Samueli - a little focus

[Glenn]

Samueli has had legal problems of higher than average severity which I have forgotten. Who wants the City of Anaheim to have the Kings? The Kings want to leave Sacto because:

1. The Samueli managed arena is better than ARCO/PBP/Comcast --- for now
2. The City of Anaheim came up with $75 mil bond issue to aid the process, all of the bonds bought by three Samueli owned businesses.
3. Samueli has given the Maloofs a personal loan.
4. The TV contract will be with a TV station part owned by Samueli unless I misread the Sam Amick blog
5. Samueli may not be making enough money off the Ducks and needs another major tenant of the Honda Center
6. What am I missing?

Isn't Anaheim just happily going along for the ride because of one man? If you were the NBA, what would you think of this? I have no answers as I am not the NBA but I think the default position is that the Kings stay. I think that should be the position of the NBA simply as an image thing and a fairness thing if fairness enters into the equation.

One man seems to be Anaheim. The cash flow heading the Maloof's way is from one man and not so much the citizens. Am I right and is this really what the NBA wants and that is to move a franchise for one man? Am I unfair? As Sacto folks, we will be biased but try to look at this in an unbiased fashion even if it appears I am steering the direction of the opinion.

 

[Trueblood]

I agree to a certain extent. I hate the idea of Sac losing it's team especially if it's to an over saturated market. This is why I've always been so passionate about the Clips moving to Anaheim or just having Sterling sell to Samueli. With the Honda Center taken, the Maloofs have one less option. And while I'm confident that the Kings will be in Sac NEXT season, I am starting to think that if this last arena attempt fails, the league will let them go to Anaheim regardless of how much interest is shown down there.

OTOH, Samueli was found to be innocent of those charges in the long run. Here is an article about that.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/10/business/la-fi-samueli10-2009dec10

The one thing I do like about this is that his name has been connected with the NBA ten times more than it has in the past. If the Clips finally get sold, I'm hoping to see him buy and take away the Maloof's socal option. That may be the last straw for them and could lead to them selling to Burkle.

 

[Dr. Spaceman]

I agree that it's becoming more and more obvious that this Anaheim deal is a shady half-assed facade for a billionaire positioning himself to buy his own NBA franchise through legalities rather than through the proper process. And he's taking advantage of a couple of bumbling, desperate spotlight-seekers to get his way. After the news about the TV deal came out, it had to have set off some alarms back at the NBA main office. If it continues down the path that this whole thing has been headed toward the past couple of weeks, hopefully his ploy will have failed, having done nothing but mobilize and unify an entire region to keep what should be theirs.

On Trueblood's point about the Clips being sold -- I really don't see that happening, as much as it could possibly help the Kings' situation. Sterling has held onto that team for so long, there's no way he sells now. Not with the team finally on the upswing and, much like the Kings, a small forward and a competent coach away from a winning era.

 

[Section 101]

I agree to a certain extent. I hate the idea of Sac losing it's team especially if it's to an over saturated market. This is why I've always been so passionate about the Clips moving to Anaheim or just having Sterling sell to Samueli. With the Honda Center taken, the Maloofs have one less option. And while I'm confident that the Kings will be in Sac NEXT season, I am starting to think that if this last arena attempt fails, the league will let them go to Anaheim regardless of how much interest is shown down there.

OTOH, Samueli was found to be innocent of those charges in the long run. Here is an article about that.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/10/business/la-fi-samueli10-2009dec10

The one thing I do like about this is that his name has been connected with the NBA ten times more than it has in the past. If the Clips finally get sold, I'm hoping to see him buy and take away the Maloof's socal option. That may be the last straw for them and could lead to them selling to Burkle.

read the story again. He was not found innocent. He admitted to back dating the options. Now was he coersed into admitting it? Thats why the charges were dropped for police misconduct. Doesn't mean he was innocent.

 

[Glenn]

I agree that it's becoming more and more obvious that this Anaheim deal is a shady half-assed facade for a billionaire positioning himself to buy his own NBA franchise through legalities rather than through the proper process. And he's taking advantage of a couple of bumbling, desperate spotlight-seekers to get his way. After the news about the TV deal came out, it had to have set off some alarms back at the NBA main office. If it continues down the path that this whole thing has been headed toward the past couple of weeks, hopefully his ploy will have failed, having done nothing but mobilize and unify an entire region to keep what should be theirs.

On Trueblood's point about the Clips being sold -- I really don't see that happening, as much as it could possibly help the Kings' situation. Sterling has held onto that team for so long, there's no way he sells now. Not with the team finally on the upswing and, much like the Kings, a small forward and a competent coach away from a winning era.

Nice. I agree that the TV deal might have been a killer for the move. At least for a year. I like the word "bumbling" as I just got done writing another novel of mine in another thread where I used the same word to describe them. Inept, fraudulent, sinister, nah. Bumbling? Si!