http://www.kcra.com/sports/Yahoo-Sports-Kings-owners-reportedly-selling-team-to-Seattle-group/-/11797474/18066690/-/9ei41/-/index.html

The Return of the Supersonics?

Awesome. It sucks not having a local NBA team in town.

Cal Panda Bear;842058842 said:

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http://www.kcra.com/sports/Yahoo-Sports-Kings-owners-reportedly-selling-team-to-Seattle-group/-/11797474/18066690/-/9ei41/-/index.html

The Return of the Supersonics?

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Makes a ton of sense.

sad to see the maloofs **** away hundreds of millions, only to stumble and bumble into selling the kings for a huge profit - rumored price is $500+ million, to a group lead by Chris Hansen, a Seattle born, U$C educated SF hedgefund manager and Steve Balmer, uber rich ($15 billion net worth) CEO of Microsoft. They recently received approval to build a $500 million arena near Safeco field south of downtown seattle.

someone close to the deal said it's all but done, calling it "first and goal at the 1." that someone is obviously not a bear fan.

OskiMD;842058905 said:

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Awesome. It sucks not having a local NBA team in town.

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And now after all those years of whining, you've done the same to someone else. Congrats, hypocrites.

ColoradoBear1;842058910 said:

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sad to see the maloofs **** away hundreds of millions, only to stumble and bumble into selling the kings for a huge profit - rumored price is $500+ million

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It really is amazing. They inherited a ton of money and then invested in two almost sure-thing investments (sports franchises and casinos) and now they have run out of money. But hey, the sister is on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, so she has that going for her.

grandmastapoop;842058918 said:

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And now after all those years of whining, you've done the same to someone else. Congrats, hypocrites.

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Pretty different situations though. Bennett bought the Sonics under the guise of keeping the team in Seattle. This purchase (if it goes through) is completely open about moving.

As much as we kick Seattle around on this forum for their (ahem) football teams.....I hope an NBA team ends up there.

Would it be at the Key Arena or somewhere else, though?

grandmastapoop;842058918 said:

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And now after all those years of whining, you've done the same to someone else. Congrats, hypocrites.

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Seattle Supersonics>>>>>Oklahoma City Thunder

Kansas City Kings>>>Sacramento Kings>>>>Seattle Supersonics

The net result is an NBA franchise heads 340 miles down I 35 from Kansas City to Oklahoma City.

I'd like to see the "Golden State" Warriors play a few games in Sacramento and in San Jose.

510Bear;842058939 said:

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As much as we kick Seattle around on this forum for their (ahem) football teams.....I hope an NBA team ends up there.

Would it be at the Key Arena or somewhere else, though?

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Key Arena for 2 years, and as another posted pointed out, the ownership group already has approval to build a new arena in Seattle. All they need before shovels hit the ground is to get a team, which they appear to have done.

Wow so Sac-Town ain't gonna have any balls.

maxer;842058945 said:

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Key Arena for 2 years, and as another posted pointed out, the ownership group already has approval to build a new arena in Seattle. All they need before shovels hit the ground is to get a team, which they appear to have done.

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Looks like the main investor behind this new Seattle arena is Chris Hansen. I'm disappointed it's not this Chris Hansen.

Tosh

grandmastapoop;842058918 said:

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And now after all those years of whining, you've done the same to someone else. Congrats, hypocrites.

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Life isn't fair, I know. Blame Kevin Johnson!

No- blame the Malloofs.. They are the scummiest owners in all of sports and I hope they end up penny-
less..those clowns do nothing but lie and don't deserve any money that their family still has.

Here's what the new arena might look like...

Nobody in the state of Washington ever expected a bunch of Okies to buy the team and keep it in Seattle. I don't blame the buyer when a team moves, I blame the seller and the league. I'm not particularly a fan of the NBA, primarily because of their extortionate business practices. That's true of most pro sports to a degree, but the NBA has made it an art form. Seattle is on the cusp of a hat trick of publicly subsidized pro venues even after failing at the polls and facing litigation. Glad I'm not a taxpayer there.

The good news is I get to pick a new team. A fresh start. My one chance to be a fair-weather fan and not be considered a fair-weather fan, as Simmons says.

I am thinking the Heat would be nice. Can't do the Lakers. Maybe the Warriors if they are broadcast on local (sac) TV.

grandmastapoop;842058918 said:

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And now after all those years of whining, you've done the same to someone else. Congrats, hypocrites.

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One difference is that Hansen isn't claiming that his first priority is to keep the Kings in Sacramento and that he's doing all he can to keep them there.

It's true, in the end for the local fans the result is the same, but I think how you get there in this case is worth noting.

You're usually a pretty measured poster, so I was disappointed with this one.

It's not as if the Kings were born in Sacramento since they originated in Rochester and followed the American pattern of westward migration through Cincinnati, KC (with name change) and on to the delta. Be patient. Sooner or later there'll be another bottom-dwelling franchise (NO? Charlotte? Toronto?) looking for a city to swindle.

Kings fans, you are always welcome to cheer for the Warriors. We can share our mutual hatred for the Lakers

likwid1;842059035 said:

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Maybe the Warriors if they are broadcast on local (sac) TV.

