Maloofs still focusing on Anaheim(big friggin Surprise)

[BMiller52]

https://twitter.com/#!/latimespugmire/status/190900373890932736

Lance Pugmire‏@latimespugmire



I'm told by basketball official the Maloofs' focus "is still on Anaheim." Story coming soon on http://latimes.com's Sports Now. #NBA

 

[jpsls]

They still thinking they are going to get a comparable deal to the one the Lakers just signed with Time Warner? Sponsors are just waiting to throw money at a piece of dirt team. The boys will never learn.

 

[Bricklayer]

https://twitter.com/#!/latimespugmire/status/190900373890932736

Lance Pugmire‏@latimespugmire



I'm told by basketball official the Maloofs' focus "is still on Anaheim." Story coming soon on http://latimes.com's Sports Now. #NBA

Given the source, I would take this with a grain of salt. Very likely true btw, but there is an obvious conflict of interest with the reporting.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

But but but but they just told us at the presser today that they were still focused on making it work in Sacramento! Could they possibly have been lying to us this whole time?

 

[Prince_XY]

Oh well, this is very obvious. Potentially more money for the Maloofs in Anaheim. Also, the franchise may get to be a favorite destination for marquee free agents which will be good for Kings basketball team and fans. Maybe we won't be complaining of suckitudeness secondary to inability to attract superstar players. We will learn to love the team more.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Potentially more money for the Maloofs in Anaheim. Also, the franchise may get to be a favorite destination for marquee free agents which will be good for Kings basketball team and fans. Maybe we won't be complaining of suckitudeness secondary to inability to attract superstar players. We will learn to love the team more.

Speak for yourself.

 

[Spike]

Oh well, this is very obvious. Potentially more money for the Maloofs in Anaheim. Also, the franchise may get to be a favorite destination for marquee free agents which will be good for Kings basketball team and fans. Maybe we won't be complaining of suckitudeness secondary to inability to attract superstar players. We will learn to love the team more.

I like the way you use sarcasm.

 

[CruzDude]

An article by Danny Hauger in the LA Times ('Sacramento Arena Deal Falls Through: Kings' Focus Turns to Anaheim") on April 13 has this paragraph headed with a photo of Demarcus:

This new development points strongly to the idea of relocation if possibilities for reconciliation between the city of Sacramento and the Maloofs have been exhausted. Voters had the chance to finance the arena publicly and shot down the referendum years ago, which would make a public opinion on this matter nearly out of options.

Add to this the fact that Honda Center in Anaheim broke ground in February on a $20M expansion for fan amenities and that the Anaheim City Council in the past 2 weeks approved the Honda Center to hold 302 events per year up from 261 events, this addition being the amount of games in a typical NBA season.

In the February 8, 2012 article was this compelling comment:

"We're absolutely convinced the market and region can support [the NBA]," Samueli said. That's Anaheim's major point: No matter what building Sacramento can produce, it can't match a potential audience of 3 million in Orange County, an additional 4 million in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and fans with train access from San Diego.

My skull is spinning and the Spin Doctors are working overtime about this mess. And I forgot about the STOP group in Sacramento wanting to put a measure on the November ballot to try to prevent the city using any funding for a new arena. Arrgghhhh!! can't they (et al) just get going on a new arena? This is driving me nuts.

Added comment 9:34pm In all this we fans have no clue about the real financial situation facing the Maloofs. If they got out from under (were forced out from under?) their two high rise condos in Las Vegas, one with the Playboy Club, and own some unknown % of the Palms due to the down turn in the past 4 years, is their hand being forced in the downtown arena deal? They have some big loans with the NBA already, owe the city about $65M, will need to cough up another $73M for a downtown arena plus the pre-development money, this may be more than they can bear. I sure hope not, but wanting to go to updating Arco Arena is a major step back and to me is a smoke screen.

 

[bluntsnbball]

Oh well, this is very obvious. Potentially more money for the Maloofs in Anaheim. Also, the franchise may get to be a favorite destination for marquee free agents which will be good for Kings basketball team and fans. Maybe we won't be complaining of suckitudeness secondary to inability to attract superstar players. We will learn to love the team more.

ya...they might be better if they go down there. But if i had to guess, id say they'll still be a shi**y team there too. Look how long it took the Clippers to even become relevant, and they play in the same damn arena as the lakers for gods sake. Bad owners will continue to make bad moves and if the maloofs think they will automatically become contenders by moving, they are sadly mistaken.

