City of Seattle

We're likely a ways off from any sort of resolution on the future of the Kings franchise, but in the meantime, each day seems to bring some sort of development on the sale of the team. Here's Thursday's latest:

• Attorney Donald Fitzgerald and trustee David Flemmer, who is handling the sale of Bob Cook's 7% share of the Kings, are negotiating with the Maloofs in the hopes of gaining access to the details of the Seattle sale, according to Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee. Fitzgerald and Flemmer believe minority owners should have the first right of refusal to match the Seattle offer, and say they need the Seattle documents to pursue their claim.
• If Fitzgerald and Flemmer are successful in their claim, one of the existing limited partners or whoever buys Cook's 7% share could have the opportunity to block the sale to the Seattle group, says Kasler.
• According to Kasler, the NBA expects to make a ruling on the Seattle purchase during the NBA's Board of Governors meeting in mid-April. Cook's share of the team is supposed to be auctioned off on the same day.
• Sacramento's City Hall has launched a feasibility analysis of Downtown Plaza as a spot for a new arena, according to Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee. Ron Burkle, who is reportedly putting together a counter-proposal for the Kings, has advocated directly to NBA commissioner David Stern for building an arena at Sacramento's Downtown Plaza.

As we wait for the NBA to review Seattle's bid for the Kings, Sacramento continues to move closer to preparing a bid of their own to try to keep the team. Here's the latest on Sacramento, Seattle, and the Kings, with any new updates added to the top of the page throughout the day:

• While the conventional wisdom suggests that Seattle has the inside track on the Kings, the league is "clearly signaling" that it wants a counter-proposal from the Kings, a source tells Tony Bizjak, Ryan Lillis, and Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee. "Sacramento has a real fighting chance," the source said. "[The NBA] knows how the community has responded to the team. If a deep-pocketed group buys, if the Maloofs get the same amount of money, and an arena set up, it will be difficult for the board of governors to just dismiss that."
• Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson is expected to make a public pitch to the NBA Board of Governors in April, but the league figures to privately vet the Ron Burkle/Mark Mastrov group before that point, according to the Bee report. The Burkle/Mastrov group will have to submit their proposal directly to the league's finance committe, as opposed to the Maloofs.
• The Bee report also notes that the NBA's relocation committee will be tasked with evaluating "the support of the [Kings] in the existing location by fans, telecasters, broadcasters and sponsors," which Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty views as a positive sign for Sacramento.

We'll keep any of today's Kings/Seattle-related updates below: 

• Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com says that even if Sacramento's legal challenges buy more time, he isn't sure it necessarily means an eventual victory against the move to Seattle (Sulia link). He also mentions that although the league would prefer to have the situation resolved by the Board of Governors meeting on April 18-19, it would be willing to carry on discussions into the summer, even if it meant having to prepare individual season schedules for Sacramento and Seattle.  
• Mark Mastrov made a strong impression on local investors yesterday after explaining his vision of building a new arena and keeping the Kings in Sacramento, wrote Ryan Lillis, Dale Kasler, and Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee. Mayor Kevin Johnson described the meeting as a “positive step forward in our effort to keep the Kings,” while others who attended added that Mastrov has brought added confidence, optimism, and hope to the table. 
• Kasler also reports that a bankruptcy trustee who controls seven percent of the Kings will bring in “special litigation counsel” to help make the claim that the team's minority owners are illegally being denied the right to match the purchase offer from Chris Hansen and the Seattle group. While the Maloofs and Hansen view this claim as a non-issue, University of New Hampshire sports law expert Michael McCann thinks that litigation may interfere with the Seattle group’s plan to have the sale approved by mid-April and could possibly delay the franchise from moving for another year at the least. 

With the Kings in D.C. tonight to play the middling Wizards, the future of their franchise is still uncertain.  As the news and rumors continue to pour in, let's keep all the Monday updates in this post with the latest up top:

• Mastrov bid $420MM to buy the Warriors in 2010, tweets Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee.  The 20 Sacramento business leaders that Mastrov met with have pledged $1MM apiece in  support of the bid to keep the Kings in town, Lillis adds in a separate story.

Earlier updates:

• Ken Berger of CBS Sports provides some helpful information via Twitter.  Berger says that prospective Kings buyer Mark Mastrov met today with 20 local investors that are committed to keeping the team in Sacramento.  We got confirmation yesterday that Mastrov would be teaming up with Ron Burkle to make a bid on the team.  
• A league source described the Mastrov's interaction with the investors as an "informal meeting," Berger tweets, also adding that its purpose was to explain his vision for the team and a new arena in Sacramento.
• Confirming much of what we know, Berger adds that the Seattle-based Hansen-Ballmer group has an "executed purchase agreement" for the Kings that is under consideration with the NBA and assuming its approval, would move to the team to Seattle next year.  Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson hopes that the city will have a chance to present an alternative option to the NBA Board of Governors in April (Twitter links here). 

With the future of the Kings in limbo, we'll round up today's rumors in this post, with any additional updates at the top.