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Sac already has Giants/A's/Sharks on comcast sports. I would guess Sac goes to warriors, I mean who else would get that territory? I believe now CSN just blacks the Warriors games out Sac, so they literally just have to flip a switch. I'm sure the dubs won't argue with a 20% increase in the subscriber base (though I'm guessing it's not THAT easy as there are separate TV contracts to work out).

Question is whether anyone would care about the warriors?

An aside, I wonder what team(s), say,Fresno or Bakersfield gets on cable? lakers? All CA teams?

Well, with the Heat it's the players who are the carpetbaggers, not the owners.

drizzlybears brother;842059037 said:

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One difference is that Hansen isn't claiming that his first priority is to keep the Kings in Sacramento and that he's doing all he can to keep them there.

It's true, in the end for the local fans the result is the same, but I think how you get there in this case is worth noting.

You're usually a pretty measured poster, so I was disappointed with this one.

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My team is getting stolen because we have horrible owners who didn't take a fair deal and fans from Seattle, who I felt bad for when their team was taken, are whooping and celebrating (on twitter, facebook and how this message board) after years of public moping (going so far as to make documentaries about what happened to them and how horrible it was), and me calling them hypocrites isn't measured? I think I was rather even keeled, given the circumstances.

59bear;842059028 said:

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Nobody in the state of Washington ever expected a bunch of Okies to buy the team and keep it in Seattle. I don't blame the buyer when a team moves, I blame the seller and the league. I'm not particularly a fan of the NBA, primarily because of their extortionate business practices. That's true of most pro sports to a degree, but the NBA has made it an art form. Seattle is on the cusp of a hat trick of publicly subsidized pro venues even after failing at the polls and facing litigation. Glad I'm not a taxpayer there.

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Not publicly financed. Predominantly a private venture.

Mr. Triangle;842058923 said:

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It really is amazing. They inherited a ton of money and then invested in two almost sure-thing investments (sports franchises and casinos) and now they have run out of money. But hey, the sister is on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, so she has that going for her.

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casino industry not doing so well. maloofs had to reduce their share of the Palms from to 2% to erase $400 million of debt with creditors.

According to the wikipedia page They also seem to waste money on random enterprises like Maloof Television, Maloof Music (yes their biggest product was releasing linsay lohan's lilttle sisters first album), and some mini 4 event skateboarding tour. To inherit hundreds of millions must be nice.

Well, I hope seattle likes jimmer - gonna go out on a limp here and say durant was a bit better.

grandmastapoop;842058918 said:

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And now after all those years of whining, you've done the same to someone else. Congrats, hypocrites.

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+1000. The Kings are beloved in Sacto. Get your own team.

Good riddance.

Not a pro basketball fan.

march2397;842059087 said:

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Good riddance.

Not a pro basketball fan.

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Cool story, glad you threw in your $0.02. I want the three seconds of my life back that I wasted on reading your post.

grandmastapoop;842059050 said:

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I think I was rather even keeled, given the circumstances.

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Sure but didn't Sac steal the Kings from Kansas City?

And not to add fuel to the fire, but seattle really does think they deserve a team more than sac does.

F*** Seattle! To borrow a phrase from liverflukes.

oskithepimp;842059086 said:

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+1000. The Kings are beloved in Sacto. Get your own team.

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Is this really true? When the Kings were doing well they sold out a lot. When they weren't doing well it seemed like attendance cratered. I remember I was up in Sac about five years ago and went to a Kings Wolves game and was shocked to see it 2/3 empty after all that hype about Kings fans.

Looking up NBA attendance stats backs up the fair weather observation. The Kings had a really good run from the late 90s thru the mid 2000s. Their first losing season was 2006-07. Up thru then they were selling out games. Since then, here are their NBA ranks in attendance (out of 30; starting with this season and going back in time):

30
27
29
29
30
27

Some of the attendance issues are likely related to the threats to move the team. But I don't think the threats go back this far and the immediate dropoff from selling out to bottom of the league in attendance times exactly with the team no longer being competitive.

ColoradoBear1;842059111 said:

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Sure but didn't Sac steal the Kings from Kansas City?

And not to add fuel to the fire, but seattle really does think they deserve a team more than sac does.

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True, but I didn't celebrate it like Seattle fans have (because I was like 3 and not living near Sacramento) AND Sacramento never threw a pity party for themselves like Seattle did. It's like getting everyone to feel bad for you when your wife cheats on you and leaves you, and then stealing someone else's wife. Everyone will think you're a d-ck.

And why would Seattle deserve it more? The Kings had higher attendance and higher attendance % every single season since 2001 (as far back as ESPN's figures go) until the Sonics left.

And, again, "Well I know we whined and cried when our team was taken from us and now we're celebrating doing it to someone else because WE DESERVED IT MORE!" is not exactly endearing themselves to anyone, nor does it change the fact that they are being hypocritical.

Plus, they are all Husky fans. Remember that.

Sports teams make very little of their money from gate receipts these days compared to the gigantic contracts they get for televising the games. Sacramento is a small market. (So is Seattle for that matter.)


I guess there wasn't enough cowbell.