So: Will they stay or will they go?
Three days after the collapse of the Sacramento arena deal, the future of the Sacramento Kings remained a tantalizing mystery Monday.
The Kings will stay put in Sacramento for next season – and the team’s owners, the Maloofs, insist they’re committed to finding a way to remain in town long-term.
An investment group with deep pockets said it’s interested in keeping the downtown arena deal alive.
But other cities beckon.
An official with the Honda Center in Anaheim, which nearly lured the Kings away last spring, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the courtship were to resume. Seattle indicated it remains interested in the team.
And Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said Monday he isn’t sure he believes the Maloofs want to stay: “I can’t tell you whether they want to be in Sacramento or not.”
But in the next breath, he vowed, “This is not over. We’re going to figure out something. … We’re not going to just sit on our hands and roll over.”
Johnson said he would present a response to the demise of the arena plan soon. “We’re still committed … to do something downtown that leads to job creation, economic development.”
Despite his bitter exchanges with the Maloofs in recent days, he plans to attend Friday’s home game against Oklahoma City. Oscar Robertson, who played for the Kings’ predecessors, the Cincinnati Royals, is being honored.
The arena idea itself might not be completely dead. One of the groups planning to bid on the city’s parking garages – a deal that would have raised $230 million for the arena – said Monday it’s interested in reviving the project.
“We’re willing and open to play a larger role in helping to complete the (arena) project,” said Roger Salazar, spokesman for Sacramento Forward. His group includes Antarctica Capital, which was poised to spend $2.3 billion on state office buildings. The deal was canceled by California Gov. Jerry Brown.
If the Maloofs do want to move the Kings, it may not be that easy. The NBA’s window for relocation requests for 2012-13 has already closed. Beyond that, they would need majority approval from fellow NBA owners, and likely would face the same objections they did last year if they try to move to Anaheim. That would put three teams in Southern California and infuriate the owners of the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers.
“I don’t think the Kings are going anyplace but back to the bargaining table if they’re intelligent,” said consultant Andy Dolich, a former executive with the Memphis Grizzlies and other NBA teams.
The NBA would like the Kings to stay put. A year ago, Commissioner David Stern said the league would support a relocation if an arena deal weren’t in place by now. But when asked Friday about the possibility of the team moving, he was non-committal.
“This is something that’s particularly appropriately left to discretion of the owners, the Board of Governors and the committees that they designate,” he said.
David Carter, a sports business expert at the University of Southern California, said the Maloofs might have a hard time persuading owners to let them relocate to any city, not just Anaheim. “They’ve alienated the league,” he said.
But the league doesn’t have absolute power over where its owners take their teams.
The late Al Davis successfully sued the NFL on antitrust grounds in the 1980s to move the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles, arguing the league was being anti-competitive. A few years later, the San Diego Clippers moved to L.A. without NBA permission. The league sued, and the case was settled with the Clippers paying the NBA about $5 million.
Would the Kings sue if they’re prevented from leaving? Stern noted that the lead attorney the Maloofs brought to last week’s NBA owners meeting has an antitrust background.
The lawyer, Barry McNeil, couldn’t be reached for comment Monday. Family spokesman Eric Rose said a lawsuit “is not even on the table.”
