Seattle SuperSonics Thread

[thedeek]

Originally Posted by NikeTalker23

Originally Posted by VanAP

Vancouver Kings Please 

Ya aint even in the running for a WNBA team..

 

[dakid23]

Originally Posted by NikeTalker23

Originally Posted by 651akathePaul


Here's a link to the video I was referring to and an article written by that same reporter. Still don't know how to embed so forgive me.

http://www.king5.com/sports/Sonics-139070064.html

Please provide in detail anything new that was presented in either the article or the videos because I watched the videos and read the article and found nothing.
Like I said, inform yourself.

I feel bad for Seattle's residents because they are being fed false hope. 

Don't feel bad for us we'll get a NBA team 

.

 

[vanap]

Originally Posted by NikeTalker23

Originally Posted by VanAP

Vancouver Kings Please 

Ya aint even in the running for a WNBA team..

Haha I know 

... But with the NBA's popularity growing in China and Vancouver's good economy and growing population, it's honestly a good spot to bring back a team (Vancouver has a huge Asian population and many tourists from Asia for those who didn't know). And on a side note, I don't think these teams would ever relocate but, how are teams like Detroit, Atlanta and Indiana making any money? Every time I watch those teams games the arenas look about 20% full...

 

[651akathepaul]

Have the Maloofs already stated they would for sure throw their own money into this deal? I'm curious as to why they're so silent about everything right now and wonder how the them being in debt to the NBA plays into all of this.

 

[dakid23]

Originally Posted by VanAP

Originally Posted by NikeTalker23

VanAP wrote:

Vancouver Kings Please 

Ya aint even in the running for a WNBA team..

Haha I know 

... But with the NBA's popularity growing in China and Vancouver's good economy and growing population, it's honestly a good spot to bring back a team (Vancouver has a huge Asian population and many tourists from Asia for those who didn't know). And on a side note, I don't think these teams would ever relocate but, how are teams like Detroit, Atlanta and Indiana making any money? Every time I watch those teams games the arenas look about 20% full...



I hope Vancouver gets a team! Van City >>>> 75 % of American cities 
If Vancouver got the Kings + Seattle with the Hornets 

 

[bean pie slanga]

Originally Posted by 651akathePaul

Have the Maloofs already stated they would for sure throw their own money into this deal? I'm curious as to why they're so silent about everything right now and wonder how the them being in debt to the NBA plays into all of this.

As I understand it, the NBA would front the 80 mil and the Maloofs would pay back the lease over a 30-year period (3 mil/yr). It's a really good deal for them.

 

[651akathepaul]

How though? They're already in debt to the NBA, so borrowing more money can't possibly make it any better. I mean, right?

 

[Deleted member 38182]

Originally Posted by 651akathePaul

Have the Maloofs already stated they would for sure throw their own money into this deal? I'm curious as to why they're so silent about everything right now and wonder how the them being in debt to the NBA plays into all of this.

Yes that stated they would throw in their "fair share" meaning they know they will have to contribute to this

 

[pmatic]

David Aldridge:

Seattle's NBA dreams may come at Sacramento's expense

This is the week, of course, that Linsanity ran over the NBA.

So, of course, I will be writing about arenas, and city councils, and bond issues.

Good times!

Jeremy Lin's saga has dominated the league, and it is a great, great story. A lot of wonderful stories have been written about his unlikely, seemingly impossible, rise from an afterthought to a star, in the biggest place one can become a star. But there is business to be done on the west coast. There will be a reckoning, one way or the other, in the next three weeks, that will determine the fate of the Sacramento Kings and the city of Seattle.

I hate this.

People that I like are going to be hurt, one way or another: either good fans in what has been a great NBA town, Sacramento, or fans in Seattle whose team was ripped from their hearts, and now seek to do the same to someone else.

Four years after the Sonics left town, Seattle's again hoping that it will have a team, and soon. The issue, then as now, is a new arena. The Commish will not even have a meeting with you if you don't have a new arena in your back pocket. And Christopher Hansen, a hedge fund manager from San Francisco and a Seattle native, thinks he can get a building built in downtown Seattle. He's bought land in downtown, near where the NFL's Seahawks and MLB's Mariners play.