 

[Löwenherz]

ya...they might be better if they go down there. But if i had to guess, id say they'll still be a shi**y team there too. Look how long it took the Clippers to even become relevant, and they play in the same damn arena as the lakers for gods sake. Bad owners will continue to make bad moves and if the maloofs think they will automatically become contenders by moving, they are sadly mistaken.

And even then, their team was built by miraculously getting handed the #1 pick to land Blake Griffin (The year we had the worst overall record mind you) and sneaking in to nab Chris Paul after the league took the unprecedented move of vetoing a trade to the Lakers.

Even being in LA, free agents rarely gravitated to the Clippers partially because no one wanted to play for Sterling.

 

[VF21]

My skull is spinning and the Spin Doctors are working overtime about this mess. And I forgot about the group in Sacramento wanting to put a measure on the November ballot to prevent the city using any funding for a new arena. Arrgghhhh!! can't they (et al) just get going on a new arena? This is driving me nuts.

That group in Sacramento wanting to put a measure on the ballot is a huge red herring. I found it very interesting that the economist from Anaheim who spoke at the presser today legitimized their existence as though they really had numbers to be concerned about (which they don't).

It doesn't surprise me at all that the LA media wants to promote the whole Anaheim agenda. What I saw today, however, suggests that the NBA relocation committee - and David Stern - were NOT overly impressed with the Maloof presentation. What Stern said was the BOG didn't have the authority to enforce a non-binding agreement. He did not say anything about the deal being anything other than what the city council and Johnson had presented it to be - good for the city, good for the NBA and good for the Kings. The numbers Samueli uses are without basis in fact, and could be just as easily contested as the numbers of attendees the Maloofs pointed do as being suspect. It goes both ways, which wouldn't bode well for the Maloofs should they attempt to convince the Relocation Committee of the profit potential in Anaheim.

The Maloofs may have, in their minds, won the battle but there were a lot of comments out there today suggesting they would not win a relocation war. Anaheim can puff and strut all it wants, but as was said elsewhere, there is a lot of evidence to suggest the RC would not look kindly on another Anaheim proposal. KC would probably be more in favor with the RC, but I seriously doubt George Maloof has ever even stepped foot in Kansas City. If he thinks Sacramento is small town and far from everywhere, how would he feel about being marooned in the middle of the US?

 

[Tetsujin]

That group in Sacramento wanting to put a measure on the ballot is a huge red herring. I found it very interesting that the economist from Anaheim who spoke at the presser today legitimized their existence as though they really had numbers to be concerned about (which they don't).

It doesn't surprise me at all that the LA media wants to promote the whole Anaheim agenda. What I saw today, however, suggests that the NBA relocation committee - and David Stern - were NOT overly impressed with the Maloof presentation. What Stern said was the BOG didn't have the authority to enforce a non-binding agreement. He did not say anything about the deal being anything other than what the city council and Johnson had presented it to be - good for the city, good for the NBA and good for the Kings. The numbers Samueli uses are without basis in fact, and could be just as easily contested as the numbers of attendees the Maloofs pointed do as being suspect. It goes both ways, which wouldn't bode well for the Maloofs should they attempt to convince the Relocation Committee of the profit potential in Anaheim.

The Maloofs may have, in their minds, won the battle but there were a lot of comments out there today suggesting they would not win a relocation war. Anaheim can puff and strut all it wants, but as was said elsewhere, there is a lot of evidence to suggest the RC would not look kindly on another Anaheim proposal. KC would probably be more in favor with the RC, but I seriously doubt George Maloof has ever even stepped foot in Kansas City. If he thinks Sacramento is small town and far from everywhere, how would he feel about being marooned in the middle of the US?

Not to mention in KC, they would be playing third fiddle to MLB and NFL teams. Not that that would matter to dear old George.

 

[JB_kings]

That group is called STOP and they have about 10 people that you could call legitimate supporters.

 

[sk4ever]

That group in Sacramento wanting to put a measure on the ballot is a huge red herring. I found it very interesting that the economist from Anaheim who spoke at the presser today legitimized their existence as though they really had numbers to be concerned about (which they don't).

