Anaheim will not wait on NBA Kings

Seven months later, what's going on with the Anaheim Royals?

Excuse me, they're still the Sacramento Kings, aren't they?

Sacramento Kings fan Ralph Miller IV, 9, holds a sign conveying his sentiments during the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball game against the Lakers in Sacramento last April. Many were expecting the Kings to move to Anaheim's Honda Center.

RICH PEDRONCELLI, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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My apologies. Anaheim Royals was the name trademarked by the Maloof family, the owners of the NBA's Kings, while negotiating with Honda Center officials to move their franchise to Anaheim earlier this year.

Those negotiations ended abruptly on May 2, hours before the NBA's twice-extended relocation deadline, when the Maloofs bowed to league pressure and announced the team was staying in Sacramento at least another year to give city officials one final chance to secure funding for a new arena in the state capital.

Seven months later, the foot-dragging continues in Sacramento, with no arena financing plan in place and the NBA's March 1 relocation deadline looming on the horizon.

How time flies when progress is as slow as a glacier.

The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday night voted 7-2 in favor of exploring the concept of privatizing city-owned parking to raise money for the arena project.

A city-commissioned report estimates that privatizing (or monetizing) parking in a 50-year lease with a private operator could bring in from $170 million to $245 million, thereby providing the lion's share of financing for the proposed $406 million arena. But that, too, is a slow process that could take months to finalize.

And yet the Sacramento Bee reports that city officials want to finalize "a financing term sheet -- detailing the various public and private contributions toward the (arena) project ? by mid-February." Want to? "Have to" is a more accurate statement considering the March 1 deadline.

But maybe we'll know more soon, because the Bee also reported that NBA commissioner David Stern will meet Friday in New York with Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson and Tim Leiweke, CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group, the LA-based business conglomerate that apparently wants to operate, and likely will invest in, the new arena.

AEG, of course, has an ulterior motive in helping finance a new Sacramento entertainment and sports complex, because it owns Staples Center as well as a percentage of the Lakers. The Lakers' new TV contract with Time Warner Cable (reportedly $5 billion over 25 years beginning in 2012-13) also has a provision that reduces its value 10 percent annually if a third NBA team is in the market. So do you think AEG and the Lakers want the Kings in Anaheim?

The Lakers and AEG openly campaigned against the Kings' proposed relocation to Orange County earlier this year, but so far the move only has been delayed. In May, Stern promised the Maloofs they could file for relocation in 2012 if a "viable arena plan" doesn't materialize by next March.

Seven months later, there is still no arena financing plan in place. Sports management consultant Dan Barrett of Manhattan Beach-based Barrett Sports Group told the Sacramento Bee that negotiations with AEG have made "good progress" but negotiations with the NBA have not been "as productive as we would like, given where we are" with respect to the March 1 deadline.

So if parking privatization revenue comes up short and if other revenue sources from the private sector don't add up to the $406 million arena pricetag, how much will AEG be willing to pay ? and how much will the NBA contribute ? to keep the Kings from moving?

How much will the Kings and the Maloofs, who weren't even invited to Friday's meeting in New York, be willing to contribute to the arena project as anchor tenants?

Sacramento city officials have said they don't want to issue bonds to finance any portion of the new arena, probably because that would require a public vote that could scuttle the project.

All of this presumably will be discussed Friday in New York, and it's a safe bet Stern doesn't want to wait until March, either.

But don't make the assumption that Anaheim officials who negotiated seven months with the Maloofs a year ago are waiting in the wings hoping the latest Sacramento arena initiative blows up.

Michael Schulman, chairman of Anaheim Arena Management, the Henry Samueli-owned company that runs Honda Center for the City of Anaheim, said Wednesday that he had no comment on developments in Sacramento.

"We're staying out of Sacramento's affairs," Schulman said. "I'm really neutral. We would be happy if Sacramento got the new arena."

Interesting. Schulman also said AAM would simply "move on to the next team" that showed an interest in moving to Honda Center.

A warning shot, perhaps, to AEG and the Lakers that NBA basketball in Anaheim is inevitable?

A hint that another team (New Orleans, Charlotte or Memphis?) might be interested in moving here?

Seven months later, the intrigue continues.

Contact the writer: ryoungman@ocregister.com

Source: http://www.ocregister.com/sports/arena-331565-sacramento-new.html

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