The reason Hansen's plan is relevant is that the Kings and the city of Sacramento have two and a half weeks to come up with their own plan for a new building in downtown Sacramento. If they can't reach agreement, the Kings would be a team without an arena, leaving the team's owners, the Maloof Family, with a hard decision: stay at Power Balance Pavilion, which can't produce enough revenue; sell, which the principal owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof, are dead set against, or move the team. Somewhere.

Hansen, as detailed by the Seattle Times earlier this month, has been engaged with Seattle's political leaders since early last year. His group's plan is to fully fund a new arena with private financing -- more than the $375 million it cost to build L.A.'s Staples Center, which opened in 1999, according to a source with knowledge of the group's plans. Keeping the financing private instead of seeking state or local funds will avoid the fiasco in Seattle last time, when the Sonics' attempts to finance a new building stalled before owner Clay Bennett moved the team to Oklahoma City in 2008. Bennett sought tax dollars to help finance a $500 million arena and entertainment complex in the Seattle suburbs, but that plan met with heavy resistance both in Seattle and with state legislators in Olympia.

This time, Hansen has enlisted the help of Seattle's mayor, Mike McGinn, who said last week that no city taxes would be used to finance a new arena, though there is local skepticism about that pledge.

"They are really engaged," the source said. "Doing all the things right that were done wrong previously ... it feels like this is a really well thought-out, really sophisticated plan."

Another source said the Hansen Group and the mayor's office are determined to avoid dealing with Frank Chopp, the House speaker in Olympia who was adamantly opposed to using any public funds for a new arena. The hope is not to have to go through Olympia "for funding, for blessing, for anything," this source said. Hansen will need the help of King County officials, some of whom were not helpful the last time around.

The Kings have enough local support in Sacramento. The problem is money. Where does the $400 million to build a new arena in Sacramento come from?

After the Maloofs nearly left town for Anaheim last year, the NBA gave Sacramento until March 1 to come up with a plan for a new arena to replace Power Balance (formerly ARCO Arena). The Kings had agreed to a deal with Anaheim where Henry Samueli, the owner of the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, would give the Kings $75 million in relocation money and for improvements to the Honda Center, where the Ducks play and where the Kings would have been a tenant.

But questions among NBA owners about the financing of the deal and whether Honda Center could generate enough revenues, combined with a powerful presentation by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson at the Board of Governors meeting, convinced the league to put off a final decision on the Kings until this year.

For Seattle, taking an existing team is the only option. There will be no expansion, now or in the foreseeable future. There aren't enough good players to go around for 30 teams; how on earth could you add two more (and it would have to be two, for the obvious logistical and conference balance reasons) to the mix? For Seattle to get a team means that some other city will have to lose its team. That doesn't necessarily have to mean Sacramento is that city, but with the clock ticking, that city is under the gun.

Two people involved in the process said the same thing independent of one another last week: Seattle is going forward with its arena plan whether or not the Kings become available next month. The idea is for the NBA to have no choice the next time a team is sold or is interested in moving; with a new building, Seattle folk believe their city will vault to the top of the relocation list, ahead of towns like Kansas City that already have NBA-ready arenas built. (Kansas City's Sprint Center was built by the arena-building arm of AEG, the mega-corporation run by billionaire Phillip Anschutz, who owns Staples Center and a share of the Lakers.) In this vein, Seattle views its opponent as Anaheim, not Sacramento.

Johnson has spent the last year trying to navigate the minefield of local and state politics in an attempt to put a deal together. Sacramento's latest -- last? -- plan is to pay for half of the $400 million through privatizing the city's garages, parking meters and parking enforcement. The city, according to the Sacramento Bee, may also sell existing property to help raise additional funds. On Tuesday, the city will lobby the city council to let it continue the process by formally opening discussions with 10 companies that have expressed interest in taking over the parking businesses. The city has received a Request For Qualification (RFQ) from the companies -- which determines their general interest in the project -- but wants to move forward with a Request For Proposal (RFP), which would get those companies to formally submit bids.

Sacramento's hopes were nearly derailed last week, when a proposal to table discussions on the arena in favor of putting the matter on the ballot for a special June election -- well after the NBA's March 1 deadline -- was defeated, but only by a narrow 5-4 vote of the council.

"I knew that as we got deeper into this we would be losing votes on the council," said Robert King Fong, a Council member representing Sacramento's Fourth District, and a supporter of the arena proposal, in a telephone interview Friday.

