The league’s Relocation Committee has unanimously recommended that the NBA Board of Governors deny the application of the Sacramento Kings to relocate to Seattle.
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The NBA lowered an emphatic boom Monday on Seattle’s hopes of bringing the Sonics back, as the league’s Relocation Committee unanimously recommended that the Sacramento Kings not be allowed to relocate.
The recommendation of the seven-person committee will be forwarded to the NBA Board of Governors for a vote in the week of May 13. It is expected the board will follow the recommendation of the committee and deny the request of the Kings to move to Seattle.
That puts a halt, for now, to Chris Hansen’s nearly three-year quest to bring the NBA back to town.
But Hansen, who leads a group that reached an agreement in January to buy the Kings from the team’s owners, the Maloof family, released a statement Monday night saying the battle is not over.
“We have a binding transaction to purchase the Kings for what would be a record price for an NBA franchise,” Hansen’s statement read, “have one of the best ownership groups ever assembled to purchase a professional sports team in the U.S., have clearly demonstrated that we have a much more solid Arena plan, have offered a much higher price than the yet to be finalized Sacramento Group, and have placed all of the funds to close the transaction into escrow. As such, we plan to unequivocally state our case for both relocation and our plan to move forward with the transaction to the league and owners at the upcoming Board of Governor’s Meeting in Mid-May.
“When we started this process everyone thought it was impossible. While this represents yet another obstacle to achieving our goal, I just wanted to reassure all of you that we have numerous options at our disposal and have absolutely no plans to give up. Impossible is nothing but a state of mind.’’
Hansen made an aggressive move for the team, offering $357 million for 65 percent of a total valuation of $550 million that was the most ever bid for an NBA franchise.
The sale, and a later request for relocation, needed approval of the NBA Board of Governors to become official, however, and that gave Sacramento time to mount a counteroffer that ultimately kept the Kings where they have played since 1985.
The recommendation of the seven-person committee will be forwarded to the NBA Board of Governors for a vote in the week of May 13. It is expected the board will follow the recommendation of the committee and deny the request of the Kings to move to Seattle.
That puts a halt, for now, to Chris Hansen’s nearly three-year quest to bring the NBA back to town.
But Hansen, who leads a group that reached an agreement in January to buy the Kings from the team’s owners, the Maloof family, released a statement Monday night saying the battle is not over.
“We have a binding transaction to purchase the Kings for what would be a record price for an NBA franchise,” Hansen’s statement read, “have one of the best ownership groups ever assembled to purchase a professional sports team in the U.S., have clearly demonstrated that we have a much more solid Arena plan, have offered a much higher price than the yet to be finalized Sacramento Group, and have placed all of the funds to close the transaction into escrow. As such, we plan to unequivocally state our case for both relocation and our plan to move forward with the transaction to the league and owners at the upcoming Board of Governor’s Meeting in Mid-May.
“When we started this process everyone thought it was impossible. While this represents yet another obstacle to achieving our goal, I just wanted to reassure all of you that we have numerous options at our disposal and have absolutely no plans to give up. Impossible is nothing but a state of mind.’’
Hansen made an aggressive move for the team, offering $357 million for 65 percent of a total valuation of $550 million that was the most ever bid for an NBA franchise.
The sale, and a later request for relocation, needed approval of the NBA Board of Governors to become official, however, and that gave Sacramento time to mount a counteroffer that ultimately kept the Kings where they have played since 1985.