It doesn't surprise me at all that the LA media wants to promote the whole Anaheim agenda. What I saw today, however, suggests that the NBA relocation committee - and David Stern - were NOT overly impressed with the Maloof presentation. What Stern said was the BOG didn't have the authority to enforce a non-binding agreement. He did not say anything about the deal being anything other than what the city council and Johnson had presented it to be - good for the city, good for the NBA and good for the Kings. The numbers Samueli uses are without basis in fact, and could be just as easily contested as the numbers of attendees the Maloofs pointed do as being suspect. It goes both ways, which wouldn't bode well for the Maloofs should they attempt to convince the Relocation Committee of the profit potential in Anaheim.

The Maloofs may have, in their minds, won the battle but there were a lot of comments out there today suggesting they would not win a relocation war. Anaheim can puff and strut all it wants, but as was said elsewhere, there is a lot of evidence to suggest the RC would not look kindly on another Anaheim proposal. KC would probably be more in favor with the RC, but I seriously doubt George Maloof has ever even stepped foot in Kansas City. If he thinks Sacramento is small town and far from everywhere, how would he feel about being marooned in the middle of the US?

Thanks for being the voice of reason, and calming my soul

 

[captain bill]

ya...they might be better if they go down there. But if i had to guess, id say they'll still be a shi**y team there too. Look how long it took the Clippers to even become relevant, and they play in the same damn arena as the lakers for gods sake. Bad owners will continue to make bad moves and if the maloofs think they will automatically become contenders by moving, they are sadly mistaken.

First off, the Maloofs priorities are (1) avoiding bankruptcy and (2) maintaining their public image (i.e., not selling the Kings). Moving to Anaheim will also give them a great opportunity to cross-promote their casinos and the Kings, since I'm assuming their is a ton more Vegas tourism coming from Orange and Riverside Counties than from Sacramento.

Second, this team is loaded with talent and has a top-5 pick in a deep draft with a GM who historically drafts well. They will challenge for a playoff spot within the next 3 years. There are also enough OC/Riverside-centric people who will jump ship from the Lakers to get them good attendance numbers. Not to mention a larger base of business.

 

[hrdboild]

Moving to Anaheim will also give them a great opportunity to cross-promote their casinos and the Kings, since I'm assuming their is a ton more Vegas tourism coming from Orange and Riverside Counties than from Sacramento.

From what I can tell, a lot of people in So Cal are Vegas crazy. That's why I suspect the Maloofs have been thinking Anaheim ever since their dreams of moving the team to Vegas got shot down in a ball of flames at All-Star weekend 2007. But I think that ship has sailed already. There may be a provision in the Samueli deal which allows them to retain some minority ownership after the team gets transferred to him, and maybe Georgie still has it in his head that he can rebuild his Vegas empire and return to his hard partying playboy ways. But the Maloofs have a better chance of getting the people of Sacramento to give them another standing ovation than of getting the Palms back. Tragic perhaps, but that's the bed they've made.

 

[JB_kings]

They only own 2% of the Palms. They would almost literally be promoting someone else's business. Oh, and they owe the majority owners 20 million for that too.

 

[Sactown ExPat]

I think the Maloofs are using Anaheim, as well. The Maloofs are really stupid, but even they have to know that Anaheim is just not an option anymore. I think their goal is to force the NBA to buy them at something approaching the price they would get from Samueli if the team were in Anaheim. That is the reason behind the anti-trust talk. They would get crushed, eventually, but the NBA does not want to revisit that topic and potentially have the players' union jump in again. So, in the end the Kings will stay in Sacramento and the arena will be built, but the immediate future is going to be pretty rough.

 

[VF21]

I think the Maloofs are using Anaheim, as well. The Maloofs are really stupid, but even they have to know that Anaheim is just not an option anymore. I think their goal is to force the NBA to buy them at something approaching the price they would get from Samueli if the team were in Anaheim. That is the reason behind the anti-trust talk. They would get crushed, eventually, but the NBA does not want to revisit that topic and potentially have the players' union jump in again. So, in the end the Kings will stay in Sacramento and the arena will be built, but the immediate future is going to be pretty rough.

From your mouth to the great god Naismith's ear.

Oh, and welcome to Kingsfans.com

 

[pshn80]

Haven't read the above.

One thing preventing a move to anywhere is the City loan. The owners will have to get all or substantially all covered by any new home. Unfortunately new sites probably would do that. Let's hope it slows them down. It looks like its all money, money, money.