Report: Kings ownership meets with Virginia Beach reps

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As Virginia Beach moves forward with its proposal to build a 350-million arena, news leaked Wednesday that Sacramento Kings ownership recently met with Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and city officials, according to a report by The Virginian-Pilot.
"A representative of an NBA team eyeing a move to Virginia Beach has had meetings in Richmond with Gov. Bob McDonnell and the city, according to Warren Harris, the city's director of economic development."And while Harris would not reveal which team was involved, The Virginian-Pilot cites two other sources present at the meeting who indicated it was the Kings.
"Two sources who were at a city department director meeting last Thursday said Harris gave a brief update on the arena and told the group that (Mayor Will) Sessoms and the governor had recently had meetings with the ownership of the Sacramento Kings and mentioned the Maloof family, which owns the team, by name."The city is pitching a statewide impact of an NBA team in the area close to 503 million per year, and claims it would create 3,700 jobs.

There is a City Council meeting scheduled this Tuesday in which a second study on the economic impact of the arena will be presented.

Reports first surfaced Aug. 23 saying a consortium of sports and entertainment companies are working to bring the NBA's Sacramento Kings to Virginia Beach, VA.

RELATED: Report: Kings in talks to move to Virginia

But less than a week later, another report indicated the Kings were not involved in the Virginia Beach arena talks.

RELATED: Report: Kings not involved in Virginia Beach arena talks

The Kings have maintained their position, stated by George Maloof Jr.:

We have been approached by several cities over several years about moving the Kings, and we will not comment other than that."

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