Webber doing all he can to keep team in Sacramento

[Jim Les]

I get it, you think I'm a young academic whipper-snapper with no real-world sense. So you can do me a favor and lay off the latent sarcasm.

I don't want to rehash that argument, so I'll just re-iterate my larger point by saying that the city would be equally served to build a skyscraper than an arena and fill it with multiple business (filled with workers, taxpayers, consumers, etc) rather than one business which could leave at any time. The reasoning is that a city becomes more stable as it grows (to a certain point), so there is no reason for an entertainment arena to be viewed through a different economic lens than any other large building. Yet we will likely never see tax-payer skyscrapers in Sacramento built for private businesses.

As to your position, I presume you think the team's owners have an obligation to the city and the city has less obligation - in order to exist together, of course.

From a purely business point of view, I think the team owner's are not entitled to charge a patron twice for a product they only receive once. If they pay for their own arena, they can do whatever they want. If they rely on city subsidies, they should lose a little bargaining power. Unfortunately, not all cities play by the same rules, so owners bolt when another city offers more and asks for less in return.


But whatever, you can disagree with that if you want, I don't care. The point is that a basketball team is about securing an identity, which can't be quantified in dollars. I don't want to see the team go, and you don't want to see the team go. We just have different opinion about how to share the burden of building an arena. But hey, why leave it at that when you can just roll your eyes and casually toss me in the group of small-minded simpletons who weren't blessed with the vision that is automatically bestowed on people who hail from the magnificent city of Minneapolis.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

They have been under orders from the NBA not to talk about what is going on. Million dollar fine. So they are quiet.

Later reports indicated that the $1M fine was regarding the CBA negotiations, not the moving situation. They are mum on the moving situation because they want to be.

 

[Bricklayer]

Later reports indicated that the $1M fine was regarding the CBA negotiations, not the moving situation. They are mum on the moving situation because they want to be.

Do remember Stern advising them not to show up to the first Here We Stay game though, and I am sure their lawyers do not want them saying ANYTHING that could be construed as a promise/used against them in a court of law.

 

[LilMissDiva]

Win lose or draw on this, you all now have my offical permission to just pop anybody in the nose who still talks smack about Webb around Sacramento. This is just above and beyond. I don't even know how you could go about thanking him enough if he actually managed to save the team. Maybe KJ could give him the key to the city or some such.

That and so much more. Statue definitely! I admit at first I didn't like him, simply because of his tirade of "having to come here". But it has turned into a Beauty and the Beast type story. I love Webb, and no matter what happens he will always be #1 for our city.

 

[Krunker]

So you think the reasonable thing to do is what?

Well, from a business perspective it sounds like they should sell. Lots of people have recreational passions they have to bail on because they simply can't afford it. The Maloofs seem to be digging themselves into a deeper hole. Of course it's the Maloofs choice as long as they can continue to meet their financial obligations. But I say "sell" as my advice to the Maloofs as an unsolicited financial advisor

 

[Kingster]

Actually in all liklihood all the Maloofs have to do is survive the recession. Their great problem is that the heart of their empire lay in one of the world's most recession sensitive industries. Big recession, Vegas crashes (not to mention of course stocks), and poof their goes their money at a bad time for them with the Palms so leveraged. I would imagine they are just trying to survive until the worm turns back in their favor. Just as Vegas feels recessions, it feels boom times -- there is no place idiots prefer to blow their money in the good times.

The Maloofs defaulted on their $400 million line of credit on the Palms. Leanard Green and Co. is now putting the screws to them to relinquish controlling ownership interest of the Palms. They owe the city of Sac $75 mill; they will owe the Anaheim guy $75 mill. There's a $35 million NBA relocation fee. There are other possible $millions that they could pay to the LA teams. They sold their most reliable stream of income with the beer distributorship biz. Now they are bleeding through that money with the Palms. They have no negotiation leverage on either the Palms or their Anaheim Sacramento Kings talks. The economy isn't even remotely close in turning around. It's a depression, not a recession, and even in depressions you have glimmers of positive GDP. The Palms isn't even a good location, which makes their situation even more dire. They would be a lot better off if they cut their losses NOW and sell the team so they can get out of Dodge while they still have their pants on...