No more reading quotes. Here is David Stern on the Seattle-Sacramento straight from the horse’s mouth to your ears.
Thanks to our friend, Chris Daniels, for getting this video!
Also, projected game threads for the week:
Sunday
Bulls at Lakers
Pacers at Heat
Maybe Bucks at Kings… maybe.
Wednesday
Knicks at Nuggets
Worth repeating from the last thread. Aileen sounds concerned…
Paul Rogers on March 8, 2026 at 9:16 pm said:
Ailene Voisin @ailene_voisin
Stern went on gsw radio and then walked down to Mastrov. Talked for almost ten minutes …. Very animated. …
Ailene Voisin @ailene_voisin
After stern walked off I asked Mastrov what commish said . “he told me to cal him.” Mastrov smiled. Said the two will talk in next few days
How much work is it to offer more money?
Bryan May @BMayNews10
MARK MASTROV: “we have a lot of work to do, we have a lot of meetings so we’ll see what we can do, but we’re very aggressive & plan to win.”
Hmm possible stern could tell Mastrov to conceded?
mitch levy @kjrmitch
Still haven’t seen anyone report the actual dollar amount of Sac offer. Trust me - it was very very low.
Posted on previous thread. Won’t redo here, just not clear on much right now and I expect City of Sacramento will basically make up the majority of the difference in providing the majority of the funding for the arena.
Wow after watching that I don’t see how anyone can say that was bad news for us.
We don’t know how much of a gap there is between the two offers. Until we do its hard to say if they will get it done in 2 and half weeks.
If we are talking about a difference of 75m (debt owned to sac) or possible even more it would be hard to see how they would come up with that amount in 2 and half weeks.
Its also hard to see how they would get their arena plans finalized in 26 days from today.
There is one thing this does. It’ll get KJ to stop with the “fair and competitive” offer BS since to the NBA that offer wasn’t fair and competitive.
You beat me by about 30 second in posting this Kevin! This might be one of the handful of times I’ve ever liked anything to come out of David Stern’s mouth.
Oh man you do not want to rush a city council on any issue.
Just waiting for the tweet that Sacramento’s potential owners just put a million bucks on Powerball tickets in hopes of winning the $150M jackpot to make up the gap.
I’m hoping it will get him to stop the “Fair and competitive” line.
Damn it how did they figure out my method to financing an NBA team !? ;) lol
Sorry! Wife is gone this weekend and I have three games on at once. I rarely ever get to be this plugged in! haha
Yeah, but we’ve heard the City Council would prefer their subsidy to be smaller than the last deal. It’s going to be like pulling teeth to get them to bring it up that significantly, not to mention their awful parking funding mechanism isn’t even likely to cover their original pledged subsidy. Don’t see how that pencils out at all.
Kings win by 9, 121-112.
Since my last post is in moderation lets reword it; How did they figure out how I was going to finance an NBA team !? ;)
I doubt that would do much to help the offer. How much arena is split between public/private has no factor on how much $$$ their offer is to buy the kings.
Remember Mastrov is handling the purchase of the team burkle is handling the arena.
The more money the city tries to provide the harder it would be to get that amount with their parking fund plan.
Another note is Stern never said the actual amount that it needed to be increased by so i still don’t get why people seem to be concerns about it.
All we know its low and needs to be increased.
Gonna have to wait for it to get $550M and we can totally buy the Bucks! Two NBA teams in Seattle!!!!
People worried that Stern gave them another shot…. If they coulda they woulda. I’m sure they’re not surprised to hear this. If something happens that gives them more financial backing between now and then we shall see, but it’s not like Stern is telling them.anything new…. They know the numbers.
Mitch seems to think it was borderline laughable how low they went, they knew their bid was no good. I’m guessing Mastrov wasn’t expecting to get called out publicly, hence the animated convo.
And so much for Wojo’s source getting all hot and bothered by the REAL DEBATE their REALLLLLLLLLLY close bid would cause the BOG.
Mark Cuban said back in October he can’t imagine any owner opposing a sale and relocation to Seattle, and I’m assuming the ‘what if a local offer bids significantly less after the team is sold’ scenario crossed his mind.
Unless Stern is running the greatest long con in sports history, tonight inched the door so close to closed even a big skeptic like me is getting ready to celebrate
Looks like Isaiah Thomas had a great game tonight.
Apparently, a lot. If you don’t have enough money in the first place…
mitch levy @kjrmitch
I have no doubt that a revamped bid is coming. No choice for all of us but to just wait it out & see what they offer. #pinsandneedles
I’m surprised that only the $$ offer figure is being talked about and not regarding the other issue that needs to get done which is the arena. The Apirl 3rd deadline still gets them 2.5 weeks to make up the difference (it can be done) but 2 less weeks to get the arena deal done doesn’t help.
Sweet! I’m in. “Tonight its your Seattle Bucks vs your Seattle SUUUUUUUPERRRR SONICS!” lol
This is not a small amount of $$ difference. Stern would not have come out this way if it were only $20mill difference. He said there is no offer if they don’t increase it. It’s off the table. Why would he be so clear if it were only $20-30 mil? We’re talking $75-$125 mil difference, if not more.
Only way they could increase the offer and make up the difference if burkle gets involved in purchasing the team and who knows how that will affect negotiations of the private/public split for the arena.
Could sac be that insane to take 525m - the 75m debt and possible relocation fee amount and say bam that’s our offer?
Sacto probably offered this knowing they’d have a 2nd chance, and did this just to buy time and get a read from the Commish. Nice move. Next?
But we don’t know that they have to have the arena plan done by April 3rd. Stern didn’t say that. I’d love to believe this is true, I just haven’t seen a sourced article of any sort saying it is the case. It’s safe to assume that Sac needs to have their purchase offer in by then, just based on how Stern described their original bid today, but he could very well be content to just have the arena process going on in the background on that date still.
As owner of the new Seattle franchise formerly known as the Bucks. I would like to announce that I am leaving all history, colors, records and Monta Ellis in Milwaukee. The team be officially known as the Cascadia Squatches and our colors will be dark green and dark brown. And yes, we will be suing the Sonics for illegal use of our mascot. ;)
I’m really not clear on how solid Sac needs to make their arena plan by any of these deadlines. Perhaps the BOG could just punt on April 18, and say something like, well we have 2 substantially similar offers but we are going to have to defer this decision until we have more solid information on the arena plans. ?
I think so, too. He never even said Sac had to match, did he? He just called the two offers not comparable. You don’t say that two things that are relatively close to one another aren’t comparable, only things that are drastically different.
And again, if Sac COULD match, why wouldn’t they have offered to do so already? This isn’t a traditional negotiating process where you start low and work your way up, this is a last ditch effort to do something unprecedented.
I think this all ends on the 18th regardless. They won’t drag this out through the playoffs.
then it would become the Arena Bidding War. And we are way ahead there, at least so far…
I assume the bid/offer was the $$$ for the kings and the arena deal. Why would NBA consider it if there is no arena deal approved by city government.
NBA will not allow Sacramento to keep the team if they have no arena plan.
He didn’t even state comparable in what context either.
LMAO! You could have the normal Sonics Squatch against like a dirtier angrier squatch and then it would be like Clash of the Titans during halftime when it came down to seeing who was the better dunker through a ring of fire. ;)
Kobe is ridiculous!!!!
Yeah, but you just said it, you’re assuming. We have no idea how far the arena deal needs to be along for Sac to keep the team. Those types of parameters have not been publicly set, so all I’m saying is let’s not make those kind of assumptions let alone state them as certainties.
