhere that each playoff game is worth $500,000 to $2,500,000 depending on the arena. For the Kings this can be the difference between a profitable year and a losing year. At the worst, in a 4 games and done series and if they made the lowest amount, it would be an extra $1,000,000. I believe this takes into account bonuses the team gets to split up depending on how deep they go into the post season. The pot gets bigger the farther you go of course. I don't know what of this goes to the players and what to the team but certainly beer and nacho sales go to the team.

The biggest reason is the team is not paying the players. They get paid by the league for their playoff share.
 
The biggest reason is the team is not paying the players. They get paid by the league for their playoff share.

I'm sure this is correct for the bonuses but the parking and concessions are worth money as are ticket sales. The league can't take ticket sales. This is money to a struggling team.
 
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