Sacramento City, Maloof Brothers and NBA reach a tentative arena deal – Kings all set to stay
While the superstars from NBA were lighting up Orlando during the All-Star weekend, they were some people desperately fighting to keep the Kings in Sacramento.
On Monday, they finally reached a break through. Well, almost.
The city officials, Sacramento Kings owners – the Maloof brothers - and the league have come up with a deal to finance a new arena in Sacramento that will keep the franchise in the city. The deal is however still tentative as it requires the approval of the city council through a vote which will be conducted on 6th March.
The Maloofs, perturbed by the poor standard of facilities in the present arena, were on the verge of moving the franchise to Anaheim midway through the last season, but Kevin Johnson, the Mayor of Sacramento, who is also an former NBA player lobbied extensively for the franchise to stay put and eventually convinced the NBA board of governors to give the city a life line to come up with a financial plan for the new arena. The league had granted the city upto March 1 to offer something substantial to all the parties concerned.
When the Mayor left for the All-Star game in Orlando, the matter was still not out of the woods, but after three days of negotiations, the framework of the deal has been reached;
"I think when we left Sacramento and came to Orlando, you guys asked me how close were we. I thought it was a free throw -- and you need to make two free throws,” Johnson talking to the reporters at a news conference at the Waldorf Astoria at Walt Disney World.
"I think the city made the first free throw, and the Maloof family made the second free throw.
"It's game over."
Although the financial details of the pact are not expected to be out before Thursday, well placed sources have revealed that under the proposed framework, the city will bear the major cost of the $387 million arena, with the Maloofs and the arena operator AEG also contributing sizeable amounts.
"This is a great day for Sacramento, a great day for the Maloof family, a great day for the NBA" Joe Maloof said at the press conference. "I'd like to thank the mayor for all of his hard work and efforts throughout the years and, of course, the commissioner for all of his support and everything he's done for the NBA. Our family is just so excited that we have the framework for a deal. We've always said we wanted to stay in Sacramento and now here's our opportunity."
The blessings of the city council on Thursday will mean that the Sacramento Kings will enter the 2015-16 with a new arena.
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