If we accept the premise that the NBA is going to give Sacramento consideration and potentially keep the team there, we have to also assume that they’d be willing to do so with an arena plan that isn’t as far along as Seattle’s, because it’s impossible for them to reach that benchmark by then. The NBA owners know how arena processes work when they rely on public funding, so either this whole thing is a dog and pony show or they are willing to give Sac the benefit of the doubt on the arena if they have something fairly preliminary, but strong pieced together.
I mean, if we knew exactly what the BOG was expecting, it’d be easy to calculate Sac’s odds, but we don’t. The entire idea of dismissing a signed PSA is absurd, so I think it’s hard to attribute too much rational thought to how this thing might play out.
Interesting team. Replace Cousins, get a legit PG (sorry IT) and you all of a sudden have a half decent team. I truly do believe Cousins is a locker room cancer.
You kidding!? I’d find a real squatch and keep it chained behind the opponents bench! Tell me how the Squatches don’t go 41-0 at home every year. Go .500 on the road and we’d be a perennial one seed through out the playoffs.
He did say they need to increase in “dollar amounts”.
Now that would be awesome.
The NBA knows that neither city’s arena will be shove meets ground by the April meeting.
I would have to think an approved arena deal by Sacramento city council would be solid enough.
I missed that then.
interesting note from Chris Hansen about his hedge fund and how he plans to be as an NBA owner:
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2020518501_hansenvaliantperformxml.html
I mean if they are going to meet apirl 3rd and see where things are at there why would they move forward sacramento’s offer if no arena has been approved by then. That’s where i am puzzled.
You and I will be starting guards. We still pull in titles.
IN SQUATCH WE TRUST
Have to make Squatch a bit kid friendly.
So it seems the league got tired of Sacramento’s Press Conferences and decided to hold one of their own … talk about a shot across the bow.
This was Stern’s way out but he want to keep giving them a chance and I don’t understand why. So they come up with a right bid then what happens? Why didn’t Stern just say the bid is to low, we are moving on but he left the door open.
It wouldn’t be smart to annoy the head of the corporation you are trying to buy into by low balling the offer either.
All he said it was low he never said HOW LOW. Sacramento has the same chance as they did yesterday. They have 2 weeks less to work with.
LMAO !
Saying increase offer by apirl 3rd is better than saying increase offer by apirl 19th.
I agree
If Stern was REALLY giving Sacramento a chance he would say we are giving them two more weeks to get everything done.
It’s all PR. He got eviscerated, and rightfully so, for the way he handled the Seattle move. This is just his and the leagues way to make it look like they did everything for the city, but it wasn’t good enough. Sadly, this may be even more brutal than how he acted towards us in 2008.
Stern never gave Seattle a deadline to get things done regarding the arena efforts.
At least that i can recall.
Because there’s a huge difference between negotiations moving forward with the city council preparing to vote on things than the deal being dead in the water. If it’s the former, I expect things to keep moving for the Sac efforts. I highly doubt the deal needs to be “done” by April 3rd, just to be demonstrating solid progress.
Hello Kitty Squatch! Kevin, you just made a million dollar product in Japan!
Doesn’t the NBA need time to vet their arena plan.
Exactly, and he got raked over the coals for dealing in absolutes. It was now or never in 2008. Now he is the kinder, gentler Stern.
Fully plan on making Japan part of my TV market.
They will have 2 weeks to vet. They make their bid on April 3- voted on April18.
Yep and it usually takes more than 45 minutes.
Here is what I think. Burkle is shocked by the price. He does not want to bid against Hansen and Ballmer for a team in the $500 million range and put an arena together in Sactown. He is smart enough to know that just will never pencil out and turn a profit. He does want to keep his foot in the door, however, for the next team that comes available. So he is developing a relationship with KJ. They will continue to work together to plan and arena, build an ownership group and go after the next team. Perhaps the price will be lower. Perhaps other whales come along to help carry the cost. He is just holding his place in line at this time.
Utah loses
Golden State loses
Lakers losing to the Raptors at home (hahahahahahahaha)
Portland destroys San Antonio
Portland isn’t out of the race yet.
Which is another 11th hour arena deal. NBA hates 11th hours stuff.
Maybe. Maybe not. They might just give them the benefit of the doubt if it appears solid if they would rather not move the team. If the BOG feels confident the arena will be built, I think that’s all they would need if they were so inclined.
I’m not saying any of this is even likely, I just think the assumption that Sac needs to have an approved arena plan by April 3rd is baseless. There’s nothing to back that up. It might not even be the case for the 19th, so long as it appears the approval of the arena plan is imminent. We don’t need to pin our hopes on the state of their building.
I thought McCann on twitter said right before the all star break that it takes 3-5 weeks to vet an offer/plan?
I’m not sure how likely it is that there’s financial reasoning to try to bring a team back to Sac if the Kings leave, but I do think Burkle is positioned to be there for the long haul to be a part of that. The question is if he’s positioning himself for that reason. Is he only on the arena side of things due to his attempts to buy AEG? To remove the Maloofs’ hatred for him as a factor? Or to be a partner in developing downtown Sac, getting gifted land, subsidies, etc. and potentially be a part of an NBA revival there? Who knows. I still am skeptical that the prospect of the NBA in Sac is worth actively being a placeholder there.
I question is said arena plan even approved soild enough. And I mean from the funding perspective.
Question since burkle owns Pittsburgh NHL team (don’t know if he’s majority or minority owner) assuming he is majority owner of the NHL team, can he be majority owner of another pro team in another league?
in another city.
They already vetted the parking funding for the railyards proposal last year. If that’s the heart of their plan, I’m sure the NBA would feel comfortable with it.
I think the real problem with their arena is going to be just how much public money these guys are looking for. It sounds like they already were expecting more, the city doesn’t want to do that, and now add into the mix that the NBA just scoffed at Mastrov’s bid. So now the ownership group is on the hook to raise even more money to buy the team, bet they want some help with that one way or another.
Exactly my point earlier - Stern is giving them another shot. Stern’s comments always have motive. Stern should have kept his mouth shut.
Parking funding for an arena in the railroad site with the NBA involved in funding though. Now its at a different location. Is the NBA assuming that the parking funding will provide enough to the amount the city is providing? That’s the issue i have with it. NBA needs assurances rather its mention in plan or verbally that there will be no funding gaps.
Yep. Another bite at the apple. Darn!
*smacks his face*
Again they had the same chance than they did yesterday now they have two weeks left. If stern said nothing what stopping them from increasing the offer anyways.
You need to looking at what he did not say not what he said.
Good question. Not sure. Seems the owners who own both are all in the same city. I’d imagine it isn’t a problem, especially since I don’t believe any NHL team would count Sac as part of its market, and I’d imagine it’d have been brought up if it were an issue.
I wonder what the “other bullets” that Mitch said Hansen is holding onto might be….
Maybe they’re waiting for a certain hidden reluctant whale to finally commit and join the Pod.
They already vetted the parking funding for the railyards proposal last year. If that’s the heart of their plan, I’m sure the NBA would feel comfortable with it.
Actually, I’m not sure they ever found out how much they could actually get for their parking lease-out. And I don’t know if they could find out before April.
From another perspective to consider is the fact that NBA told sac that they need to increase their offer by apirl 3rd. By doing so they have taking away a wild card that Sacramento could have used right before April BOG meeting.
Thinks about if i was Sacramento and i bid low like mastrov did and was planning to increase offer when would be the right time to increase the offer?
The week of the BOG meeting.
