NBA Commissioner says Sacramento bid 'not quite there'
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — NBA Commissioner David Stern said Friday night that the counteroffer to keep the Sacramento Kings from moving to Seattle needs to be increased financially before the league's owners would even consider the bid.
Speaking to reporters before the Golden State Warriors hosted the Houston Rockets, Stern said the Sacramento group's offer has some "very strong financial people behind it but it is not quite there in terms of a comparison to the Seattle bid." He added that "unless it increases, it doesn't get to the state of consideration."
The league has scheduled a meeting April 3 in New York to avoid rushing debate on the issue. Representatives from Sacramento and Seattle will have a chance to present their case at that meeting, Stern said.
The NBA Board of Governors will convene April 18, when a vote is expected to take place on the sale and relocation of the Kings franchise. A sale of a franchise requires a three-fourths majority approval of owners, while relocation requires just a simple majority.
Stern said he is still hopeful that the Sacramento bid, led by 24 Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov and billionaire grocery tycoon Ron Burkle, will be comparable to the Seattle offer by the time owners have to make a decision.
"I think right now it is fair to say that the offers are not comparable," Stern said.
Mastrov, among the final bidders for the Warriors before Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the team for an NBA-record $450 million in 2010, is hoping to become the majority owner of the Kings. Burkle, co-owner of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, is leading the effort to build a new downtown Sacramento arena that he hopes will also lure back a WNBA franchise.
Mastrov was sitting courtside at the Rockets-Warriors game and said he wasn't surprised by Stern's comments. He said his group is still negotiating final terms with Sacramento and the NBA on a bid.
"It's all part of the process," said Mastrov, who will attend both meetings in New York.
The commissioner lauded the work done by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson to organize the counteroffer, calling the efforts "Herculean." Johnson, a former All-Star point guard, has been trying to keep Sacramento's only major professional franchise from leaving California's capital city for more than two years.
Last year, Johnson had a handshake deal for a new downtown arena with the Maloof family that owns the Kings. The owners backed out of the plan, which included a $255 million public subsidy, saying it didn't make financial sense for the franchise.
Johnson's latest plan is to revitalize the city with an arena at the Downtown Plaza shopping mall owned by JMA Ventures, whose officers have said they are eager to participate. To show Sacramento support for the Kings, Johnson also has lined up at least 20 local investors who each committed $1 million.
Despite all the mayor's efforts, Stern said the financial contribution from the Sacramento group is still lagging behind Seattle's bid.
"There's a substantial variance," Stern said. "I have an expectation, a hope, that the variance will be eliminated by the time the owners give it consideration."
Stern also said he has spoken with Kings minority owner John Kehriotis about a separate bid to keep the team in Sacramento. Kehriotis has floated the possibility of a mostly privately financed upgrade to the team's current suburban arena.
A Seattle group led by hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has had a signed agreement since January to acquire a 65 percent stake in the Kings for $341 million from the Maloof family. The group already has petitioned the league to relocate the team to Seattle for next season, restore the SuperSonics name and play in KeyArena for at least two years while a new downtown arena is constructed.
Both the Seattle group and the Maloofs have been asked by the NBA not to comment on the issue.
Hansen has been at the forefront of bringing the NBA back to the basketball-loving Pacific Northwest city. He reached agreement with local governments in Seattle last October on plans to build a $490 million NBA/NHL arena near the city's other stadiums, CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field.
No construction will begin on that project until all environmental reviews are completed and a team has been secured.
If the Seattle bid is blocked by NBA owners, the Maloofs would still have to agree to sell the team to any other group. However, Stern said the board has some influence on these matters and remains confident there will a resolution one way or another.
"If an ownership group has decided to exit our league," Stern said, "it doesn't retain the ultimate right to tell us where it's going to be located."
Speaking to reporters before the Golden State Warriors hosted the Houston Rockets, Stern said the Sacramento group's offer has some "very strong financial people behind it but it is not quite there in terms of a comparison to the Seattle bid." He added that "unless it increases, it doesn't get to the state of consideration."