"I understand where people's politics are, and we're in an election year," he said. "My sense is that we've kind of gotten down to the nitty gritty on the vote. People knew that there were two no votes and to see two more was a little bit shocking. I may have been a little off in my counting, but I think where we are now is where we're going to be ... When you have a nine member council it's good to have five votes. You just have to be able to count to five."

Of course, there is another $200 million shoe in this process. The other half of the money for the building, everyone understands, has to come from the Maloofs, or from the NBA, or from AEG. The Maloofs have been silent about whether they're willing -- or able, given the financial hits their businesses took during the recession, which led to them selling controlling interest in their beloved Palms casino in Las Vegas last year -- to come up with that kind of coin. Frankly, there are those in the Sacramento government who want to force the issue, and find out once and for all if the Maloofs are in for the long haul.

Meanwhile, Seattle plans.

The idea would be to once again renovate Key Arena, where the Sonics played, until a new building was on line. The new arena will not be built unless there is a commitment from an NBA team to come to Seattle. Seattle is also monitoring what happens with the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes, who have been owned by the NHL since 2009. There are three groups that are reportedly looking to buy the Coyotes and keep them in Arizona, but if those deals do not come to fruition ... well, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made no secret that that league would love to have a team in Seattle -- if there is a new building constructed there. (That sounds so familiar.)

The Times detailed the last few months of coordinated interaction between Hansen's company, Valiant Capital Management, LLC, and the Mayor's Office. The city has hired two veterans of arena financing and construction. One is Carl Hirsh, the managing partner of Stafford Sports, LLC, who was involved with the Sixers' efforts to get Wells Fargo Center built as a Comcast executive, then worked with the Spurs and San Antonio to get what is now the AT&T Center built, then worked with Orlando and the Magic to get the state-of-the-art Amway Center built. The other is Hugh Spitzer, an attorney with Foster Pepper, one of Seattle's largest law firms, and an expert at financing municipal projects through bond intitiatives.

Hirsh is "a terrific guy and a bright guy, who helps people who aren't in the arena building business figure out their contracts with people who are," said a source who worked extensively with him on an NBA arena project.

Because the land Hansen bought is adjacent to Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field, it has already been zoned for the level of additional traffic that would come to a new basketball arena. (The potential of increased traffic in the area doesn't sit well with everyone; Seattle Councilmember Jean Godden told the Times that the Mariners and Seahawks have been "good partners" over the years. "Suppose we have three events simultaneously?" she said. Godden, the Times said, also is concerned that if the city has to finance construction bonds for the project it might exceed the city's debt limit.)

Whatever assistance the NBA has provided either city has been kept under wraps. The Commish, publicly, separately washed his hands of both situations, though the league is viewed by many in Seattle as complicit in allowing Bennett to leave.

"We haven't heard a word" from the NBA, Fong said. "They're just waiting to see if this is something to be engaged in. And I get that."

And the clock ticks toward zero. Soon, the music will stop, and someone will be left without a chair to sit in. There are only so many teams to go around. For now, the Kings are still Sacramento's, to keep or lose.

"I think the council will take care of its business," Fong said. "When people ask me if this is going to happen, as a veteran of these efforts, I like to say, 'Boy, we haven't hit no yet.' And that's as good as yeshttp://."


Link

 

[yelloo]

Ew Seattle Kings, go back to Sonics

 

[vanap]

Originally Posted by yelloo

Ew Seattle Kings, go back to Sonics

If Seattle got the Kings they would change the name to Sonics and have the green and yellow color way. It was a part of the deal when they left back in 08 that the city of Seattle would keep the name and colors.

 

[Deleted member 38182]

I love that the national media is taking that Seattle column and running with it

Folks are trying to make it out as if this situation is between Sacramento and Seattle. To be direct and honest, its not.

It's between Sacramento and the Kings.

If the city loses the team is because the city failed, not because Chris Hansen or whatever the hell his name is bought a ton of a land.

Heck even then, Hansen can build a new arena, name it "Balls On Chin LOL Kings Arena" and that still won't guarantee the Kings will go there.

Why? Because the Maloofs have stated repeated and emphatically that the Kings are not for sale.

