Seattle SuperSonics Thread

In 1994 Minnesota was denied a sale and relocation to New Orleans based on shaky financing. Nobody here would have any reason to believe shaky financing is at the root of the Hansen-Ballmer group. But what we can take from this are 1.) A team has been denied relocation while being forced to sell local (and set precedent) 2.) Two teams have been denied relocation, and 3.) Relocation is a last resort for any team due to market instability. So even if the Hansen-Ballmer group win out is it really a guarantee that they can relocate? Many have pledged in the grassroots HereWeBuy effort and it has risen into the 8 figures range. And there is an arena deal in place for whoever purchases the team.

It's really a tossup at this point.
 
There's a lot of excitement from Seattle it seems, but I'm still remaining cautious.  I'm sure I don't have all the facts, nor do I really know how the buy/relocating process works, but until it's officially-official, I'm not gonna expect anything.

Maybe that sounds overly (and perhaps unrealistically) pessimistic, but I don't need more disappointments. 
 
In 1994 Minnesota was denied a sale and relocation to New Orleans based on shaky financing. Nobody here would have any reason to believe shaky financing is at the root of the Hansen-Ballmer group. But what we can take from this are 1.) A team has been denied relocation while being forced to sell local (and set precedent) 2.) Two teams have been denied relocation, and 3.) Relocation is a last resort for any team due to market instability. So even if the Hansen-Ballmer group win out is it really a guarantee that they can relocate? Many have pledged in the grassroots HereWeBuy effort and it has risen into the 8 figures range. And there is an arena deal in place for whoever purchases the team.

It's really a tossup at this point.

Sentimentally, it's a toss-up. Economically, it's no contest. Seattle is a better market, financially, for an NBA franchise than Sacramento, plain and simple. Nobody can argue this. However, it's up to the NBA's BoG to decide what's in the best interest of the league: go for the feel-good story and stick with an established market, but make far less money, or move back to a former (well-established) market and make a lot more. That is what it boils down to. A local ownership group can get billionaires together and whatnot, but it's a different era of NBA ownership. They view it as a business, and they want to make money (or, in some cases, recoup what they've lost...at someone else's expense). They have to be salivating at a cut of a relocation fee (which they determine), plus a much bigger media market with a lot more corporate dollars (new TV deal in 2016). This all factors in.

And relocation is a guarantee if a sale to Hansen is approved. The owners would lose out on so much if they didn't approve a relocation. No point in approving a sale if they don't approve relocation.
 
The era of ownership is very different, I agree that what you said about increasing team value and maximizing profit is the goal. But with this logic it means that every teams' fans in a smaller market than Sacramento should be very afraid of losing their team to a bigger market than theirs. Portland, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, OKC, Memphis, and New Orleans are all smaller than us. Fans from those cities will all eventually lose their teams due to being smaller than Sacramento.

"Screw tradition, screw history, and screw your passion smaller markets. We don't care what your team's colors are. The only color we root for is green." - NBA Owners
 
The sale to Seattle is a perfect storm for the Maloofs. There have been numerous fair market offers from qualified investors to purchase the Kings over the past 5 years. The Maloofs turned them down because the offers were just that, fair market value. The only way the Maloofs would sell is if they received an offer that was vastly over the true value of the team, so they could pay off debt and still make profit for the family. The previous offers would allow the Maloofs to pay off debt, but not make any money on the sale.

The Seattle investors are literally the only ones who could overpay for the Kings because there is such a high motivation to get a team back to their city, and financially the Seattle market is more than prepared to support a new arena and team. It's a no brainer and smart business move by the Maloof family - "Of course we'll sell the team to whoever...for an extra $150,000,000!". Despite overpaying, the Seattle investors will still recoup their investment relatively fast because they're in a bigger city and the fans will truly appreciate having a team again. Investment groups like that have analysts that run every number, statistic, projection etc. possible, and it's looking like $525M fits their model.
 
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Hansen take Stern to court? Over what?

I hope you're not refferring to the non-refundable 30 million..

Because Hansen has no case when everybody knows every sale is subject to NBA approval since it it a franchise, so a non-refundable deposit is irrelevent.
Yes, I'm sure Hansen hasn't thought this through at all. He's just handing over $30 million with no plan beyond that. The guy's only been working on this project meticulously for two years,.
In that same light, does Hansen really want to kick off his ownership with a lawsuit against the league?
i didnt read it and i dont read basketball stuff on twitter
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 I literally posted an article about the Sac money men and you still wanted to argue 
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The era of ownership is very different, I agree that what you said about increasing team value and maximizing profit is the goal. But with this logic it means that every teams' fans in a smaller market than Sacramento should be very afraid of losing their team to a bigger market than theirs. Portland, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, OKC, Memphis, and New Orleans are all smaller than us. Fans from those cities will all eventually lose their teams due to being smaller than Sacramento.

"Screw tradition, screw history, and screw your passion smaller markets. We don't care what your team's colors are. The only color we root for is green." - NBA Owners
Expansion would be THE biggest lasting impression Stern could have before he retires. He expands the TV market share, and saves two awesome markets
 
Also, not trying to make this one city vs the other, but I found this pretty cool for folks *****ing about Sac's market viability 
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Haven't posted in here in a few days so sorry if already mentioned, but I just got a text from a friend of what was probably a tweet that mentions that the Hansen/Ballmer groups offer would boost the average NBA franchise value 30%. It's the biggest reason why the other owners want to approve it.
 
Overpaying for any franchise boosts the value of every team. I think it could definitely come down to the relocation fee. Are owners that greedy to agree to a relocation for an extra 3 mil?
 
How ******g stupid are the maloofs 
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They didn't even read their own ownership agreement before selling it 
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Kudos to Hansen for trying to truck this deal thru tho. Definitely the right strategy with Sacramento trying to play catch up and to bypass all this.
Breaking: #NBAKings limited partners are being denied right to match Hansen offer, bankruptcy trustee says. More coming online
— Dale Kasler (@dakasler) January 24, 2013
 
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