The league has scheduled a meeting April 3 in New York to avoid rushing debate on the issue. Representatives from Sacramento and Seattle will have a chance to present their case at that meeting, Stern said.
The NBA Board of Governors will convene April 18, when a vote is expected to take place on the sale and relocation of the Kings franchise. A sale of a franchise requires a three-fourths majority approval of owners, while relocation requires just a simple majority.
Stern said he is still hopeful that the Sacramento bid, led by 24 Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov and billionaire grocery tycoon Ron Burkle, will be comparable to the Seattle offer by the time owners have to make a decision.
"I think right now it is fair to say that the offers are not comparable," Stern said.
Mastrov, among the final bidders for the Warriors before Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the team for an NBA-record $450 million in 2010, is hoping to become the majority owner of the Kings. Burkle, co-owner of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, is leading the effort to build a new downtown Sacramento arena that he hopes will also lure back a WNBA franchise.
Mastrov was sitting courtside at the Rockets-Warriors game and said he wasn't surprised by Stern's comments. He said his group is still negotiating final terms with Sacramento and the NBA on a bid.
"It's all part of the process," said Mastrov, who will attend both meetings in New York.
The commissioner lauded the work done by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson to organize the counteroffer, calling the efforts "Herculean." Johnson, a former All-Star point guard, has been trying to keep Sacramento's only major professional franchise from leaving California's capital city for more than two years.
Last year, Johnson had a handshake deal for a new downtown arena with the Maloof family that owns the Kings. The owners backed out of the plan, which included a $255 million public subsidy, saying it didn't make financial sense for the franchise.
Johnson's latest plan is to revitalize the city with an arena at the Downtown Plaza shopping mall owned by JMA Ventures, whose officers have said they are eager to participate. To show Sacramento support for the Kings, Johnson also has lined up at least 20 local investors who each committed $1 million.
Despite all the mayor's efforts, Stern said the financial contribution from the Sacramento group is still lagging behind Seattle's bid.
"There's a substantial variance," Stern said. "I have an expectation, a hope, that the variance will be eliminated by the time the owners give it consideration."
Stern also said he has spoken with Kings minority owner John Kehriotis about a separate bid to keep the team in Sacramento. Kehriotis has floated the possibility of a mostly privately financed upgrade to the team's current suburban arena.
A Seattle group led by hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has had a signed agreement since January to acquire a 65 percent stake in the Kings for $341 million from the Maloof family. The group already has petitioned the league to relocate the team to Seattle for next season, restore the SuperSonics name and play in KeyArena for at least two years while a new downtown arena is constructed.
Both the Seattle group and the Maloofs have been asked by the NBA not to comment on the issue.
Hansen has been at the forefront of bringing the NBA back to the basketball-loving Pacific Northwest city. He reached agreement with local governments in Seattle last October on plans to build a $490 million NBA/NHL arena near the city's other stadiums, CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field.
No construction will begin on that project until all environmental reviews are completed and a team has been secured.
If the Seattle bid is blocked by NBA owners, the Maloofs would still have to agree to sell the team to any other group. However, Stern said the board has some influence on these matters and remains confident there will a resolution one way or another.
"If an ownership group has decided to exit our league," Stern said, "it doesn't retain the ultimate right to tell us where it's going to be located."
The last thing Seattle needs is another sports teams with their sports nuts. Spectator sports UGGGG
Pretty sure you are free to not attend if you choose. I am sure there are plenty of basketball fans who don't like whatever your hobby is. (Besides raining on the parade of others.)
This shows alot. It is a bid....one person is better than the other, so they tell the lower bid to step it up, then they will tell the first to increase their bid.....Professional sports have lots the sports.
The NBA still owns a team outright, the New Orleans Hornets, but NOOOOOOOO, Stern wants Seattle to be the bad guy and take a team from another city, just like the Oklahoma City Bombers were taken from us. Look, I'm not even a basketball fan, but even I can see that New Orleans is a football town first, foremost and always. Sacramento hasn't got anything other than the Kings and Stern wants to rip the team out of the community.
