Maloof Reaffirms Commitment to Sacramento, Say Kings Could Break Even This Year

by Ziller on Oct 11, 2009 7:36 AM PDT in Arena Comment 27 comments

There's lots of great material from Ailene Voisin's Sacramento Bee column on L'Affair San Jose. She talks to Gavin Maloof, who makes some more emphatic commitments to the Sacramento market. The most important note to me is the revelation that the Kings "are operating in the black and are projected to break even throughout the season, the result of reducing operational costs and more prudent salary cap management."

In other words:

LAYOFFS + PAUL WESTPHAL - EDDIE JORDAN - BRAD MILLER - PRESEASON TV - HOUSE PARTY LIVE = PROFIT

There was one other note which particularly piqued my interest: that Gavin Maloof is "dictating the new ticket packaging and marketing plans, and in general, pressing hard for the organization to reconnect with the community."

It's noteworthy for two reasons. First, it's good to see Maloof that engaged on the business side. But more ... that's John Thomas's job. Thomas had a rough start in Sacramento after being hired by the Maloofs as the team president at the behest of David Stern. There was a lot of drama during his first years, between Thomas and employees, Thomas and corporate sponsors, Thomas and community partners. His name is not particularly well-liked around certain segments of Sacramento, unfortunate as that may be.

Also, according to a prior Voisin column, we know that Thomas opposed ticket price decreases for this season.

Gavin Maloof said that some of the more expensive seats will be reduced by as much as $1,500 for the season. Additionally, the Kings will retain 1,000 of the $10 seats while adding $25.50 tickets for the corner sections of the upper level. [...]

The seismic shift occurred last Thursday during a five-hour discussion inside the coffee shop at the Palms. Some members of the organization's business department, including team president John Thomas, were concerned about making such drastic cuts because the Kings – with a small corporate base – rely so heavily on revenue generated by season-ticket sales.

And now, of course, we know that it was Thomas who secretly toured the HP Pavilion at the franchise's most vulnerable point, and then do-se-do'd around the local media when asked about it. It can be argued that though obviously the basketball side has struggled to move forward after th Glory Era ended, the business side has seen the same struggles. It seems like the Maloofs recognize that, and they are doing something about it. That's a win for fans.

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I think you also forgot

…minus name brand exercise balls, equals profit!

uh oh

by DirtyDribblers on Oct 11, 2009 7:46 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Ha. Very nice.

October 28th couldn't come soon enough.

by JETisKing on Oct 11, 2009 11:44 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Don't forget about the pending lawsuit from it

Lawsuit = Mega $$$$ for the organization!

by CloudyEyes on Oct 11, 2009 3:31 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1

by bignerd on Oct 11, 2009 8:23 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

A formula for success?

In this case, The Maloofs are seen to use the Heisley/Sterling derivative.

by betweentheeyes on Oct 11, 2009 7:58 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I'll leave my statement at this

At least they get that positive PR is better than negative PR.

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Oct 11, 2009 9:11 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

John Thomas needs to wake up and smell the coffee

Can’t make profit on expensive seats if no one buys em, and alienating your fanbase with cloak-and-dagger relocation movements don’t exactly motivate the few people willing to pony up for said seats. Sounds like this bum needs to start making more friends, cause with reports like these, he’s certainly making enemies.

by Citadel 29 on Oct 11, 2009 9:26 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I think we've figured out the elusive ?

by LPKingsFan on Oct 11, 2009 9:49 AM PDT reply actions 3 recs

Voisin's column...great material?

There’s never “a lot of great material” in Voisin’s columns. All she does is rehash what we already know and what other people have said in other articles. Do a couple of new quotes from the Maloofs saying what they just said last week make for a good column? She’s a pitiful writer and I still fail to understand how the Bee could keep her and get rid of the real sports talents they let go during the last wave of firings.

by sacnewsnet on Oct 11, 2009 10:22 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

She told you no, huh?

by ElRonToro on Oct 11, 2009 11:07 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

why don't you tell us how you really feel?

Victory is tasty.

by iashwash on Oct 11, 2009 11:07 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't disagree with you, Marty

But I still would have let you go.

SACTOWN ROYALTY - Try our thick creamy shakes!

by section214 on Oct 11, 2009 11:21 AM PDT up reply actions 2 recs

Marty McNeal

is infinitely better than Ailene Poison. She’s a dreadful writer as she dreams of the “funny angles in which Rubio’s muscle’s protrude”

by Smills91 on Oct 11, 2009 1:05 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

This is like arguing whether Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson was the better mass murderer

SACTOWN ROYALTY - Try our thick creamy shakes!

by section214 on Oct 11, 2009 1:11 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yet Roman Polanski got arrested for going to Switzerland.....

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Oct 11, 2009 1:41 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I believe he got arrested for going to a middle school.

"If you don't have anything good to say, LIE" - Mom

by HighTops on Oct 11, 2009 3:55 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought...

….he got arrested for making films like ‘The Pianist’.

by Smills91 on Oct 11, 2009 6:27 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I would suggest that maybe some monkey business was taking place.

