Sacramento Kings will remain in Sacramento next year (PG .2)

GoatMilk16 wrote:my bad, i made a thread and shouldnt have
mods will move it i assume

Weezy wrote:I'm in Anaheim, if the Queens moved here I would not support them, so I hope it doesn't happen. Anaheim is a Laker town, I'm not rooting for the Queens just because they would be located here. I might root for the Clippers or the Hornets as a secondary team and go see some games, but not the Queens. Move them to Vegas, that makes sense.

LAKEROC wrote:Personally, if I had my way, the Kings would move up to Seattle, and become the Supersonics(as per one of the agreements for a new team moving there), and the Clippers would finally grow a brain, and relocate to Anaheim, or back to San Diego.

LakerFanIam wrote:NOOOO to the Kings coming to So. Cal. Don't want another scrub organization taking up space in Lakerland.

lakerzkb8 wrote:Move to the Kings to vegas. Move the Clippers to Anaheim.

BREAKING NEWS: Kings Staying In Sacramento For 2011-12 Season



Kings co-owner Joe Maloof told The Associated Press that the NBA club will remain in Sacramento for at least one more season to give Mayor Kevin Johnson a chance to follow through on his promise for a new arena.

"The mayor of Sacramento has told the NBA relocation committee that he will have a plan for a new arena within a year,'' Maloof said Monday. "If not, the team will be relocated to another city.''

The team had been considering a move to Anaheim, Calif.

"I think it's the fair thing to do,'' Maloof said. "We've always said we think Sacramento has the best NBA fans in the world. Their overwhelming show of support was incredible. But now they realize that we're giving them another opportunity and we're anxious to play basketball.''

Last week, Sacramento's corporate community handed NBA representatives deposits on more than $10 million in sponsorship pledges for the Kings to stay at least another year.

"We spent 13 years and millions of dollars to try to get an arena built,'' Maloof said. "We don't have the answer. The mayor has the answers and we're willing and able to listen. He's got to have a plan. We never want to be untruthful to the fans of Sacramento. There is a sense of urgency, and that's up to mayor Johnson and his political team.''

The Maloofs explored relocation because of several failed efforts to build a new arena in Sacramento. A feasibility study for a new arena isn't scheduled to be completed until the end of May, and there has always been a divide between Kings fans and the broader public on how to finance an arena.

Maloof said he appreciated the support and encouragement from Anaheim officials.

"I am sure that Anaheim will have a team some day,'' he said.

"I am sure that Anaheim will have a team some day,'' he said.

Sources: Kings May Move To Virginia Beach, Arena Deal In The Works

The owners of the Sacramento Kings, an NBA franchise, and officials from Philadelphia-based Comcast-Spectacor are expected to be in Virginia Beach Tuesday to propose moving the team to the resort city and for Comcast to help build and lease a new pro sports arena.

A deal between the Maloof family, which owns the Sacramento Kings, and the city of Sacramento for a $391 million entertainment complex fell apart three months ago and it has been reported that the owners are looking for a city for their franchise.

Media giant Comcast will guarantee a 25-year lease on a new arena, supposedly for naming rights and for broadcasting the games, sources said. Comcast owns NBC and Global Spectrum, which operates arenas and stadiums across the country including the Ted Constant Convocation Center at Old Dominion University.

City officials and the Maloof family are expected to announce Wednesday, Aug. 29, that the Kings will land in Virginia Beach, sources said.

Virginia Beach-based Meridian Group, a marketing communications firm, is expected to handle the public relations for the announcement.

To finance the arena, the Virginia Beach Hotel-Motel Association has indicated it would support a $1 hike in the lodging tax, sources said.

In addition, the Atlantic Coast Conference has agreed to place Virginia Beach on its list as a future venue for college ACC conference tournaments.

A well-known concert promoter – Live Nation – is associated with the deal for the new arena and the team’s relocation to Virginia Beach, sources say.

The new arena will be built across from the Virginia Beach Convention Center, adjacent to the former Norfolk Southern Corp. rail track and a proposed site for a light rail station.

“Comcast, Live Nation and Global Spectrum have come to the city,” Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms said last week. “They would guarantee us a professional sports team if the deal goes through.”

He said the arena would draw people to the area year-round. He would not confirm the team, but said that in a related project, a multi-star convention center hotel, “would probably be built by owners of the team.”

“I think the greatest thing coming out of this is that Comcast and Live Nation are for real,” Sessoms said.

Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento and a former NBA standout, has tried to keep the Kings in his city. The Maloofs have said they no longer trust Johnson and don’t want to work with him, according to ESPN in April, prior to the deal collapsing.

“You can’t do a deal with somebody you don’t trust,” George Maloof Jr. said, according to The Sacramento Bee. “I don’t trust him.”

Maloof said last week, “We have been approached by several cities over several years about moving the Kings and we will not comment other than that.”

Amid negotiations over the new entertainment complex in Sacramento, elected officials representing the city criticized the Maloofs, saying they’ve turned their backs on the city late in the game, the ESPN article said.

Chris Lehane, executive director of Think Big, the committee formed by Johnson to retain the Kings, compared dealing with the Maloofs to dealing with one of the world’s most inscrutable and widely criticized governments. Lehane, who stepped down from his position in June, at one point, asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the Maloof brothers, according to a USA Today report.

Eric W. Rose, the Maloofs’ spokesman, said: “It is becoming clearer that the foundation of Think Big is built on fabrication and deception. The name of the organization should be changed to Think Big Fraud,” the USA Today article said.

The Kings’ standing in the western conference was the second worst behind the New Orleans Hornets for the 2011-2012 season.

The Kings have played at the Power Balance Pavilion, the Kings’ home since 1985, formerly known as ARCO Arena.

But the Maloof family has complained that the arena wasn’t suitable and demanded a new entertainment complex from Sacramento. The proposed city-owned complex would have been funded mostly by issuing a parking lease to a private vendor. Anschutz Entertainment Group would have been the operator.

The Maloof family also owns the Palms Casino in Las Vegas and other hotels as well as Maloof Productions and Maloof Music.

Hampton Roads has sought professional league sports in the past including major league baseball, hockey and the NBA. In the late 1990s, Norfolk almost became home to a National League Hockey team, but the expansion team ended up in Raleigh.

George Shinn, the owner behind the hockey league team, also considered Norfolk as a site for the Charlotte Hornets in 2002.

The team ended up in New Orleans.