6:55pm: According to a tweet from NBA.com's David Aldridge, Ranadive announced that two more parties will be joining his investment group.
5:41pm: Stern confirmed that Ranadive's group matched the initial $525MM valuation of the Kings, adding that Seattle's increased offers didn't offend the league, according to Chris Daniels of KING5 (Twitter links).
5:32pm: Commissioner David Stern has confirmed the vote against relocation, and shared a few more tidbits. Courtesy of Aaron Bruski of NBCSports.com (via Twitter)….
- Stern confirmed that it was Seattle's $625MM offer that was voted down by the league.
- The league intends to talk to the Maloof family in the next 24-48 hours to attempt to negotiate a sale to the Sacramento investment group led by Ranadive. Stern expects the Maloofs to be open to selling to the Sacramento group.
- Seattle's presentation to the Board of Governors was "excellent" and reflects the efforts put into the bid by Hansen's group, according to Stern.
- Stern says the league is looking forward to continued dialogue with potential team owners in Seattle, but that there's nothing concrete in the works for the city at the moment.
- Stern acknowledged that it would be worthwhile to consider expansion eventually, but not until after the league negotiates its next TV deal.
- Sacramento's arena term sheet is more than just a term sheet, according to Stern, who added that the land for the arena has been purchased.
5:12pm: ESPN.com's Marc Stein confirms that the Board of Governors also voted to reject the sale to Hansen's Seattle group. According to Mitch Levy of KJR in Seattle, the vote to keep the Kings in Sacramento was 22-8 (Twitter link). Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee adds (via Twitter) that the meeting was "very contentious."
4:56pm: The NBA's Board of Governors has voted against relocating the Kings to Seattle, according to Sam Amick of USA Today. The league's relocation committee, a smaller group of NBA owners, had previously recommended voting down the bid to move the franchise, so the decision doesn't come as a surprise.
The relocation of the Kings was one of two issues the Board of Governors was set to vote on today. With the move to Seattle having been vetoed, the sale of 65% of the franchise to Chris Hansen's Seattle group has also presumably been shot down. That means that for now the team remains in the hands of the Maloof family, though we don't yet know if the Maloof family will continue to pursue its backup plan with the Hansen group or if the NBA will aggressively push for a majority sale to Vivek Ranadive's Sacramento group.
While the sale of the franchise required approval from three-quarters of the league's owners, relocation simply required a majority vote. That means that at least 16 owners voted against the relocation bid, and it wouldn't surprise me if the final vote was much more one-sided than that, given the 7-0 vote by the relocation committee.