But I have seen pictures of Voisin, so I know this is not the case. Maybe she has some dirt on the Editor.

by nothingbutnet on Oct 11, 2009 12:01 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Confusion about writing

She has the ability to write well. As in the technical ability to string one word after another in a coherent fashion and in more of an artful way than other sports writers.

IMHO, The Bee just confuses the ability to write well with the informed ability to articulate something intelligable about the Kings. There can’t be anybody higher up the follows the Kings well enough to even know what the real issues or discussion about this team are and thus they have no basis, beyond her ability to write artful prose, to judge her.

by MustangMBS on Oct 12, 2009 12:44 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The point of a columnist isn't necessarily to say what people want to hear

It’s to make people think from a different viewpoint. It doesn’t explain why she’s still employed (seniority does that by itself), but it does sort of point out why people don’t get it. The Bee would get as much feedback from a Voisin column than it did a Howard-Cooper column. It’s just that the feedback is different.

I think if the Bee had THEIR choice, they would have kept Scoop. They didn’t have their choice.

People are going to have let this go is all I’m going to say at this point.

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Oct 12, 2009 1:00 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I could not agree with you more.

She is a poor sports reporter. She rarely has an original idea for a story. Her story have that cut and paste feel to them. I have questioned her sources on some of the crap she has written. They should have kept Marty and fired this hack! And let us not forget, she was responsible for getting a HOF coach run out of town for claiming he couldn’t teach defense in Rick Adleman. Rick had no trouble teaching defense in Houston. The problem with the defense on the Kings at the time were the players not the coach, But that never stopped Alienated Poison from writing one personal atack after another to get Rick let go. How have done coaching wise since he left?? She stirs the pot to manufacture things to write about. She is a bad apple…

Another year, another chance to hope for the team !!

by FaStRmAn on Oct 12, 2009 10:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

All-righty then...

I grew up in San Jose, went to SJSU, watched the construction of the Shark Tank, etc., etc. I would love for my “home” town to get an NBA team, but not at the expense of Sacramento.

This is not the first time that San Jose has been outed by local media for talking to an established NBA team that was having arena issues. The Sharks’ owners (Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment, or SVSE) got together with Larry Ellison of Oracle in an attempt to buy the Supersonics and move them to San Jose, but Clay Bennett wanted the team in OKC, and pretty much made it happen. This was detailed in the article in the Murk.

SVSE now has a whole bunch more “idle” dates in their barn than they ordinarily have, what with the folding of the Arena Football League and the relocation of the indoor lacrosse team to Everett, WA. It’s only natural for them to be looking to fill dates, and why not have 41 dates filled at one shot?

Ordinarily, the “local rights fee” issue would be a stumbling block for a Kings move to San Jose, but consider also that the current owner of the ’Dubs, Chris Cohan, has pretty much succeeded in running that franchise into the ground, so much so that he has conceivably reduced the value of other NBA teams because of his mismanagement. While such a move would require approval of the NBA ownership, Chris Cohan is probably not going to stand as a very sympathetic figure in their collective eyes right now, especially when set in relief against Clan Maloof.

With all that said, I would like to believe the words of Gavin Maloof as stated in the articles, however business is business. SVSE has the ability to make a very compelling argument for moving to San Jose, and the Warriors’ brand name and image down in the Bay Area is circling the drain right now.

The question for the Maloofs is whether they want to trade a paid-for (but inadequate) 22-year-old building that they themselves control, for a pretty well-maintained 17-year-old building in which they would be a second banana tenant.

by SierraSpartan on Oct 11, 2009 11:23 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Thanks. Very nice of you to say that.

I would love for my "home" town to get an NBA team, but not at the expense of Sacramento.

October 28th couldn't come soon enough.

by JETisKing on Oct 11, 2009 11:46 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Very interesting final observation

I believe that the most important think to understand was the final quote from TZ’s piece.

Some members of the organization’s business department, including team president John Thomas, were concerned about making such drastic cuts because the Kings – with a small corporate base – rely so heavily on revenue generated by season-ticket sales.

The Kings need to win the support of the people of the city & county, and that is why public opinion is so important. But, they had 10,000 at the 1st preseason game, and only averaged 12,000 last year. Whether or not the Kings stay in Sacramento has just as much to due with attendence as it does with a new auditorium.

If they get a new facility and still only draw 12,000, they won’t be able to stay long. But, more importantly, will they even agree to a long term contract to play in a new facility if the fans don’t start filling Arco.

By the way, since the Kings only play 41 dates in Arco, I’m making a diliberate effort to stop calling it an Arena. We’re not just building a new facility of the Kings. We’re building a facility for the Ice Capades, Monster Truck ralleys, Concerts, MMA events, Circus, High School basketball championship, and so many other community events. We need to come up with another name for the place, because too many people associate Arena (as in Arco Arena with the Kings). And, this isn’t just a Kings facility. And, were not just building it for the Kings. Were building a Venue that the entire community can use to enjoy their individual form of entertainment. I just haven’t found the right name yet..

"If you don't have anything good to say, LIE" - Mom

by HighTops on Oct 11, 2009 11:55 AM PDT up reply actions 2 recs