Gotta side with Sean on a lot of this stuff. While we’re most likely in a much better position than we are not. There is A LOT of assumptions being made on this site. Just as there are complete opposite ones being made on Sac’s. There’s are a bit more delusional, IMO, as they’re going a lot farther out of their way to make their logic fit their agenda. But it’s still happening here too. 98% of this stuff is conjecture until otherwise decided upon. We only know a handful of facts. We got one new fact today. That the Sac offer (or not yet offer) isn’t big enough as of now. THAT’S ALL we know for now. Everything beyond that is an unknown. Not that the unknown can’t be a good chance of the way we want to see it. But until it’s decided, a good % of the reasoning on here is wishful thinking. Even if it’s likely to be proven correct. As of NOW, a good deal of the talk here is conjecture based and not fact driven. Maybe we should try to be a bit more objective and not just always assume everything is how we want to see it. Odds are it’s all a lot more near the middle of both sides (even if skewing our direction).
And to answer one question I keep seeing people dumbfounded over time and again. Some people can’t seem to understand why if this is close to a done deal for us, why the league would let this draw out the way it is. Seriously folks. Is it really that hard. You are the owner of the Seattle Suck Puppets professional backgammon team. You’ve agreed to sell the team to owners who are going to move the team to Opossum Rock, Alabama. But you’re still going to own the team the rest of the current season. Aren’t you doing everything you can to make it so you continue to get the local backgammon fans of Seattle to come to your matches? Or are you cool with losing millions of dollars the next couple months? I’m not saying it’s a done deal behind closed doors. But if it was, the Maloofs want as many Sac fans buying tickets from them as possible the next couple months. They want them thinking that them going to games is going to save the team. Why? Because it puts money in their pockets. You’ve already seen them give away the #5 pick in the draft to save a couple million bucks. And cut Aaron Brooks to save a bit extra. They want to put as much into their bank account as possible before they sell the team and leave town. And as current NBA owners, the NBA is going to do whatever it takes to accomidate them in this regard. We’ve said it a million times. The NBA owners are about the NBA owners making money. PERIOD. Again, I’m not saying it’s a done deal. I have no way of knowing. But if it is, or is a matter of time of being, there is absolutely zero way the NBA owners would sign off on killing the rest of the Kings and Maloofs season in terms of moneymaking. It’s beyond simple to understand. Can we please stop having people lose their minds whenever another twist in the road hits to prolong this soap opera? This is the way it was always going to go. Regardless the outcome.
I believe they did studies done that gave them confidence in what to expect the low end and high end would be, and the NBA had signed onto this plan. I’ve said numerous times I don’t have a lot of faith in the parking funding doing the trick and expect it to come in on the low end, but the NBA was ok with it THEN. I’m not trying to make Sac’s case for them, just trying to look at things differently as to not get overconfident in what the BOG is thinking.
I think if the new owners really push for more public funding it’s over. The parking plan is all Sac has, unless they have more city assets to just auction off. They’re broke, can’t borrow this money, and can’t possibly go into the general fund.
Stern didn’t make those comments in a vacuum. The Sac group would have already been told in private by Stern that it wasn’t enough. All Stern did was admonish them in public.
Stern is our PR guy now because nobody else in the deal is allowed to talk. If the same exact answers today came from someone else, like Hansen or the Maloofs, everyone would be jumping for joy.
He redirected the PR battle back to Sac needing to do more just to be in the conversation. Which is awesome considering comments from some of the national pundits this week.
Forbes currently has the Kings valued at 525 million dollars, wonder what they know? Nothing competitive is going to cut it, 525 will get you considered, 526 might get them the team.
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mli45likg/11-sacramento-kings/
BTW…Love Squatch, but Weedle 1-1, Sqautch 0-1….just sayin….
I doubt 526 will get the kings to stay put.
Indeed its one thing to tell them privately but do it publicly ouch.
Question though wouldn’t a change of site make a significant difference in questioning the parking funding to where it could still provide enough or not?
Especially with a quote like this “The [Sacramento] counterbid, if you can call it that”
Here’s what Neil deMause wrote last year about the deal the Maloof’s eventually backed out of:
Nothing that I can see, though, on precisely how the $9 million in future lost city parking revenues would be made up (the Bee helpfully suggests “ticket surcharges, taxes generated by the arena, the city’s anticipated share of arena profits and” — wait for it — “other sources”), or, for that matter, how the city expects to get $230 million from selling parking revenues that won’t include anything on Kings game nights (since the Kings will get those) and will be reduced on other arena event nights (since the city is counting on a cut of that to help repay the $9 million a year). “City staffers are still wrestling with exactly how to make the parking plan pencil out,” writes the Bee.
In all, the term sheet reads like exactly what it is: a half-finished framework for a deal that was cobbled together in order to make an arbitrary deadline, with the hopes that all the blanks can get filled in later. The biggest question mark, really, is those parking revenues: If the city can really find a buyer (or a bank willing to loan with the parking money as collateral) who’ll pay top dollar for lots with arena event nights carved out, then the deal should work — not necessarily work in a way that’s good for Sacramento’s treasury overall, but at least the numbers will match up. If not, we could see this thing explode spectacularly over the next few months, with the requisite resulting scramble for dollars to fill in the gap, and probably renewed threats of moving to Seattle and such. It’s never over until it’s over.
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2012/03/02/3334/secrets-of-the-sacramento-kings-arena-term-sheet/
Michael McCann @McCannSportsLaw
@NCruz916 OTOH, Mastrov knows he has to roughly match Hansen to have chance to get 8 votes. Why begin w/low offer with BOG voters watching?
Who are you going to replace Cousins with? Honestly - part of me feels like we shouldn’t do anything too drastic this draft to the team. Cousins is a legit 20/10 guy with size and athleticism. Tyreke, Thornton and IT all have their moments too. I feel like if you can deepen the roster a little bit and get a competent owner to hire a competent GM and find a competent coach, you can get more out of this roster than they’re getting right now. The whole franchise is a mess and needs restructuring, but that should start at the top.
Wild card imo Start blow then bam increase it right before they vote to get the BOG voters to have second thoughts.
Good info and good points.
Again, I’m not defending the parking mechanism, I think it’s limited and all around a bad move. I’m just questioning how much vetting the BOG would really require on it, since it has been vetted to some degree already. I don’t think this is what will be a key factor in this whole thing.
And I agree with what EJ said, except we maybe know 2 new things now: 1. The Sac offer was considerably lower than the Hansen offer AND 2. There will now be a meeting regarding the bids and the committees on April 3rd.
Only some leagues have rules that their owners can’t own another pro franchise in another league. Paul Allen owns the Blazers and Seahawks, for an easy example.
Here’s what Aldridge wrote earlier this week:
Other city officials are proceeding cautiously. They are letting Mastrov and Burkle produce estimates of how much the arena will cost.
“The situation is a little different this time than a year ago,” City Manager John Shirey said by telephone Sunday. “This group is really interested in building at Downtown Plaza rather than the Railyards. We’re trying to be agnostic where the location is, but we’re certainly very interested in putting the arena at Downtown Plaza. That gets us revenue sooner than at the Railyards. That was a tight fit because of the Intermodal transportation system we’re building there as well. We’re not really trying to estimate the cost of the arena. We’ve left that up to them, to use their consultants. We have been told that they think the costs are very comparable to our estimates of putting the arena in the Railyards.”
