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http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/12767989p-13619117c.html
Kings' fan fervor cool on eve of playoffs
By Clint Swett -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 4:54 pm PDT Friday, April 22, 2005
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As the Sacramento Kings launch their seventh consecutive trip to the NBA playoffs Saturday in Seattle against the Supersonics, fan fervor - normally at a high boil - is only now going beyond tepid.
Fans and other observers blame a variety of factors: injuries to key performers, inconsistent results, the departure of iconic players identified with the team’s rise to glory and a sense that just making the playoffs is no longer enough.
Even the reported feud last season between Peja Stojokovic and former star Chris Webber, as well as the ongoing uncertainty about a new arena, may play a role.
"This is the first time in the last 20 seasons when Kings fans don't have high expectations," said Ken Vander, a season ticket holder for the past nine years.
"For the past five or seven years, we've always had hope of getting to the next level," he said. "But now we haven't gotten any better and other teams have."
Sonja Brown, a spokeswoman for Maloof Sports & Entertainment, said the Kings haven't seen any slackening of support, and she expects the few available playoff tickets to be snapped up as soon as they go on sale Saturday morning.
She noted the team has had 293 consecutive sell-outs and pointed to a recent USA Today survey of NBA arenas in which the writer called the Sacramento crowd, "the best sixth man in the league."
Sales at Kings specialty store Sac Fever in Arden Fair Mall are down 50 percent this year, said store manager Tim Cowan. Sales of jerseys, T-shirts, mugs and other Kings paraphernalia - normally red-hot items on the eve of the playoffs - are down four-fold over last year.
Demand for playoff tickets also isn't quite as heated, said Greg Cullen of the Sacramento ticket brokerage Preferred Seating, though it picked up a bit after Jackson's return Wednesday. Until then, he said, demand was about 30 percent lower than last year.
There's enough demand, however, that he is still able to charge about double the face value - a profit he splits with the ticket seller.
For more details, see Saturday's Bee.
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