There is a special place in Hell for walking rectums like David Stern and his management of NBA [similar stunts by owners in all four major sports] is argument enough for the sports monopolies to be legislated against.
And because it's the sports page.... GO SEAHAWKS! :)
Stern, doing his best to play one city against another for more money.Â
The big, bold headline in the Sacramento Bee should read N-O-T Q-U-I-T-E T-H-E-R-E
All of this is really not worth the fight. This will only allow the rich to get richer at our expense. Let them keep the Kings and lets just forget about building a "partially public funded" "non essential" sports arena when so many are against it. I'm sick of professional sports and all the rich egos they bring with them anyway.Â
Tell Stern to stuff it ,and then walk away!
@Seahawker In a small way, having the team there brings people out to spend money (hotels, restaurants, groceries, etc.) which generates sales taxes so the local/state govt gets benefit from the team being there. Somehow I'm not sure they manage the $$$ so it works out that way...
@Seahawker How is ANYONE getting richer at OUR expense? Don't like pro sports (for the most part neither do I), then don't go to the games. It's really that simple. This will cost you NOTHING if you never go to the new arena.
I keep saying this , Why why would you do business with david stern and Clay Bennett. They play cities against each other, Stern is the worst commisioner in professional sports history, and clay bennett is his lap dog. Your new Arena is never going to be good enough , as these greedy players keep wanting more and more, and well lets just raise ticket prices and then the players want more and more. The NBA is built on a death spiral , and one day, people will wise up and stop going to games. and then you have an empty building. Sound like Key Arena ?  sound like the sonics ? Be warned seattle , key arena was only good enough for the NBA for about 12 years, and then it was obsolete. Â
Let the Kings stay in 'Sac-Town'. Just ask yourself if Seattle really 'needs' another merry band of idiots, that loose all the time.
@JT1958Â That loose all the time? So I assume you're saying they need to tighten up?
@Zoso @JT1958 You mean out of the entire post all you are able to speak to is one little typo? Then I assume that you agreed with the post. Thank-You.
 Well, to be fair, the Sonics were only losers during Howard Schultz' ownership. Prior to that they were consistent contenders. Don't mistake me, I'm not a basketball fan and I had the same idea you did, based on the Sonics' last few seasons in Seattle. Check out 'Sonicsgate', a documentary by a couple of Seattle filmmakers that documents exactly what happened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9Dp20ydm1E
@svensson Damn right! I dare anyone who thinks otherwise to watch this whole thing and not have a change of opinion! I have been a Sonicsfan and this thing even blew my mind as to how screwed up the whole thing was the first time I saw it.
Just tell OKC to go _____ and bring our team back, problem solved.
Why does Seattle have to be quiet ("Both the Seattle group and the Maloofs have been asked by the NBA not to comment on the issue.") when Sacramento can spout off all it wants? Sounds like Stern is looking for any reason to screw us again. ("I have an expectation, a hope, that the variance will be eliminated by the time the owners give it consideration.")Â
I hope everyone is "getting it." This is all about the NBA ramping up a bidding war like some sick game of musical chairs.
Seattle loses.
Sacramento loses.
The NBA wins.
Any questions?Â
@NW-Economist, Since I wasn't asked by Chris Hansen to invest in this endeavor, I fail to see how I lose anything.
@StringerJoe @NW-EconomistIf you live in King County your tax dollars will be fronting the money for this instead of investing in schools which our Supreme Court is ordering us to do...
@Furd @NW-Economist @StringerJoeShow me the contract that has that written in stone. Oh there isn't one yet? Suckers born every minute.Â
@NW-Economist @StringerJoe NO IT WON'T! Bonds will be sold to finance a small amount of the construction cost of the new arena. The costs to sell those bonds will be rolled into the bonds themselves. Admission taxes on tickets to events at the new arena will be used to pay the bondholders. If those admission taxes are insufficient to pay the bonds on schedule then Hansen &company will make up the difference.