The city has hired the same parking consultant it used last year when trying to determine how much revenue would be raised by selling the parking lots and spaces, Shirey said. That consultant is expected to produce a report to the city in about a week, and the city’s investment bankers will then estimate how much money the city could make from selling the parking. But Shirey is making no assumptions about revenues.
“We’re starting from scratch,” Shirey said.
And Shirey is clear that Mastrov and Burkle will have to make up the difference for any shortfall in revenue if the sale of the lots doesn’t produce the expected revenues.
“The way we’re approaching this is we only have so many resources we can commit to this project, and that’s it,” Shirey said. “Whatever is possible is possible, and then the overage has to be absorbed by the other side, and that includes them acting as the developer of the arena, and they have to be responsible for any cost overruns.”
Everyone isn’t so sure about that $255 million city contribution, though.
City Council member Kevin McCarty is skeptical that the planned sale can generate that much money, and that the city will be adequately protected from having to cover cost overruns if it doesn’t.
In a letter to Shirey last month, McCarty cited the proposed construction of a new arena for the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco, due to open in 2017, that will be financed completely privately. Even the Seattle arena site, McCarty wrote, will require only a 40 percent public subsidy from citizens. The $255 million figure cited last year would represent 65 percent of the total cost of the originally proposed $391 million building.
“I oppose the outline of the Mastrov/Burkle plan since it includes a massive public subsidy of more than $250 million, thus mortgaging our city’s future,” McCarty said in an e-mail Sunday afternoon.
The Downtown Plaza site would lose almost half of its current available parking spots with the construction of a new arena, putting into question exactly how much revenue the city could develop by selling the remaining spots.
Those kinds of questions are exactly the kind that the NBA digs into.
“The NBA always tests your assumptions — ‘How would it work? How much more money would you be able to put in?,’ ” said a former longtime team executive who had to try to sell the league on a new arena plan in recent years.
“‘Show us the model. How does it work? What revenues can you generate, based on your assumptions?’ They know all of those [projections], so don’t try to [bleep] us on your assumptions.”
Despite those concerns, Shirey believes the city can come up with enough specifics by the April 18 BOG meeting to satisfy the concerns of NBA owners.
“I feel pretty good we can do a term sheet by around the first of April and get that to City Council for consideration,” he said Sunday. “But it’s a term sheet. It won’t be the legal documents, which will be many, many pages. Those won’t be final until we do all our due diligence. Getting everything done by April is not realistic, but that’s where we were last year.”
http://www.nba.com/2013/news/features/david_aldridge/03/04/morning-tip-kings-relocation-nbpa-future-jrue-holiday-contract-tyson-chandler-qa/index.html?ls=nbahpsplit1
Cousins is always dragging his feet, rolling his eyes and the last to run back down the court. Whenever he is on the court his attitude brings everyone down. He’s lazy and arrogant. I’d say bring in a coach or GM that can tame him down but so far even through college no one has been able to do so. Cut your losses and move on
Yeah, but like you said, the BOG doesn’t care much for 11th hour stuff, especially blatantly premeditated publicity stunts like that. I think that move would prove fatal for Sac’s efforts.
Well until we know what city will actually provide parking funding plan could still need to be revetted.
It may not need more vetting if the offer is the same or less than last time but if its more then one would have to take another look at the parking funding if it will provide enough to cover it.
I sort of think they might be better off just raising taxes to pay for the arena. They don’t know how much they can really get for leasing out their parking (I guess it would depend partly on whatever arena and lease deal they agree upon with Mastrov/Burkle) or how they’re going to make up the gap in their general fund.
You only need to have 8 to have second thoughts though hence where that wild card of increase offer could work. But Sacramento no longer has that specific wild card which works in our advantage.
City did say they would protect the public. So raising taxes is out.
City did say they would protect the public. So raising taxes is out.
But leasing out the parking takes $9 million out of their general fund right? You could argue that’s even worse than raising taxes.
Yes. i question if they have a legit plan to cover that difference in general fund.
Tonight didn’t tell me enough to get much out of it, other than the kings get multiple bids, while ours is sealed, and done without the ability to match, or beat their new offer. Meh.
It told us enough by what stern did not say he never gave us a figure $ on the gap that needs to be closed for them to be considered.
Instead of Sacramento having till April 19th to close that gap they have until April 3rd.
Stern knows how big that gap is and probably has a general idea if they can close that gap or not why else set a April 3rd deadline.
Honestly, this press conference makes me nervous. Stern made two things pretty clear: (1) it is important for Sacramento to increase its offer; and (2) he expects and has reason to believe that Sacramento will increase its offer. Obviously he still hasn’t given us any indication as to what will happen if the two offers are equal, but reading between the lines of his comments today, I sure get the impression that he wants Sacramento to succeed.
I wish I could hibernate until April 18.
Even if somehow they were able to beat Hansen deal there are other considerations. Such as the relocation fee. Hansen and Balmer don’t have to put more money into the Maloof’s pocket to get votes. That could be why the leaked relocation fee seemed so high.
I wonder since KJ couldnt see the PSA Hansen has with the Maloofs they made the low ball offer because of the loan to the city and they were hoping that was involved.
They have A LOT of work to do in 25 days to even be considered.
I will say one thing though. If they do come up with a bid that is comparable we should have a chance to up the offer. If they get 2nd chances after their self imposed deadline then we should be able to up our bid. Now of course Stern isnt fair but we shall see.
Still think he is playing Sacramento because of how bad the Seattle situation went for the league in terms of bad PR. Especially when a little movie called ‘Sonicsgate’ came out. ;)
If I am a Kings fan, that clip breaks my heart. The evaluation that Hansen and Maloofs arrived at is the evaluation of the team. They can’t bid anything less than that. And Stern made it very clear that the debt wasn’t going to be factor. So Sacramento needs to match this thing dollar for dollar.
And oh yeah… lets see the arena plan, too.
So they need to pay big market bucks to keep a team in a small market.
They need move forward an arena plan without raising taxes.
And if they do both those things, the team still might move if the owners think it’s in their best interest to have a team in a bigger TV market and want to receive the relocation cash.
Too bad Hansen couldnt just have wrote a provision that said that his own financial input goes up 15% if someone matches up to lets say 700 million (valuation). Too bad….oh wait he maybe could have ;)
Sure and screw seattle again? He still gonna be blamed for giving seattle the shaft again no matter how he tried to point the fingers at the BOG.
We all understand MaGoof’s rationale of keeping paying cheeks in the seats. Money.
The question is why in the h*ll is Stern opening his big mouth about Mastrov’s low bid not worthy of consideration. There is a motive - - Stern always has a motive. Stern has publicly outed Sac on their low bid giving them an opportunity to re-group and re-bid.
Perhaps the Sac Group has a reluctant hidden Whale. Stern’s comments forces that Whale to commit. That’s the concern.
Except for the PR nightmare of relocating a team,most certainly every arrow points to Seattle for many re-hashed reasons posted here. But, it’s Stern’s very public comments that have you asking - - - Why ? His words always have an agenda.
technically we don’t need to increase the offer to the maloofs. We have 1 wild card we can use and that’s offer a unprecedented amount for a relocation fee hence the rumor of that 75m. Sacramento does not have that advantage.
The good news is he stepped up the deadline. If Sacramento does not have their arena plan ready and a matching offer in terms of dollars by the 3rd, it will be leaked that they are out of the running. So we have a shot of not having to wait all the way to the 18th.
Stern likes to blame others for the failures of teams in a city. A week after KJ said a bid was submitted to the NBA, Stern has come out and said it wasn’t worthy.
Sounds more like him pushing back on Sac and less him outing any wales.
