Sacramento basketball executive says they are staying, new arena will get done

[Warhawk]

Sacramento basketball executive says, 'We are the Woodland Kings'

07/11/2012

The Sacramento Kings aren't going anywhere, the basketball team's
representatives told Woodland Chamber officials.

If anything, the team is looking to infiltrate the Sacramento region with a
kind of "guerilla community involvement."

Murphy said not only is the team staying put, but a new arena will eventually
be built. With it, he said, will be a minimum of 4,000 new jobs, 500 new
businesses constructed into the infrastructure of the building and upping the
region's priority to host an All-Star game.

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/c...ecutive-says-we-are-woodland-kings?refresh=no

 

[Capt. Factorial]

You can't say it's bad news, but this is the obvious company line. Actions speak louder than words, and in the case of anything touching the Maloofs, the words are white noise. I'll believe they have an inkling of staying when the Maloofs come back to the negotiating table. I'll believe they are staying when they start pouring concrete, and no earlier.

 

[Glenn]

And who is Murphy to say all this? Everything he says is easy to discount isn't it? He's trying to sell tickets and it isn't a good tactic to ask for full support of the Kings by saying the Kings may leave or an arena won't be built. "Yeah, we want you Woodland folks to get 100% involved despite the fact that PBP is falling down around you." Sure!

 

[Purple Reign]

Talk is Cheap!! And the talk coming out of Maloofs Sports and Entertainment is even cheaper than that.

Until the Maloofs come up with their plan to build a 100 percent privately funded arena in Natomas or get back to the table with the City, AEG and the NBA to sign a 30 year deal with the current Downtown plan, every word that comes out of their mouth has zero creditability.

 

[PurpleHaze]

Murphy's Law: "If anything can go wrong, it will."

 

[BMiller52]

I don't trust him. Heck he might even believe that b/c that's what his bosses told him, but the only people who know the Maloof's true intent are the Maloofs. To be honest with all these comments and stuff from the Maloofs/Kings, I feel like this experience has been a total mindf***.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

"Guerrilla community involvement" does that mean they pay their agents to pose as "the community" to start up a "community" drive to sweeten the deal for the Maloofs?

 

[kennadog]

I think this is the time for a little patience. The Maloofs have had David Stern publicly say they aren't going to Anaheim and I suspect the message behind closed doors is even stronger from the league.

Remember, the league sent a whole marketing team out to Sacramento this last season to work with the team. I suspect the message from the league has been, get out there in the community and woo back the great support you've squandered, because you aren't going anywhere, any time in the near future.

Yes it's marketing and trying to sell tickets, but that's what any business should do and the Maloofs have failed miserably at it for a number of years now. I'm pretty sure they have the league on their backs right now. Don't count out an new arena yet. We haven't reached the endgame yet, in my opinion.

 

[Glenn]

I think this is the time for a little patience. The Maloofs have had David Stern publicly say they aren't going to Anaheim and I suspect the message behind closed doors is even stronger from the league.

Remember, the league sent a whole marketing team out to Sacramento this last season to work with the team. I suspect the message from the league has been, get out there in the community and woo back the great support you've squandered, because you aren't going anywhere, any time in the near future.

Yes it's marketing and trying to sell tickets, but that's what any business should do and the Maloofs have failed miserably at it for a number of years now. I'm pretty sure they have the league on their backs right now. Don't count out an new arena yet. We haven't reached the endgame yet, in my opinion.

I agree with everything you say and people should understand that because of the immense effort the NBA has put out in getting this franchise up and running, the Maloofs better respond. What other team has had as much intervention by the NBA as the Kings? The Maloofs can't afford to sit back and expect to get more from the NBA whether it is directly from the NBA such as forwarding the $75 mil to build an arena or the shuffling of money from the haves to the have nots.

