City of Seattle News & Rumors

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.

Dale Kasler, Ryan Lillis, and Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee report that a Seattle judge has rejected a lawsuit that would have challenged the legality of the arena plan the Chris Hansen-led ownership group has in place in the event that the Kings are sold to them and allowed to relocate. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, would have challenged the proposed arena's location, as well as the environmental regulations that it may have bypassed.

The report indicates, however, that those connected with the efforts to keep the Kings in Sacramento did not take this lawsuit seriously, and instead are relying on their own forthcoming offer to purchase the team from the Maloof family and prevent it from moving to Seattle. There has been no definitive announcement as to who is involved with the Sacramento group, but heavy speculation persisits that the primary investors are Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov.

The Seattle group still faces a prospective lawsuit on behalf of Seattle taxpayers, questioning whether the city will make a profit on the publicly funded arena.

Talk about Sacramento, Seattle and the future of the Kings dominated the yesterday's joint press conference held by commissioner David Stern and deputy Adam Silver. Stern said that he doesn't believe the tug-of-war between Sacramento and Seattle will ultimately come down to money, as Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty notes, but the Bee's Ailene Voisin believes Stern made it clear that economics are at the heart of the matter. Here's more about whether players or the team itself will soon be departing Sacramento:

• The team has the second-worst record in the Western Conference, at 19-35, but Kings GM Geoff Petrie said "it's very unlikely" he'll trade away any of the team's top players, as Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee notes.
• The NBA vetted Sacramento's arena plan last year, and mayor Kevin Johnson believes that, coupled with a lack of pending lawsuits, gives the city an advantage over Seattle, as Cowbell Kingdom's Jonathan Santiago observes, via Sulia. 
• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News compares the small-market Spurs and Kings, noting that while San Antonio's newer arena has helped keep the Spurs in town, its isolated location on the east side of the city could cause trouble in the future.

10:37pm: After NBA commissioner David Stern told reporters that he expects Johnson's group to have a fair shot at retaining the Kings, Johnson tells Sam Amick of USA Today that he is getting closer to assembling his group of prospective buyers and presenting a final bid to the NBA's board of governors.

12:36pm: Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reports that Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has participated in a series of meetings in Houston to explore the possibility of keeping the Kings from moving to Seattle. Johnson said he was "encouraged" and called the meetings "positive and productive."

The Kings were sold last month to an ownership group led by hedge fund billionaire Chris Hansen, who is intent on moving the team to Seattle to play in a new arena they have a plan in place to build. However, Johnson and other Sacramento investors are attempting to put together a counteroffer to prevent the team from leaving.

Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson says he's "very close" to unveiling the identities of the deep-pocketed investors he has recruited to make a bid to keep the Kings in the city, according to Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee. Based on previous reports, it's expected that Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov will lead the counter-offer for the Kings from Sacramento.

According to Johnson, he's up against a March 1st deadline to finalize the city's proposal. The mayor is hopeful that the NBA, which is expected to hear Sacramento's pitch to keep the franchise at the Board of Governors meetings in April, will give Sacramento an audience sometime before April, according to Antonio Gonzalez of the Associated Press (link via Star Tribune).

"I'm under the assumption that the joint committee may want to hear from us sooner," Johnson said. "We're going to have all the agreements and all the actions and all the documents squared by March 1st, as well as if there's an opportunity to present to the joint committee prior to mid-April, then I feel very confident. We're going to have all our ducks in order. We're going to be ready before mid-April if that's what it takes."

While the Maloofs have already reached an agreement with a group led by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer, and have filed to relocate to Seattle, Johnson says the deal isn't as done as the Seattle group would have you believe. The former NBA veteran remains confident that Sacramento has a realistic chance of keeping the Kings in town.

"You just cannot tell me that when Sacramento presents a comparable, fair, competitive deal to what Seattle's done and makes good on this arena that this team is going to be plopped and relocated somewhere else," Johnson said. "At the end of the day, you just can't tell me that's going to happen."