Yesterday, we heard that Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson is preparing to unveil his "whales" for the city's competing bid to keep the Kings in Sacramento, with an announcement possible on Friday. As we wait on Johnson's next update, let's round up a few links related to the Kings sale, Sacramento, and Seattle:
- Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee reports that the Sacramento City Council is expected to approve a request for permission to negotiate a new arena.
- David Flemmer, the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the sale of a 7% share of the Kings, may accelerate the process, according to Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee. Whoever buys the share is expected to have the opportunity to exercise the right of first refusal and make a competing bid for the majority share of the franchise. The auction for the 7% share is currently set for April.
- According to an FTXL Fox Sports report, as passed along by Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee, another Kings minority owner, John Kehriotis, may be preparing to exercise the right of first refusal and make a bid himself.
- When the Sacramento City Council considers its contribution to an arena proposal, it won't be starting from scratch, but it also won't be emulating last year's plan, according to a Sacramento Bee report from Kasler, Ryan Lillis, and Tony Bizjak. The Bee report suggests that City Council will be asked to give top city officials the OK to begin formal negotiations on an arena plan with a private investment group, presumably led by Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov.
- Darrell Fong, one of two Sacramento City Council members to vote against a resolution to express support for a city contribution to a new arena last week, explained his no vote, as Lillis details.
- Seattle city officials have started readying KeyArena for basketball and scheduling arena time to be available for the SuperSonics in 2013/14, reports Lynn Thompson of the Seattle Times.