Sacramento Kings News & Rumors

As April approaches, updates on the sale of the Sacramento Kings, and the competing bids put together by investments groups in Sacramento and Seattle, are coming more and more frequently. Yesterday, we heard that Sacramento City Council had agreed to move forward on a $448MM arena proposal, while Chris Hansen's Seattle group reached an agreement to buy Bob Cook's 7% share of the franchise. Here's the fallout from those stories, and the latest on the sale of the Kings:

• Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has released a list of 24 business that have committed $50MM in team coroporate sponsorships, writes Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee. Johnson also says he plans to have 10,000 season ticket purchase pledges by the time he makes his case in front of the NBA's Board of Governors next week. HereWeBuy.org currently has over 7,500 pledges.
• Meanwhile, Johnson also said he anticipated Hansen's purchase of Cook's stake in the Kings, and will announce a countermove within the next few days. "We are going to respond," Johnson said. "We do have a plan. I'm not going to get into detail about that now. We have been positioned to make a play, and I will announce what that is in the next day or two."
• Cook himself expects another current minority owner to match Hansen's offer for his 7% share. John Kehriotis, who has talked about wanting to put together a separate bid for a majority stake in the club, said he would "maybe" make a counter-offer, according to Bizjak.
• After some uncertainty, Sacramento now has the money, the momentum, and a plan to keep the Kings, says Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee.
• One source suggests to Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game (Sulia link) that the Sacramento group's level of commitment won't be "certified" until it offers the same $30MM non-refundable deposit that the Seattle group did. Still, the NBA is currently showing no preference for either city, playing the process "straight down the middle," a source tells Bucher.

We already passed along one major update on the Kings sale today, as Sacramento City Council approved an arena proposal put forth by a Sacramento investment group that includes Ron Burkle, Mark Mastrov, Vivek Ranadive, and Paul Jacobs. That means the group's bid to keep the Kings from moving to Seattle can move forward as planned, but that's not today's only piece of news.

According to Nick Monacelli of News10 in Sacramento, Bob Cook's bankruptcy lawyers have reached an agreement with Chris Hansen's Seattle group to sell Cook's 7% stake in the Kings for about $15.1MM (Twitter links). Cook's minority stake in the Kings was expected to be auctioned off in April, but a sale, if completed, would circumvent the auction process, says Monacelli (Twitter link).

Other limited partners who currently have a stake in the Kings will have the right of first refusal, giving them 15 days to match the offer. Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson tells Monacelli that the Sacramento group bidding for the Kings will come up with an offer of its own for Cook's 7% share within a few days (Twitter link). Although the agreement with Hansen prevents the solicitation of further offers, additional bids can still be reviewed, says Monacelli (via Twitter).

The sale of Cook's 7% share to Hansen requires the approval of a judge and the NBA, so my understanding is that it will eventually go through the same process that the majority sale of the team will — this just puts a little more pressure on the Sacramento group to commit some more money in the short-term.

The Sacramento City Council has approved an investment group's proposal to build a new arena in the city, voting 7-2 in favor of the arena plan last night, according to the Associated Press (link via USA Today). The proposal calls for the city to contribute $258MM to a new arena for the Kings, with another $190MM coming from a group that includes Mark Mastrov, Ron Burkle, Vivek Ranadive, and Paul Jacobs.

While the step is an important one in Sacramento's quest to keep the Kings, it wasn't unexpected, since the city approved an arena plan by the same 7-2 margin a year ago before the Maloofs backed out of the agreement. As Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times tweets, the Sacramento and Seattle groups will now receive an opportuntity to make a case for their respective bids to the NBA's Board of Governors on April 3rd. The Board of Governors is then expected to make a decision on the Kings' future later in April.

As for the Kings bid, ESPN.com's Marc Stein and NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper share a pair of updates on that front. Stein hears from one league insider that Sacramento is "gaining momentum" toward keeping the Kings (Twitter link), and that the value of the group's offer has kept "climbing and climbing" since commissioner David Stern suggested it wasn't high enough (Twitter link).

Meanwhile, Howard-Cooper reports (via Twitter) that Ranadive is expected to be the general partner and the No. 1 voice of the ownership group, should the Kings remain in Sacramento. As Howard-Cooper points out in a second tweet, that's not a huge surprise, since Ranadive was unlikely to give up his minority stake in the Warriors for a similar role with the Kings.

After recently adding Silicon Valley entrepreneur Vivek Ranadive to a bid led by Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov, the Sacramento group vying to keep the Kings has added a fourth "whale," as Tony Bizjak, Ryan Lillis, and Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee report. Ranadive announced last night that the Jacobs family, founders of Qualcomm, would also be joining the Sacramento group.

The Qualcomm trio is led by company CEO Paul Jacobs, and includes his brothers Jeff and Hal Jacobs. Ranadive and Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson both referred to the new four-headed Sacramento group as a "dream team."

"Each person in this has the capacity to do this on their own," Ranadive said. "This is about building a global brand. It's about putting more wood behind the arrow."

"Some of the most successful leaders in the state are coming together to do something truly transformational for the capital city," Johnson said. "Their belief in Sacramento speaks volumes about a community that's growing stronger by the day."

Things are looking more and more positive for Sacramento's bid for the Kings, which was at one point considered a long shot to challenge Seattle's offer for the franchise. The Sacramento group has finalized its bid and arena proposal, and that arena plan will be put before the City Council tonight. Assuming the council votes to move forward, the Sacramento group will get a chance to make its pitch to the NBA's Board of Governors next month, with a decision to follow shortly thereafter.

Sam Amick of USA Today reports that the prospective ownership-group led by Vivek Ranadive, Mark Mastrov, and Ron Burkle have agreed on a deal with the city of Sacramento for a new bid that will be presented to the Board of Governors meeting on April 3. Among the near billion dollars that will go toward purchasing the team, creating a new arena, and local real estate development, $190MM is expected to go toward the arena, which Amick notes is $58MM more than what the Maloof brothers and the NBA had originally agreed on last year before the deal fell through. 

According to an ESPN report (via the Associated Press), Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson announced that the city of Sacramento and the Ranadive-Mastrov-Burkle investment group have agreed on an arena deal worth $448MM. The City Council is expected to vote on the non-binding term sheet on Tuesday. If passed, the city would contribute $258MM through leasing parking garages and land. Amick adds that Sacramento's general fund would not be affected and no new taxes would be involved. 

Ranadive's involvement bodes very well for the Sacramento investors, especially after David Stern had recently commented that the initial bid presented under the leadership of Mark Mastrov needed to be increased. While the official size of the updated offer is yet to be announced, it is expected to meet Stern's expectations. Amick writes that the addition of Ranadive into the picture and the infusion of cash that accompanied him were exactly what was needed in the 11th hour for those working hard to keep the Kings.