A $448 million deal to build a new basketball arena, which includes $258 million in public money from future parking fees, was announced Saturday afternoon by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson in an attempt to keep the NBA Kings in town and out of Seattle.
A private investment group with three prominent California businessmen, plus other local investors, will contribute $190 million. The deal, which is non-binding, will be voted upon Tuesday by the city council, which is expected to pass it. Then the deal will be considered at an April 3 preliminary meeting in New York among NBA owners on the finance and relocation committees.
It is a counteroffer, unprecedented in NBA annals, to a sale agreement held by Seattle native Chris Hansen, who offered $341 million to the Maloof family for 65 percent of the franchise price of $525 million.
The $448 million is for the arena project only. The Sacramento bidders would have to strike a deal to buy the franchise from the Maloofs, who have in the past rejected local offers.
For more details, read the coverage by the Sacramento Bee here.
5 Comments
Non Binding and lack of transparency, any legal issues between now and the 3rd will be a filibuster. We will see what happens
At this point the NBA will only look at two things: how financially solvent is the Sacramento group’s bid and will this group fit in with the NBA ownership clique…oops…I mean group of team owners. Does this group bring more to the NBA table than the Hansen/Ballmer/Nordstrom group? I’m sure there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than the public knows what’s going on. I wonder if Hansen’s group is willing to get into a bidding war for the Kings? They most likely have or can get the money but do they want to? I’m sure the NBA wants them to. But to potentially spend over a BILLION dollars on the Kings….
Doesn’t matter one whit- the team was sold to Hansen. Much ado about nothing KJ.
LOL, what a positive spin to the Sacramento proceedings. A deal with few details, no public vetting is lauded as the ‘savior’ to Sacramento. If only the Seattle media were such homers.
I don’t share the in the bag optimism many are expressing. New lead owner in deal with inside connections, a mayor with obvious connections, a large public subsidy which nobody but David Stern and the other owners like (ie. that’s all that matters), not giving a win to a city that cut off their subsidy trough by passing I-91, a 1 sport town, avoid team relocation, and a compliant city council that has been in the palm of KJ’s hand.
There’s obvious advantages in the Seattle offer, namely bigger market, larger potential television deal, a market less overlapped than Sacramento/Golden State, the $2m+ relocation fee each owner would collect, a cleaner way to value the NBA teams, so far a higher sale offer, a signed agreement, a faster way to assuredly dispose of the unpopular Maloofs, not wanting to tell other owners what to do with their teams, and a wealthier ownership group.
It all points to a difficult decision if expansion is off the table. I don’t believe it is off the table because having both ownership groups, despite revenue sharing and player dilution, would put the league in a better position than it would be had neither ownership group materialized.