You are right that he has an agenda. I just think his agenda is making sure the blame falls on KJ and Sacremento, not the NBA.
Is there a way to have an escalator clause in a contract between a buyer and seller. Pretty much saying that if someone else matches that the original buyer (Hansen) and his offer just increases by ‘X’ amount until the reach a ceiling on that?
If Stern’s shenanigans don’t piss off Team Hansen then my conspiracy theory from many weeks back looks good and Hansen is in on the plan to get something done in Sactown with rewards later.
Kings are not worth $525 in Sacramento
Down the street, Golden State sold for $450. SF/Oakland metro area has a population on 7 million, multiple Fortune 500′s. Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto has a tick over 2 million, 0 Fortune 500′s
Again, Kings are not worth $525 in Sacramento. No smart business person will put down that much, this isn’t a charity
And for context SEA us around 4 million
Like i said by stern saying what he said Sacramento has 1 less wild card to use by forcing a deadline Sacramento can’t wait till the 11th hour to use that wild card by increasing the offer and causing 8 BOG members to have second thoughts.
You need to consider that what he is not saying can very well outweigh what he is saying.
The offer was not really much of an offer okay so why is that? How much did sac offer? And could they fill that cap to where Stern would call it a significant offer in time?
And what, 8 Fortune 500′s?
Follow the money
We also don’t have a 65% illiteracy rate……
Sac is desperate so don’t count them out doing something even if that means ticking BOG voters off.
I have been in on this conspiracy theory from the day the sale was announced. I know the “E” word is forbidden here, but knowing Stern’s conniving ways, this seems like the perfect scheme to cement his legacy.
Not his call regarding “e” word.
Plus why tap yourself out and not have any money left over to run the team properly?
Exactly. NBA knows what kind of finical capabilities mastrov can provide.
If NBA knows that they can’t increase offer then this would be something i can see them say in public to sacramento regarding their offer.
If they can increase the offer and the NBA knows they can then why call them out them out in the public though?
If they can increase the offer they can counter and call out stern saying they can and here’s their new offer in public making stern look like a fool.
My point is - - - why announce now ? Stern could have accomplished the same thing by staying quiet and publicly announcing that the NBA rec’d Sac’s offer and will be fairly considering both bids. After the April vote, then he could announce that Sac’s offer was short of the Hansen bid. He would have accomplished the same thing. NBA is clean and the blame to fall on Sac. The point is - - - Why publicly announce the Sac bid is short now ? What was his agenda ?
It better not be to help Sac and leave us empty handed…
My point is – - – why announce now ? Stern could have accomplished the same thing by staying quiet and publicly announcing that the NBA rec’d Sac’s offer and will be fairly considering both bids. After the April vote, then he could announce that Sac’s offer was short of the Hansen bid. He would have accomplished the same thing. NBA is clean and the blame to fall on Sac. The point is – - – Why publicly announce the Sac bid is short now ? What was his agenda ?
If the bid was so low that it didn’t even merit consideration, why wouldn’t he say so? I understand the suspicion of Stern, and I share it, but I actually don’t understand why people are so paranoid about him saying that the Mastrov bid wasn’t good enough. I suppose he could have waited until April to say so, but that would suggest that the fix was in for Hansen/Ballmer.
The bigger question to me is why the Mastrov was bid so low to begin with, especially with all the “fair and competitive” talk. They presumably had an idea of what the Hansen/Ballmer bid was. It was in the papers and all.
Good question. maybe he wants the Kings to stay.
Not sure if anyone has noticed but over on the King5 website they have put the Supes back up under the list of our pro-sports teams. They’re listing the Kings box scores and of course all the recent news…
http://www.king5.com/sports/sonics
Because it was the first time he has had a public appearance since March 1st. Because Hansen asked him to. Because it is the truth.
I don’t know why but I don’t see how you can jump to it meaning that he is giving them another chance that didn’t exist before. Nothing Stern said would be news to anyone in the know. Mitch has been hinting this all week.
This is bogus, though. The only close stat I could find regarding literacy was that only 63% of Sacramento third graders are reading at a third grade level. In Seattle that number is 66%. Seattle regularly ranks as one of the most literate cities, and I’ve seen Sacramento ranked fairly low in certain studies (saw them ranked 45th in one), but an illiteracy rate of 65% would put them below Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia in literacy. I have a feeling this statistic has been misinterpreted or pulled out of thin air.
KJ’s interview here:
http://www.news10.net/video/2213413277001/1/EXTENDED-Kevin-Johnson-talks-about-Sterns-comment
One thing I find a little misleading or illegal (if actually followed thru upon) is that KJ said that it is up to the negotiations between the Matsrov group and the Maloofs….WTF? Isnt this not supposed to happen, meaning actual dialogue bewteen both parties, unless the Hansen and Ballmer bid was declined.
Why would waiting until April be “the fix” for Hansen/Ballmer ? Sorry - don’t follow your reasoning at all on that one. Real simple: Stern states we’ve rec’d 2 offers and will give them fair consideration and vote.
I think this is a sign to start doing game threads. haha
So maybe the question is: Who has the real power here ? The owners or the NBA? I agree - WTF - Mastov and MaGoof’s negotiating? Talk about interference !! Normal business logic would dictate - Hansen group would have to be rejected for a legitimate reason before a Mastrov/MaGoof negotiation. Talk about ugly litigation. Ouch - Get your checkbooks out boys. But - then again, it’s not a publicly traded company. NBA is privately held and can probably do anything they want.
Maybe I phrased it poorly. I don’t know if Stern is favoring either side or neutral. But I just don’t find it suspicious that he would say (either publicly or privately) that the Sacramento bid isn’t yet good enough for consideration. Some may find it unfair to us that they get a chance at a do-over, but I would actually find it unfair if come April he announced the decision in favor of Seattle and said to Sacto, “Oh, that bid you submitted a month ago? It was so weak we didn’t even give it a second look. Sorry we didn’t get back to you on that.”
I’m more puzzled by the fact that it was so low in the first place, or that Burkle/Mastrov had to be told that. If there’s some strategy behind it, I don’t see it. The longer they take to submit a serious bid, the less time there is for the NBA to compare it with the Seattle group’s.
But again, I don’t trust Stern either. He’s historically showed favoritism towards Sacramento and the opposite towards Seattle. We’ll see.
Because if you say you’re going to give them a chance, and you know that their position as it is right now has no chance, you’re not going to wait a month and a half to spring it on them. Sitting on the proposal is disingenuous.
How do you figure? We’ve gotten no indication that Hansen wouldn’t have the ability to make a counter-offer if it got to that point.
Sarcasm? Ok - go for it. In following Stern over the years - Stern’s careful dialogue has agenda and purpose. In this case - just not sure what it is.
First time posting here. I read some comments off of ESPN that if the team defaults on the loan from Sacramento to the Kings, then Sacramento gets SleepTrain. If this is true, then I think the debt really is a non-issue.
So after jumping for joy, telling everyone that they’re back in it and will certainly win with this bid, KJ and his pals are being told publicly that they should either up their bid or be ready to get laughed at by the BOG.
It will be interesting to see what they’re doing now, as they’ve got to up their bid by a lot, it seems, with no one knowing if they’re able to do so.
I do think it is Stern giving them another chance to get something done before the BOG meeting, to at least be looked at, but we sure don’t know what it really is.
