Not to deflate the mood on what should be a day of celebration in Sacramento, but it is quite possible that a year from now Kings fans will lose their battle to keep the Kings in Sacramento.
If efforts to get a new arena built fall short — and if public money is required it likely will — then the other NBA owners are not going to stand in the way of the Maloof brothers moving their team.
But don’t bet on it being to Anaheim.
Lakers owner Jerry Buss led an drive to block that move, and while he got a big boost from Mayor Kevin Johnson’s effort in Sacramento, the organized opposition from him (and Clippers owner Donald Sterling) mattered. Ray Ratto at CSN Bay Area explains.Seattle lost the SuperSonics because Clay Bennett didn’t have enough opposition to his plan to move to Oklahoma City, come hell or high water. Oh, there was Mark Cuban, but who listens to him? Certainly not his partners.
There was, however, plenty of resistance to the Maloof Brothers’ plan to find their bliss in Disneyland, and it began with Jerry Buss, who simply didn’t want the television audience for his LakerTV network to be splintered further by the addition of a third Southern California team….
But when Gavin Maloof was asked if there was any unhappiness with the Lakers’ role in foiling their escape plan, he didn’t answer for a good 10 seconds before saying he wanted to focus instead on Sacramento and its fans.
That opposition isn’t going away.
In fact, it runs deeper and into bigger pockets than just the already respected Buss family. If you want to go down the conspiracy rabbit hole with me, connect the dots in the next paragraph.
Sports business powerhouse AEG owns a minority share of the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as the Staples Center (and a bunch of other arenas around the world). They are someone David Stern wants to stay on the good side of and they are interested in the Lakers continuing to turn a nice profit. Coincidentally, AEG is tied to ICON Venue Group, which is planning the new building in Sacramento. Also AEG owns the brand new, NBA ready Sprint Center in Kansas City (designed by ICON), a market that does not have an NBA team in it.
Draw any lines there you want.
Anaheim comes with one big advantage — its own billionaire. Broadcom founder Henry Samueli has the money to lure a team to the Honda Center in Anaheim, which he runs. He has the money to make the changes to the building the NBA would demand. He has the money to give large loans to any potential teams moving in who may have debt problems.
If Sacramento can’t get its building together, Anaheim may again be the preferred choice by the Maloofs for a move. But don’t bet on that being the landing spot. The opposition to bringing a third team into the Southern California market is strong.