NO NEW TAXES WILL BE LEVIED AGAINST THE GENERAL POPULACE!Â
 No current taxes will be diverted and no pile of unused money will be used. Further, it is the STATE that is on the hook for increased school funding, not the city of Seattle or King County.
@StringerJoe @NW-Economist Seattle / King County residents are being asked to pay increased property taxes that are then pulled out of the city coffers to pay a $1M+ per year portion of the arena bonds. Also, by not paying many direct taxes to the City, Hansen's city-provided services will be covered by the rest of the taxpayers.... kind of like the TIFs that plague Chicago.
@path_tech @NW-EconomistYou admitted taxes are going up for this, are you incompetent or what?Â
@NW-Economist  Countless times you have made these accusations without supplying one bit of proof.   Really, unless you can provide sources that conntect the dots, your words are falling on deaf ears.
@path_tech @ChefJoe98You are naive and foolish if you don't see the connection between this and the huge budget deficit we are in, as well as the supreme court's order for us to increase funding to education.Â
@ChefJoe98Â Â Yes, property taxes will be raised but only because the Arena property will no longer be on Seattle's tax ledgers. This has nothing to do with paying off the bond. Basically, every tax payer will be paying 2-3 dollars more a year. Wow, how will we ever be able to afford that? </SARCASM OFF>
http://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/Sodo-arena-would-push-up-everyone-s-property-taxes-3617027.php  Â
@ChefJoe98 @StringerJoe @NW-Economist Please cite your source for these proclamations.
Why not just make a new Sonics Team?? I am sure there are plenty of Basketball players, GOOD PLAYERS with mad skills all over the seattle area, and Also College players that would love to be on a NBA Team! Why Do we have to Buy another team...bring it to Seattle..and call them the Sonics??
Just Saying?? Wouldn't it be Cheaper??
@Alexandra Shepiro Likely not going to "expand" by adding a new team in Seattle when there are several struggling teams in the league. It would make better sense to move a struggling team to another market where it might be more successful...
@Alexandra Shepiro First of all, it is the commissioners of the league along with the owners that determine the number of teams in the league. This is true of ALL professional sports. You simply cannot amass a pool of talented players and then say, "Hey, NBA, I wanna play with you guys." So that alone shoots your idea down in flames.
There is also the problem of finding the talent that is also in a free agency state of being. Real talent is already beholden to one team or another. I doubt that you could field a team with no other commitments that had the talent to play at NBA level.
@Furd @Alexandra Shepiro Ok...Let me ask you this...
How did the first NBA Teams get started??? Where did the Talent for the First Teams of Basketball get found?? Did they have Agents, and Managers at the time??
You say real talent is already Beholden to one team or another?? How can you be so sure about that??
@Alexandra Shepiro @Furd The NBA has already stated they will not expand. Its not our decision to start a team....the NBA simply wouldn't let them in to the league. It doesn't work that way. If we don't get Sacramento, then we won't get a team....period.
I know everyone always equates a team to money and tax dollars. But fail to mention the boost to local business and the fact that its fun to have entertainment options in a city. For everyone complaining about the $2 tax increase per year, I ask you to look yourself in the mirror and focus on what you can do to improve education or other initiatives. You complain but offer no other alternatives and take no initiatives yourself.
Chris Hansen is investing nearly a billion dollars into the Seattle economy and will not make $ unless he sells the team. The NBA owners are barely breaking even year to year...which is why this team is headed to Seattle. Our ownership group has deep pockets. I am not an NBA fan, but I recognize the benefits of pro sports on the economy.
@Alexandra Shepiro @Furd What happened 67 years ago (the founding of the NBA in 1946) is irrelevant to the discussion of today.
I suspect that you are probably correct that there IS talent, of some sort, that is at present unknown to the owners of the various NBA teams. But raw talent is not the same as a seasoned TEAM player. Lots of people with raw talent have found out the hard way that professional sports is not just another game.
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