Probalby Stern/NBA just saw that there wasn’t much new to talk about for both fan groups and therefore decided to add another spin, so that we’re all able to talk some stuff for the next couple of weeks….:lol:
I also don’t understand the logic from a few that Stern gave Sacramento another chance today. He said nothing at today’s press conference that he wouldn’t have told Mastrov privately. If anything, he gave them less of a chance by unofficially moving up the deadline by two weeks. What today told me is that Sacramento just can’t find a group willing to compete with Hansen’s offer in their market. It makes no sense, at this very late date, for their investor group to low ball their original offer from any kind of strategic perspective.
Ok - KJ/Sac/Mastrov know the Hansen bid valuation probably better than us & the world at large already knows. So it would follow Mastrov/KJ/Sac know their bid is considerably short. There is no “spring it on them.”. Nothing disingenuous about it.
Per Mitch, thus far, MaGoof’s have always paid the interest debt on time - never missed a payment.
Depends on the league. The NFL won’t allow an owner to own a football team and a team in another league if that city also has an NFL team (example: Sonics and Broncos). They can own a team in a city that doesn’t have an NFL team (like Paul Allen with the Hawks and Blazers) or an NFL team and a team from another league in the same city (Tom Benson with the Saints and Hornets). I don’t think the NBA or NHL have a rule like that, but I don’t know for sure either.
KJ/Mastrov/Sac already knew this. Hansen Group bid has been known publicly since January. There is no surprise. As many have stated here, KJ is very NBA connected. KJ/Mastrov had to know publicly and thru their connections that the Sac bid was short and wouldn’t be taken seriously. Again, what was the point ?
That’s the worrisome part, we don’t know. Either this is all some master strategy that keeps the Kings where the are, or they are shockingly bumbling, or they’re saving face and positioning for the future, or they’re naive, or they’re being lied to by people they trust, or… We have absolutely no idea, and will probably never know. Of course, if everything goes our way we also won’t care that much.
They were offering low because they didnt know if the loan was part of the deal. Thats why I think it seriously may be 100 million or less because of the loean. Who knows it may even be more. They went low hoping that the loan was apart of the Mastrov deal. The chances werent that great but they probably figured it was worth a shot. This was a way to find out because Hansen wasnt going to tell them or the Maloofs. This is the way they found out what it takes to play. Wouldve been nice to be sitting next to Mastrov at the game tonight to over hear the “animated” conversation.
Wouldnt it be funny if it came out that they actually offered like 330 million on the Mastrov end thinking it was a great bid for a team in Sacramento market. Just to ind out that everyone has had it wrong that the 525 valuation isnt the franchise valuation but the valuation on the 65%. I mean that isnt the case but in the end if that was the actual number and these guys were chasing 341 would just be funny to me. Especially with KJs smugness.
Remember guys KJ always was a good player…but he wasnt very clutch down the stretch. I almost wonder if this was a negotiation ploy by Mastrov and Burkle as well. Maybe they are going to tell the city that they need to significantly up the city contribution if they are going to bridge the gap on buying the team, to make it fiscally responsible for them in the Sactown market.
Anybody trying to spin this as something other than positive news or us is just being a pessimist IMO. Its not like the bid is 15 million off or something. For Stern to pretty much say the BoG wont even look at it at this point probably means its anywhere rom 75-125 million short.
Remember that Mastrov made what he thought a strong bid on the Warriors that had a valuation of 75 million less than the Kings. That was also in a much stronger or in Seattle’s case equivalent market. If Mastrov couldnt win then its doubtful he will now. Honestly Mastrov may be tapped out and its up to Burkle to bridge the gap.
I still wonder if Hansen and the Maloofs couldve came up with an escalator clause based on outside circumstances like someone going to the NBA with a close bid like what Sacramento is attempting. I seriously think Chris would try and find a way to do so Just in case after his 30 million investment on the team and all the other time, money, effort already invested. Hansen and Ballmer are all -in on this deal so I wouldnt be suprised by anything they may or may not have done.
WIth all that we know as of today I would be extremely suprised if we dont have a team for next season namely the only one we have an agreement to buy and relocate (pending BoG approval). Also the sentiment that Hansen is locked in and cant change anything or control anything from a financial standpoint is cow manure.
Sacramento is spouting that right now and that simply isnt true. I dont know if he can change the amount he is paying for the purchase but he certainly can choose to offer e high relo fee or other variables that may come into play.
With their backs against the wall even if they get to the point of consideration they will have nowhere near the preparation that Hansen and Ballmer will have for their respective pitches come April 3rd.
I will say this that if we get past April 3rd w/out hearing very bad things or even the doubtfl concession then we are probably golden. I truly believe that we will know around April 5th
Well, Sac fans are saying the Hansen bid is “sealed”, which I believe Stern did say, however they are taking that as like..”signed sealed delivered”. Or like a coat of sealant has been put over it shielding it from all change.
What Stern likely meant with the word “sealed” was, you don’t get to know how much it is. You don’t get the specifics. Basically Sac can submit bids and it appears the most Stern can do is tell them if they’re hot or cold, like he did today.
the amount of delusion going on over at STR is reaching epic levels. the majority of them are saying this was a really positive turn of events. hilarious.
Well, that’s something(them knowing about the bid) you could debate forever.
It just depends what angle you take on it.
You could say they’re trying to save face and be the heros in SAC, while knowing they’ve got no shot at keeping the team.
You could also say they just offered a certain amount to see if they’re close to give their real proposal on April 3rd, knowing better what kind of numbers the league requires for it to have a chance.
Or you could just mumble on about 30,000 other angles…
I honestly can’t take anything that comes out of Sacramento seriously anymore.
They pretty much held a parade last Thursday and KJ told everyone that it’s game over for Seattle, given that offer.
He also talked about a “fair and competitive offer”, only to one week later be told in public by the commissioner that his offer wasn’t even worth looking at.
Given all thos things, I expect 3,5 weeks of “positive” news out of Sacramento(till April 3rd) and a bid + some rushed Arena stuff they’ll once again celebrate as the game changing and franchise saving moves.
During that time, you’ll also have their guys talk Sacramentos stuff up, while trying to belittle Seattle’s arena plans during the process and loads of discussion on this blog about stuff that won’t matter in the end.
Given their judgement so far, I just can’t see them offering something that compares to our efforts and therefore changing the minds of the BOG, who so far would be voting 30-0 on the sale to Hansen/Ballmer and relocation to Seattle.
Though, should be a fun ride till the BOG meetings…
To answer questions about how the parking sell off should work from the last proposal and some of the changes:
They have some parking consultant company analyzing things like number of spaces and expected usage etc, that they can use to establish a minimum starting point. They did this last time and set the minimum at $180 million. They solicited bids on the parking and weeded out offers lower than that minimum valuation. Then they had those people start getting the formal bids in and the thing fell apart. Now they have to redo that entire process as they have said they are reevaluating the valuation. The entire timeline for that was about 3 months for the official first bid part, and then 6 months for negotiating the final terms with whoever they selected. Then all the votes and whatnot. This is all from the projections and FAQs on the old ESC website they have. So basically, they are at step 1 and have at least 9 months if they run off of the fast end of the previous timeline. That stuff from Field of Schemes was new to me and would further complicate the valuation I would think.
I don’t think that this stuff is some grand conspiracy as some suggest or that Stern is giving Sac a second chance. Their group knew they lowballed the offer, even with or without the loan issue (but at least that has been laid to rest again), and they were already told of this. Why not answer the questions about it and say they aren’t in the same league? They can go back to the drawing board but now they have to up the offer and further leverage what they can contribute. This also would play into the angle that Sac was given every opportunity to match but just couldn’t do it. It also helps to solidify the idea that a franchise at this valuation cannot survive in Sacramento or at least is extremely unlikely/unpalatable
Also, it seems that ever press conference Stern has he seems to knock down the popular talking points that people use as hope to keep the team. At the ASG ROFR was pretty much shot down, and now any talk about the loan or debt figuring into the sale is pretty much gone. I think Stern is pretty adept at pointing to the things that matter, in this case how much has been put in place (or so it seems).