The NBA is helping the Maloofs specifically and the have nots in general. Those benefitting from all of this can't afford to sit back passively as much as they might want to. The "guerrilla tactics" are some evidence that the Maloofs have gotten the message. I suspect or this is massive wishful thinking that the NBA and Stern/Bennett in particular are waiting for the Maloofs to slip up. I don't think the Maloofs can simply slide over the minimum salary as they did last year or they will feel the wrath of the BOG. I think that is something else they have to do. They have to prove they are serious about running a franchise. Remember that KJ came up with $10 mil per year that was sitting in the area that the Maloofs didn't find. Their attitude sucks.

A lot of this is wishful thinking isn't it? Actually I think a lot of it is true.

Nothing fills an arena better than a winning team. It is time for the Maloofs to catch on and put their energy into the Sacramento Kings and nothing else. That includes stopping this combataive attitude towards the city and getting onboard with the arena. Don't they get it? They will probably fail even if they move.

 

[Kingsfan23]

Since I know next to nothing about economics, I'll ask.. If the major sticking point is the Maloofs do not have the assetts to put up proper collateral for this new deal, can this be worked around?

 

[Tetsujin]

Since I know next to nothing about economics, I'll ask.. If the major sticking point is the Maloofs do not have the assetts to put up proper collateral for this new deal, can this be worked around?

I'm pretty sure the major sticking point is the simple fact that the Maloofs don't want to be here.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Since I know next to nothing about economics, I'll ask.. If the major sticking point is the Maloofs do not have the assetts to put up proper collateral for this new deal, can this be worked around?

The collateral question revolves around the refinance of the current loan on PBP. If/When the Kings move out of PBP that loan comes due immediately, and we're under the working hypothesis that the Maloofs simply cannot come up with the approximately $70M required to pay it off (as of today, would be lower at the time of construction completion). The city offered to refinance the loan, essentially floating more bonds to cover the ones coming due. The current loan has collateral on it - the entirety of the PBP facility, and something like $20M worth of stock in the team. Common wisdom says that as far as the collateral goes, that loan is underwater at the moment, but that's neither here nor there.

One of the post-facto sticking points in the negotiations that had already been completed was that the Maloofs complained about being asked to put up appropriate collateral for the new loan the city was offering. Of course, this is a completely ludicrous position. But does it mean that they can't possibly come up with collateral? Perhaps. But I'd say more likely it was an excuse to scuttle the deal. They knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that if they told the city they wouldn't put up collateral on the loan, that the city would turn down the deal. So they did it, and tried to make it look like the city stopped negotiations. So I'd say that the whole collateral thing is more likely a devious scheme to get out of the deal rather than an actual inability to secure appropriate collateral.

Of course, the Maloofs are lying, bad-faith-bargaining scumbags, and they're also asset-poor, so it could be both simultaneously.

Oh, but to answer the question simply, no. If the Maloofs do not put up collateral on the re-fi, this cannot be worked around. It would be politically impossible for the city to give the Maloofs a loan without collateral. (Not legally impossible, but politically.)

 

[butteredbiscuit]

I'm pretty sure the major sticking point is the simple fact that the Maloofs don't want to be here.

After what I heard today with links in other places I posted, sounds like they have no choice, Can't go to Anaheim and Maloofs won't sell to Seattle so Kings will stay. That is what I heard a few days ago....

 

[hrdboild]

If the NBA allowed the Maloofs to move the team to Anaheim they'd be there yesterday. I don't think anyone would deny that. Which makes this an interesting stalemate. Maybe if someone convinced George that he blew it with his stammering press conference powerpoint presentation and Anaheim is well and truly off the table now he might actually want to take the gift of a deal that the NBA and the city of Sacramento negotiated without his assistance and put down in his lap to sign. But does the city of Sacramento want to get back into business with George at this point? The Maloofs have already drug the city council through the mud and all but spit in David Stern's face (not to mention Kevin Johnson). It's not as simple as just returning to the negotiating table anymore.