The Board of Governors (BOG) meeting in Dallas on Wednesday brings together two potential ownership groups representing two different cities. Both groups have the same goal: the acquisition of the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball franchise from current owners Joe and Gavin Maloof.
Wednesday’s meeting of the BOG will conclude with the league’s 30 owners voting on the proposal to relocate the Kings from Sacramento to Seattle. Both ownership groups will have an opportunity to address the Board with their proposals.
Two weeks ago the possibility of the team moving seemed quite bleak after the NBA owners’ relocation committee voted unanimously to recommend that the BOG oppose the proposal to for the Kings to move to Seattle under the Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer led ownership group. That vote seemed to show that the league favored the proposal from Mayor Kevin Johnson and the Vivek Ranadive led Sacramento group.
Then the situation got desperate, as the Seattle group refused to give up by increasing their initial bid price of $525 million dollars up to $625—adding that they’re both willing and able to pay a relocation fee of $115 (roughly $4 million for each NBA owner).
Their willingness to throw around money for a team that hasn’t finished higher than 25th in the standings for the past five consecutive seasons, coupled with the Maloofs continued stubbornness, only added drama to what was once expected to be a simple vote by the Board of Governors.
While billionaire owners decide the fate of a basketball team and two cities, fans from each city were able to display good sportsmanship.
Sacramento King 5 award-winning local news anchor Chris Daniels was on the story all day, reporting everything as it has happened, prompting this response from a Twitter follower:
Daniels has been on top of the story. Yet, two fan bases hung in the balance.
There was no win-win scenario here, only two differing levels of pain for the potential loser. Should Sacramento win the rights to keep their team, their fans will be jubilant while (realistically) Sonics fans will walk away in mere disappointment. On the contrary, should Seattle win over the BOG and the Kings franchise their fans will be joyous while Kings fans will be devastated.
As bad as Seattle fans may have felt when the SuperSonics left town for Oklahoma City, they can at least understand what Kings fans are going through.
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[Updated]…And, the votes are in.
Fans in Sacramento can relax, at least for now.
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