It is also funny that on the Times article about Hansen’s hedge fund reporting a big loss that the comments are all from the same anti-arena trolls. I am no expert on investments, but I think it is par for the course when dealing with high risk circumstances.
Guess I don’t understand the 525 number then. They been lying to us about the number? And in a bid fora team, there shouldn’t be any hinting whatsoever. Hansens number should not have never been known if there was any indication that there would be an offer from sac.
It’s either a bidding war, or you stfu about the bidding all toghether.
I think Stern is basically saying put in a bid and it really isn’t going to matter. But maybe I am just wishfully thinking on that one. Basically what has been said already with wanting fans to keep paying up until the end. Perception really is important. Either way, it was pretty shocking to hear that the bid isn’t even being considered as is.
Also when reading Stern’s “I have an expectation, a hope, that the variance will be eliminated by the time the owners give it consideration,” does anyone read this as saying that for it be considered he expects the offer needs to be increased or that he believes that Mastrov actually will increase the offer? I am reading it the first way, but as always Stern always speaks with many layers in what he says.
I’m not really buying that keeping fans paying until the end argument.
They pretty much had two lame duck seasons in Seattle and didn’t rally care about that. Therefore, a couple games are certainly not going to make a difference on that front.
Anyways, we don’t really know what it means and the only thing I’ll take from Sterns comments are that
1) SAC’s fair and competitive offer(the one KJ said was a game changer and held a parade on) isn’t even close to being considered by the BOG
2) SAC needs to up their offer substantially, for it to be even looked at when no one knows where that money should come from
3) He expects there to be some kind of a better bid till March 3rd
4) As of right now, the BOG will vote pro Seattle on the sale and relocation, as there’s nothing else to consider
Of course #3 is something that one could worry about, but Stern also said at the ASG press conference that he expected KJ to present a competitive offer and arena plan by March 1st and that didn’t happen. At least not to the liking of the owners.
I think the whole expectation part that Stern said was actually that he expects the “bid” to be upped if it even needs to be considered, not that he expects them to actually increase the offer. I could be wrong on that though. Either way, it looks like Sac is even more up against the wall than before and we have a little less time to wait to at least get an idea of how the chips may fall (although I doubt we know one way or another until the 19th).
Well, again, it’s just how you look at things and what you actually think the “bid” includes.
Of course he gave them another, last, ulitimatum and told them to either up their bid or don’t bother talking to the BOG anymore.
We’ll see what happens, but of course there’ll be more than three weeks of talking, debating tweets and what not till then…
From where we’re sitting, if I’m Hansen/Balmer, I’m really pissed at how all this is going down. The amount of time, money and effort they’ve put into this is amazing. They have a signed purchase agreement and have even put a non-refundable down payment down. And here we have Stern calling it “the Seattle bid”, then goes on to say “but this isn’t an auction.” Umm if you have a bid, and a counter bid, isn’t that an auction?
Stern is not an idiot. He knows he can’t burn Hansen’s bridge. To us sitting on our couches at home this process seems like a joke, but behind the scenes this is likely all calculated. Stern knows that if this plays out and Hansen doesn’t end up with a team that either this is going to happen all over again in a different market or he may risk losing this ownership group forever. Additionally any other prospective buyer of a team in the future will have a really hard time getting overly invested if the league can come in and force a sale to a different person.
This is all theater IMO. Stern, Hansen, KJ, Mastrov all know how this is going to play out. They have a script they need to follow to cover everyone on the PR side, but at the end of the day, the ramifications of Hansen coming away with nothing as well as the fallout with future team sales are just to hugely negative for the league.
My reaction to this last night was a little fearful because I was completely confused why Stern would basically tell Sacramento to increase their bid and I took it as Stern again, showing bizarre care towards to Sacramento when Seattle got zilch. We’ve got plans, we’re through design committee, we made a thorough and professional offer. Hansen, I would guess, has spent probably about $50 to $75 million at least so far to get to this point (including the $30 million to the Maloofs). To know David Stern “shrugged” about the $30 million when asked about it last night is really sick to me.
25 days is plenty of time for Sacramento to get competitive. It’s all about getting the Maloof’s equal money to how much they net from Hansen and making sure the $$ happen quickly and immediately. I don’t think Stern (who will tell the owners how they should vote, that I know) really cares about Seattle or how far along we are, to me, he just gave Sacramento 25 days to play “grown-up, big boy” with their bid/proposal and he would give them another shot.
I’m with Mitch Levy, I have no idea where this is heading now because Stern is just too powerful in my opinion and the BOG will do what he tells them to do.
Oh, and the video clip from King5 wasn’t the full clip. A reporter specifically asked David Stern if the $30 million made any difference or would be a factor and David Stern basically said, “no.” — I noticed the below information was picked up on other websites and didn’t make it to the King5 reel.
My overall feeling is that Stern is slowly and respectfully closing the door on Sacramento. I think at the end of the day the NBA realizes that post economic collapse that Sacramento is no longer a viable NBA city. Despite having an agreement in principle on an arena last year I don’t think they every believed it would get done. I think the NBA has known for a while that it was over in Sacramento. I could be wrong but it just seems the writing is on the wall. Sad because if the Kings leave I don’t think they get a team for a while if ever. I think Kansas City, Louisville, Vancouver and Pittsburgh are ahead of Sacramento for a franchise in the future.
I think this is all theatre on the part of KJ, the Whales and Stern the Conductor. I’m feeling very good about the Sonics return, but Art Thiel scares me.
We don’t know what is being said behind closed doors. Mitch knew the number was low while Stern made it sound like it wasn’t even worth sending to the BOG. So how did Mitch find out?
If Mitch found out from his Balmer/Hansen connections then that means they were given information on the bid. Maybe they even had a great laugh about it.
We don’t know what is being said on these phone calls from Hansen to Stern. We do know that they are in contact often.
25 days is not plenty of time at all. In fact, it’s very little time. It’s going to be nearly impossible for Sacramento to put together a competitive iron clad proposal (bid + arena) in that time frame.
The highest I have ever seen of Mastrov’s wealth is $350M. So unless he has his own whale or a couple hundred smaller investors, there isn’t a way he can make it to $525M. And that may be what he has up his sleeve. He may have his own whale who wanted to lowball and if it didn’t work, then up goes the bid. I think that could happen.
I just am not going to invest any more than I have in this until it is over. I will talk about it as if it is a maybe so that if the NBA spurns the Hansen group and Seattle (one more time), it will be very sad and I will feel really bad for the members of the Hansen group that they were used by the NBA to squeeze more money out of Mastrov . . . but I am not going invest any more emotion into it.
I don’t care if the NBA is still playing games nor if the draft is coming. Just won’t go that far.
The $525m number got floated out before the deal was announced as signed and what not, probably before the deal was actually signed, submitted, and sealed (just as there is a gag order on the owners from the NBA). This isn’t a bidding war, at least not officially, so no parties have a right to see the Hansen offer.
Also, we don’t know what the $525m valuation is based on. Is that the valuation of the franchise in a vacuum? Like is that what the team is worth before you factor in its liabilities? Or is that the enterprise value, which would factor in all of the credits and liabilities before coming to that number? There’s a lot we don’t know, which works to Hansen’s advantage here.
