The Kings moving to another city only really makes (any kind of) sense for the Maloofs if they wanted to sell the franchise. I don’t know why they couldn’ t make such unequivocal assurances earlier, but…whatever.

Would the market share fees that the KIngs would almost certainly have to pay to the Warriors or L*kers/Clippers make a move to those markets more diffiucult, if not impossible? I would imagine that they would have to pay the Dubs hundreds of millions, and you would double that down south. Additionally, are there really L*ker fans living in the Anaheim area that would switch their allegiance just because they now have a team that is 30 miles closer to them? Are there enough basketball fans in the San Jose area that would turn their backs on the Dubs?

I think the former Seattle team had to pay 50 million or so.

If they’re hurting bad enough to be flying Southwest, it might be tough for them to come up with the cash to move. And the 50 mil would likely only work for Kansas City.

The other locations would require additional fees to be paid to infringe upon existing team’s territories.

Pay 50 million to relocate to the city that couldn’t support the team before and allowed them to move to Sac? Seems rather foolish to me.

SR brings up a great point about Bennett. Even if you didn’t live in Seattle (like he did) when Bennett bought the team, you didn’t have to be living there to know he was insincere. I knew the moment that Schultz sold the Sonics to Bennett that unless a new arena was built under Bennett’s WISHES, the Sonics were gone. As SR knows, Bennett wanted to put the new arena in Renton which is in the SE part of King County. It would be a lot like deciding to put a new arena in Elk Grove for instance.

The only thing that could have saved the Sonics by that point was the Hornets moving to OKC full time. (Which they should have done, but I digress.)

There a lot of villians here. Frank Chopp, who is my state rep sadly, has repeatedly killed legislation, even in the aftermath with Clay Bennett’s money at stake, that would rebuild Key Arena or a new arena somewhere else.

Here’s the difference between the Maloof’s and Bennett. Bennett paid a premium price for the Sonics so he could move them to OKC. The Maloof’s didn’t pay an extreme price for the Kings even at that time. They took a lot of Jim Thomas’ debt (70 million loan) on, and a few other issue’s. It was almost interesting to see John Moag chafe in print given that he had set up the Maloof’s to walk away (in his mind) for more money somewhere else (in his mind).

As 214 has pointed out, and I don’t give a shit what other people think here to be honest, Anaheim and San Jose are very faulty idea’s. If you think the territorial rights for San Jose to the Warriors is going to be high, what do you think it will be to cut into both the Clippers AND Lakers rights? Do you think the Lakers wouldn’t charge AT LEAST a 100 million dollars to move there? Get real. You’re fooling yourself and you’re more full of shit than Governator if you believe as such.

Kansas City is a far different issue, as is Vegas. KC has the arena, but the predominant sports there are as follows: KU basketball, and Chiefs football are always tops in priority there. The Maloof’s know that. (They’re not stupid people. Business people yes, and wealthy yes, and while I do not feel sorry for them one bit on any score, I do believe that THEY HAVE LOOKED around.) They don’t want to be the 4th most important team behind a chronically awful Royals team, a team like Kansas U basketball that is perenially a national power (not to mention the comparisons all the time), and a Chiefs team that will cut directly into profits for at least the first 2 months of the season. Oh, and the playoffs are right in the beginning 3 months of baseball, too.

How is Kansas City more attractive than Sacramento?

Vegas is another issue, but it’s far more complex. Vegas doesn’t have an arena built (unlike KC), and while I think it’s attractive to the Maloof’s for a ton of reason’s, the reality is that in the current economic climate Vegas has been hit hard. The Maloof’s, after all, are keenly aware of this. I’m beginning to wonder if privately they recognize that Vegas was trendy for a decade but long term it’s not sustainable for a sports team to stay there. There are, for the locals, too many other things to do there already. It would be tough to sustain something of that nature long term.

I think the biggest threat, ironically, is Seattle. There’s a lot of money up here (including old WAMU money). There is wealthy people (and not just a Steve Ballmer) who might buy the team if the circumstances are right. The Maloof’s may sell if they believe that they can’t get a new arena despite not threatening to move the team. I don’t think this will happen in the next 2 years, but 3 years might do it. You can laugh about the idea of Seattle, but it would not be unreasonable to completely renovate Key Arena while the “New Sonics” would play somewhere else (probably a mixture of Tacoma Dome and Hec Edmundson—Where UW plays basketball—-would be my guess).

In short, I think the Maloof’s will sell the Kings and the new owners will move the Kings somewhere. And, with the Nets moving to Brooklyn (almost certainly now), the Hornets may or may not stay in New Orleans for a lot longer if George Shinn continues to be a knucklehead about things there, the Kings may be the most ripe target. I may remind that the Maloof’s own Arco, not the city. I also remind that the Maloof’s have a lot of debt on the team (whatever they took in actual losses last season—it can’t be that much—the 70 million dollar loan, plus any carry-over debt that may have come from the Lukenbill and/or Thomas era as well. This doesn’t even include the loan the Maloof’s took out last season before the cost cutting/cash saving moves took place.)

 (Sorry for the broken promise TZ, 214 & G.)