• If the Kings leave Sacramento, the city is owed $77MM from loans it floated to the team 15 years ago, but a legal expert tells Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee that the new owners could get off the hook for less.
• The $525MM price tag set in the agreement between the Maloofs and the Chris Hansen/Howard Ballmer Seattle investors represents a 75% jump in the value of the team over the figure that Forbes magazine estimated last year, notes the Bee's Tom Couzens. That's the largest jump in value for any team this year. We passed along the full list of Forbes valuations earlier this week. 
• The Bee's Ailene Voisin hears that the Maloofs received a $425MM offer last year, and wonders why they decided now was the time to sell.
• Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game confirms that Mark Mastrov and Ron Burkle are teaming up for a bid (Sulia link). Still, Bucher says it would be hard to imagine the Seattle group would agree to a $30MM refundable payment without assurance from people more powerful than the Maloofs that the sale would go through.

Another day, another round-up of the latest rumblings on Sacramento, Seattle, and the potential sale of the Kings. Here are Friday's updates, with any new items added to the top of the page throughout the evening:

• Ron Burkle, who is reportedly considering partnering with Mark Mastrov to make a bid to keep the Kings in Sacramento, met with David Stern yesterday in New York City, reports Sam Amick of USA Today. According to Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com, Burkle's potential bid for the Kings is "gaining momentum" (Twitter link).
• Meanwhile, another potential "whale" is being courted to make a bid for the franchise. Tony Bizjak, Dale Kasler, and Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee report that minority owner Bob Cook has asked a Bay Area sport attorney to broker a meeting between potential investor Larry Ellison and Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson. Ellison, who was involved in bidding on the Warriors in 2010, is considered the third-richest man in America.
• The trio of Bee reporters and Chris Daniels of KING TV in Seattle (Twitter link) are hearing that the minority owners' "right of first refusal" we heard about yesterday is considered a "non-issue" by the Maloofs and the Seattle group.
• Sacramento radio host Carmichael Dave tweets that if Cook and Ellison were to partner up, the idea would be to pursue the Maloofs' stake in the team first, then work with the other minority owners.

The Maloof family has reached an agreement to sell the Kings to a Seattle investment group led by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer, but Sacramento isn't going down without a fight. Mayor Kevin Johnson is putting together a team of investors willing to make a counter-offer to buy the franchise and keep it in Sacramento. As we wait for the next major development in this ongoing story, let's round up some of the latest reports….

• Sacramento's "big-money investors" are doing due diligence on the Kings, but don't have access to detailed information on the Seattle bid against which they'd be competing, according to Dale Kasler, Tony Bijzak, and Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee. Johnson is expecting to finalize his lineup of potential investors next week, according to the Bee's report.
• David Flemmer, a bankruptcy trustee who oversees the 7% of the Kings owned by limited partner Bob Cook, says that Cook and other minority owners should have the "right of first refusal" to match the Seattle offer and buy the club, writes Kasler in a separate Sacramento Bee piece. "Bankruptcy is a tool; this tool can be effective," Flemmer said. "We are very, very, very concerned that there's a deal being cut that's going to (ignore) that right."
• If Johnson can put together a viable Sacramento-based bid for the Kings, it's not clear what would happen next, since a one-on-one showdown for a franchise would be unprecedented, writes Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times.

In yesterday's round-up of rumors related to the sale of the Kings, we learned that Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson had recruited a group of 20 local investors each willing to put $1MM toward a bid to keep the team in the city. More importantly, Sam Amick of USA Today reported that Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov, two potential investors willing to put significantly more money toward that bid, were in serious talks about teaming up. Here's the latest on Sacramento, the Kings, and Seattle:

• At an afternoon press conference in Sacramento today, Mayor Johnson didn't identify Burkle, Mastrov, or anyone else as the "whale" involved in a local bid for the Kings. Johnson did say there were more than two possibile investors in play, and that "considerable progress" has been made (Twitter links via Dale Kasler and Scott Howard-Cooper).

Earlier updates:

• The NBA has begun vetting Chris Hansen's Seattle group and the sale agreement, according to Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee (via Twitter).
• Burkle and Mastrov are both committed to keeping the Kings in Sacramento and building the team into a contender, according to Ryan Lillis, Dale Kasler, and Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee, who say city officials view the possible pairing of the two investors as a "dream team."
• Johnson, who believes his message will resonate with the NBA, cautioned Seattle fans not to celebrate quite yet. "We as a community, we've had the emotional roller coaster (of trying to keep the Kings); it's hard," said the Sacramento mayor. "I would hate for them to be misled."
• Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game (Sulia link) doesn't view Johnson's group of Sacramento investors willing to pony up $1MM each as a major factor, especially since local investors would likely be less open to giving the Maloofs the $30MM non-refundable deposit that the Seattle group is said to be paying.
• Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee agrees that Sacramento needs to make a bigger splash than Tuesday's announcement if it wants to make a compelling case to keep the Kings.
• Chris Hansen is trying to railroad the NBA into relocating the Kings, writes Tom Ziller of SBNation.com, arguing that David Stern needs to tell the Seattle group to respect the process.