Ummmmmmmmm…………More money to offer if needed. That’s my pure speculation.
catdawg, the team staying in Sac through the whole Anaheim ordeal had nothing to do with Stern wanting to keep the team in place, it had to do with the Maloofs running into the immovable force that is the LA market teams saying ‘hell no’. If you just mean last year’s arena effort…Stern didn’t ‘allow’ them to stay, there was no threat to move at that point. I think you’re reading too much into what Stern is saying here. The hurdle the Maloofs put in the way he talked about could very well just be the signed agreement, making it impossible for the NBA to communicate an actual dollar figure to Sac groups. I don’t know, maybe Stern holds a grudge against Seattle and would prefer the team stay in Sac just for that reason, but the BOG isn’t going to care, they won’t let that even be a factor, and it’s even likely that Stern wouldn’t.
And 25 days is not a lot of time to get anything done in terms of a solid arena plan. And if the money were there to put a bid as high as Chris’s in, why not do that from the get go? Sure maybe it wouldn’t have been exact, they don’t know every last term of the deal, but they weren’t even close. It’s plenty of time to scrounge up the money, but the money isn’t there. It’s not worth it to investors to go in that deep nor will the city be able to budge and put in another huge subsidy on top of their parking funding.
Okay, I guess you’re right. It’ll be that easy for the city to just throw another $50-60 million dollars at the problem. That won’t be hard at all, nor take any actual time to negotiate. You’re missing one very important point: last year the Maloofs still owned the team and were trying to make things work in Sacramento, so the NBA agreed to assist in the matter. This time they have a signed PSA with a group from Seattle, and have jointly filed for relocation with that group. I think a few people need to get over this idea that Stern is really, really rooting for Sacramento but doesn’t care for Seattle much. Those are just residual scars from 2008 talking. Stern cares about one thing, and that’s the owners’ bottom line, not their respective cities.
Why is this Mastrov guy the main one? I though the Burkle guy was the big wig, with more money than ballmer, or hansen, so why is he in the passenger seat?
That’s a good question, and its answer could prove to have been a big factor when all is said and done.
My 2 cents:
- Stern/NBA grew tired of the endless press conferences and talk of fair and competitive and decided to play their own PR game - striking down fair and competitive as DOA. Your move Sac.
- Stern/NBA knows you can’t make a $525 valuation work in a city like Sacramento, so this is their way of pushing the negative press back off of them by saying, look how forthright we were with Sacramento, we held a press conference in their backyard asking them to up their bid
- Everyone worried about Stern’s comments needs to chill. All he said was the offer needed to be comparable to “be considered”. That’s it. That consideration would include viability of market and ownership - advantage Seattle.
I have felt all along this thing is all but done. This news cemented that.
First step of KJ covering himself politically, IMO. Now its up to Mastrov, not the city (ignoring the minor detail of a missing arena deal).
First step in KJ
My guess is and I’m just guessing here, but Mastov has nothing to lose. He has no vested involvement with the NBA as of now, no endorsement issues, and no company he’s running that may be directly impacted by any kind of fallout from his and KJ’s bizarre behavior. Basically, Mastrov has nothing to lose. Burkle on the other hand, his whole AEG connection, owning an NHL team, building a strip mall or possibly a arena in Sacramento, and so on. Burkle could probably see that the Hansen/Ballmer deal is done too. So, my guess is, Burkle knows the deal will be approved and doesn’t want to tarnish his name by throwing out silly “bids” on something that’s no longer for sale, while Mastrov for all we know, he could be throwing his name out there for a potential Sacramento Mayor run. I don’t know, all speculation.
Anyways, I seriously think, even if Mastrov matches Hansens PSA(not a bid) and Sacramento comes up with palace for the Kings to play it, it’s all too late. matter of fact, it was too late almost two months ago, maybe even longer.
#20
I don’t want to put words at Brian’s fingertips but he has written things about Burkle before that sound like Burkle isn’t one to jump in.
Also, we don’t know how much Burkle actually cares about a team being in Sac other than he can get a nice payday by having an arena on his property. If he doesn’t really care about whether the team stays in Sac or not, it doesn’t make sense for him to overpay.
Apparently the maloofs will not sell to Burkle. Also he is about maximizing return on investment and he probably realizes his arena deal is where the return is not the team. Also he is worth about 5 times less than Balmer
Meant to finish by saying KJ covering himself politically - and if the arena becomes a problem he points the finger at the City Council not acting fast enough.
Guess I figured most owners don’t buy a team as a great investment, they do it because they can, and for prestige. “A rich toy” and status.
First, I am not buying the idea that the Burkle bid was low balled because they hoped to get a home town discount and felt they could raise the number later. They had no way of knowing Stern would disclose their bid was not competitive prior to April 18th. They had no way of knowing they would get another chance after the March 1 deadline. This isn’t consistent with the commitment KJ made to Stern.
Second, they delayed as long as possible before turning in their bid on February 28. They had problems / reservations all along with the franchise price in the Sactown market.
Third, there is no mention of their stadium deal which is also not comparable.
Finally, it they can match the Hansen bid they I an okay with them keeping the team. A city should be given an opportunity to retain their team.
Unfortunately, I think this game is over. Burkle is not going to risk his fortune on a basketball team. The Hansen group has a lot more whales enabling the investment to be spread and individual risk to be reduced.
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/08/david-stern-says-sacramento-group-needs-to-up-offer-for-kings/related/
They are still drinking the kool-aid. They really think the NBA is going to keep the team in Sac if they get the offer up. Stern had a chance to end this last night and didn’t. Maybe there is something to the fact that if they do come up with a offer then the NBA does expansion. Why else would he allow this to continue? KJ had his out already because the bid was low. The NBA could have kept the bid quiet and when the time came, could have said sorry your bid was low so we are taking Seattle. But they are giving them a chance and that is something I don’t really understand.
He gave them a deadline. You don’t give out deadlines like that if everything is fine. 25 days to come up with a lot more money is not an easy task.
Like i said they had the shame chance that they did last week now they have 2 weeks less to get it done. Stern is still saving face here by giving a deadline.
One thing that has definitely been revealed in the recent Stern episode. The bidding Sacramento ownership group has been vetted by the NBA and they have been accepted as viable bidders. They aren’t Seattle rich, but are NBA rich. Let’s get off this crazy train.
Did he say they were vetted? He called them “strong financial people” but also said they hadn’t even made an offer to put themselves into consideration. I don’t think we know for sure. The only things we can take as hard fact that’s not based even slightly on conjecture and speculation from last night are: 1) The Sacramento bid is significantly less than the Seattle bid, so much so that the owners would not even take the time to consider it further and 2) There is now a meeting on April 3rd.
Cruel and unusual punishment to promote the bidding. I hope this isn’t the case.
If not viable as NBA partners, this should have ended before it began.
I’m not saying they aren’t viable, in fact, I doubt that’s the case. I just don’t think we can take that they’ve gone through a vetting process from Stern’s comments.
I would think since Mastrov came close to purchasing the Warriors he has been vetted. The real question, since the beginning, is can those strong financial backers make the Hansen deal work in Sacramento just to give the NBA a decision to make? So far, the answer has been a resounding no.
“So you’re telling me there’s a chance.” - Lloyd Christmas/Sacto reacting to Stern’s comments
Sacto’s ‘bid’ and ‘arena plan’ are a disaster. It takes an intense, willful kind of myopia to see their hopes as anything but remote at best.