And if they are, why are they obligated to sell to Hansen? When there will be plenty of folks (Burkle, Magic) knocking at the door WILLING and wanting to keep the Kings in Sacramento.


In short, to think that Seattle has any bearing on whether or not the Kings stay in Sacramento is blatant stupidity and flawed logic at best.

 

[dakid23]

rck2sactown wrote:

Folks are trying to make it out as if this situation is between Sacramento and Seattle. To be direct and honest, its not.

It's between Sacramento and the Kings.

If the city loses the team is because the city failed, not because Chris Hansen or whatever the hell his name is bought a ton of a land.

In short, to think that Seattle has any bearing on whether or not the Kings stay in Sacramento is blatant stupidity and flawed logic at best.

QFT! I just hope it works out for your city.

 

[dmbrhs]

I'd like people to know that the Seattle media is hardly talking about the Kings moving here. It's all about the arena, which many think is very close to being a done deal. The Kings are only being mentioned because they are the latest team in a most tenuous situation. I think we all agree the team that makes the most sense to move is the Hornets.

 

[Animal Thug]

Originally Posted by dmbrhs

I'd like people to know that the Seattle media is hardly talking about the Kings moving here. It's all about the arena, which many think is very close to being a done deal. The Kings are only being mentioned because they are the latest team in a most tenuous situation. I think we all agree the team that makes the most sense to move is the Hornets.

This.


Keep the Kings in SACRAMENTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  

 

[Deleted member 38182]

at this thread not getting bumped with all the articles and reports coming outta sac bout the vote possibly being passed unanimously

 

[Lizakers]

i hope they use the Super Sonics name

that's the perfect name for that city with the space needle and all

 

[Peep Game]

Originally Posted by theDEEK

Originally Posted by NikeTalker23

Originally Posted by VanAP

Vancouver Kings Please 

Ya aint even in the running for a WNBA team..

Never saw this

 

[bean pie slanga]

The Sacramento Kings and their fans will hold their breath on Tuesday night, as the Sacramento City Council holds the first of at least two critical votes that will determine whether or not the team leaves town.

Let me be the first to tell you that tonight’s vote will pass.  Sources close to the situation report that the council is all but certain to have the votes necessary to move the process forward.

Specifically, the vote will allow the council to finalize proposals with ten competing private parking operators that will provide upwards of $200 million toward the cost of the estimated $387 million Entertainment and Sports Complex.

This will setup a vote on February 28 that will decide the Kings’ future.  It is at this time that the council, in cooperation with mayor Kevin Johnson’s Think Big Sacramento coalition, will vote to approve a term sheet that will signal to the NBA that Sacramento can indeed fund an arena.

http://probasketballtalk....t&utm_medium=twitter

 

[Deleted member 38182]

I will be there tonight btw

 

[dmbrhs]

Again, aside from anything basketball or arena-related, Sacramento's gonna get screwed on that parking privatization. Just doesn't seem like a good idea...anyway...

I'd rather have what they did in Seattle to fund Safeco Field: hotel, car rental and restaurant tax (extra 0.5% on those services). That's what's rarely reported in the Seattle situation. People up here made it seem like we taxed the hell out of EVERYTHING in order to pay for stadiums, but it's not true. If you think about it, tourists were footing a big portion of the stadium bill (hotels and rental cars). The only way you get hit is if you regularly went to restaurants (or liked to rent cars and stay in fancy hotels). The sales tax is pretty high in Washington, but there's no income tax, so it's not like we're getting hit from all sides here. Those taxes end in 2015.

 

[Deleted member 38182]

Originally Posted by dmbrhs

Again, aside from anything basketball or arena-related, Sacramento's gonna get screwed on that parking privatization. Just doesn't seem like a good idea...anyway...

Naw I agree, folks up here are aware of how privatizing parking could go bad (see Chicago), KJ has said that he is gonna have safeguards against that stuff ala Indy 

 

[jonathan79936]

I havent heard about this but this would be cool.

 

[Deleted member 38182]

Oh this is cool
http://twitter.com/News10Sean

Sean Cunningham: Unanimously, Sacramento city council votes 9-0 & Arena parking vote passes - final vote, the biggest vote is Next Tuesday (2/2 now

http://twitter.com/News10Sean/statuses/169631733111717888

 

[mister916]

That is pretty cool