City of Seattle

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.

Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has worked feverishly to hold on to the Kings over the last few years and despite this weekend's agreement for the club to be sold to Seattle investors, Johnson is not ready to give up his fight.  The mayor called a presser this afternoon to announce that he has put together a group of perspective owners and hopes to unfurl his plan in full soon, possibly by the end of the week, tweets David Aldridge of NBA.com.

Johnson originally hoped to line up three to five local owners for the Kings but in three days he has already found 19 people to commit at least $1MM to buying the team (Twitter link).  There is a sense of urgency about the committee and Johnson says that he even 86'd plans to attend President Obama's inauguration to help put together the plan, Aldridge tweets.

You can check out the rest of today's news on the future of the Kings right here.

11:25pm: The 65 percent stake in the franchise is made up of the Maloof's ownership in addition to one minority owner, clarifies Stein, further adding that the NBA is expected to approve in order "to end this saga."  Even with all of these details coming in, it is worth noting that Sacramento mayor (and former NBAer) Kevin Johnson was told by David Stern last week that he could present a counter offer for the Kings directly to the league's Board of Governors. 

Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee, per a Johnson advisor, tweets that the mayor's camp considered this deal "fairly expected."  Jason Jones of the Bee tweeted a statement released by the mayor's office: 

"Sacramento has proven that it is a strong NBA market with a fan base that year in and year out has demonstrated a commitment to the Kings by selling out 19 of 27 seasons in a Top 20 market and owning two of the longest sellout streaks in NBA history. When it comes to keeping the team in our community, Sacramento is playing to win. In particular, we have been focused like a laser on identifying an ownership group that will both have the financial resources desired by the NBA and the vision to make the Kings the NBA equivalent of what the Green Bay Packers have been in the NFL."

11:07pm: The $525MM is a valuation of the total franchise, tweets Wojnarowski, meaning that the Seattle group will pay approximately $340MM for their 65 percent stake.  While it is far less than $800MM, the $525MM valuation is still significantly more than the $300MM Forbes figure listed below.

10:56pm: Now that the sale is finalized, the NBA's relocation committee will approve the franchise's move to Seattle for next season, tweets Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski, calling the process from here a "formality."  Wojnarowski adds that the plan has always been to reclaim the "Sonics" name upon returning to Seattle.  The deal was struck over the weekend of January 5th-6th, reports Wojnarowski, and by then Kevin Johnson's attempt to halt the process was too late.  ESPN's J.A. Adande confirms Stein's report and tweets that the Maloofs will retain a small piece of the team.

10:32pm: The Maloofs have reached an agreement to sell 65 percent of the Kings to a Seattle group led by Chris Hansen for $525MM, reports ESPN's Marc Stein (via Twitter).  Stein also tweets that the deal still requires "formal NBA ratification," but should it go through, the Hansen group intends to file for relocation by the league's March 1 deadline.  The figure reported by Stein implies the franchise is worth north of $800MM.  About a year ago, Forbes valued the Kings at $300MM. 

As for the remaining 35 percent of the franchise, Stein's sources tell him that no agreement has been reached and that portion of the ownership is made up of minority investors, which obviously does not include the Maloofs.  However, Stein reports that the Maloofs will receive a non-refundable $30MM deposit from the Hansen group regardless of whether sale is approved.  According to Tony Bizjak, a reporter from the Sacramento Bee, the Kings have declined to comment.