RealGM

This is serious.....

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... inia_Beach

Well that's just **** great.

On the plus side, as some one who grew up not far from there, I can assure you the team will be destroyed by a hurricane if they go there.

City officials and the Maloof family are expected to announce Wednesday that the Kings will land in Virginia Beach, sources said

http://insidebiz.com/news/sources-sacra ... deal-works

WTF...

Updates posted on Sactownroyalty.com:

UPDATE (10:46 AM):

CBSSacramento has got hold of the Maloofs for comment:

However, Kings part-owner Joe Maloof rejected the claim. "We haven't talked to Virginia beach," he said.

The statement was echoed by team spokesman Eric Rose: "George said it best, we have been approached by several cities over several years about moving the Kings and we will not comment other than that."

UPDATE (11:25 AM):

Via Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today

NBA spokesman Mike Bass on Kings: "We have no information from the Kings on this matter and there has been no application for relocation."

UPDATE (11:59 AM):

From KJ:

I spoke with the NBA, neither they nor my office has been contacted by the Kings. At this point there is nothing new to report.

Alright...that's mostly encouraging.

I mean if nothing else, I can't imagine there's any possibility they'd announce it now. That would be a surefire way to tank the season in terms of ticket sales. They'd wait until the relocation deadline was near again.

Yeah, gonna call BS on them announcing it next wednesday. Pretty sure they would need to be approved by the NBA first, and when they were thinking of going to Anaheim, that was announced by the NBA weeks before the deadline was even put out.

Well, if this is true, I can rest easy and move on, I will not root for a team in Virginia Beach thats for **** sure. That being said, can't wait to see what Stern does to make these clowns pay up one way or another.

A move like this would make ZERO sense and would prove that the Maloofs have just gone bat**** crazy. There are logical reasons why the Maloofs would want to stay in the arena they own, this would make no sense unless they were selling the team and if that were the case there are plenty of prospective buyers to keep the team in Sac. Not buying it either. They may be looking into building ideas perhaps, I don't know.

pillwenney wrote:Alright...that's mostly encouraging.

I mean if nothing else, I can't imagine there's any possibility they'd announce it now. That would be a surefire way to tank the season in terms of ticket sales. They'd wait until the relocation deadline was near again.

Soon as I read the part about them building a hotel I knew it was bunk. But this is the Maloofs here. With the way they've handled the last few years, the way this team has been "rebuilt" etc. anything could happen.

I wonder what the next rumored destination will be. Baghdad? Pyongyang?

personally as bad as it sounds i would prefer the kings to move to Seattle if they are going to leave no matter what i mean they had their team stolen from them and would appreciate having a team back although i don't want the kings stolen from their fans either

I am calling bs, this is a bluff, they would not announce this before the season.

Can't bluff me

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj4nJ1YEAp4[/youtube]

They would be foolish to, they could gain leverage in a multitude of places by insinuating this. That is all this is, they are going to try and get multiple people and places to put up their best deals.

What this tells me though is that by the deadline, we will know where our Kings will end up, and all the drama will be over.

At this point I'm even ready to be done with it!

If the Maloofs want to keep the team & make money they will eventually have to leave Sac. If they were going to sell I would think they would have done it by now. The big question is will the owners vote to let them move?

kevin44 wrote:If the Maloofs want to keep the team & make money they will eventually have to leave Sac. If they were going to sell I would think they would have done it by now. The big question is will the owners vote to let them move?

After they inform the city that they are moving and piss off the remaining fans who will most likely not attend any games this year...the Maloofs could go to the league and say "Sacramento won't attend any games! Look at the attendance this year!" in which the league/owners would probably approve their request.

Book it.

I don't think it will happen that way. When you run a bad product someone will stand up and say here is why....I don't think they have the support of their owners. Right now the Maloofs have gone rogue.

The NBA put its name on the Sacramento deal. The city was on board. Stern was on board. The Maloofs said no. This isn't like Seattle where the team did not have a building and had no intention of building one. Sacramento had a deal. The NBA was behind the deal. The Maloofs said no.

Moving to Va Beach will also put them OUT of the Pacific Conference. Moving to LA made a whole lot more sense, but to move to Va Beach means realignment. With all divisions having 5 teams and there being that "you play your division rival 4 times" theme why on earth would anyone on the West Coast sign onto two extra long road trips? Instead of getting on the bus and coming up from SF it's an ALL DAY trip for the Warriors. I think Memphis and NO would welcome it.

Unless the league realigned it's just not a good move. I am not saying realignment is not possible, but you need 32 teams to do like the NFL does. If expansion was a possibility I would say it could work. You let the Kings go and then you have expansion in Sac and Sea...everyone wins EXCEPT the NBA can't support two more teams as they were talking contraction a while ago.

It could work if:

Milwalkee goes to the North West, Portland goes Pacific, Kings go to the Atlantic and Toronto goes to the Central. Something like that would have to happen in order for this to work. Otherwise this ain't happening.

The attendance won't change no matter what they end up doing. If they stay & put out a bad product or if they announce they are leaving they will still get around 11,000 people. Wednesday we should known more if this is for real or not. Everyone knows the Kings will be gone as soon as the Maloofs can find a city to pay for an arena, pay for their moving cost & repay their 150 million dollar loans to the NBA & Sac.