NBA commissioner David Stern fielded numerous questions Saturday but provided little news about the future of the Sacramento Kings during his last All-Star weekend news conference. A Seattle group has reached an agreement to buy the team from the Maloof family with the goal of moving it to the Northwest, and Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson is trying to keep the Kings in California’s capital.

Stern said owners will continue to discuss the plans and will hear from Johnson with the goal of deciding at their April board meeting. Without saying how, Stern said Sacramento has a chance of beating out what he has said is a strong bid from the Seattle group.

“Oh, certainly it’s plausible to me, but I don’t have a vote,” Stern said. “But I expect the owners to have a very open mind on this. And it isn’t plausible yet to talk about it until the predicates have been fulfilled.”

Stern plans to retire on Feb. 1, 2014, on what would be the 30th anniversary of his appointment to the job. The 2014 game is going to New Orleans, and deputy commissioner Adam Silver said the 2015 event is likely headed to either the Knicks’ Madison Square Garden or the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Silver didn’t say when a decision would be made. The New York bids are not the only ones the league is considering.

Sacramento may be out of the NBA business by then. A Seattle group led by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer has reached an agreement with the Maloof family to buy 65 percent of the franchise, which is valued at $525 million, and move the team to Seattle and restore the SuperSonics name. The deal will cost the Hansen group a little more than $340 million.

Johnson has asked for and been granted a chance to deliver a competing offer, which is expected by March 1, and to address the board. And he insists his city has a “competitive advantage” because the NBA previously approved Sacramento’s financing plans for a new arena last year when it thought it had brokered a deal between the Maloofs and the city that the owners later pulled out of.

“We’re going to deliver a brand new arena downtown. At the end of the day, that’s a key variable and I think it gives us a competitive advantage,” Johnson said in a separate news conference. “We have a deal that was approved by the NBA already, where the city has a significant public investment that we’re willing to put forward, to build a brand new arena. That’s a key reason why unfortunately a team left Seattle and why teams do leave, is you can’t get arena deals done.”

Stern was asked if the decision will come down strictly to the arena deal.

“This is strictly about what the owners decide,” he said. “There’s a great and strong application from a terrific city to bring in a third and possibly a fourth team in a brand-new building, well-financed ownership group, without the ability yet to build, because there are several things that have to be overcome. But that’s really good. So if you’re a commissioner, you like that.”

Johnson came to Houston in hopes of gaining support for Sacramento, though he and Stern have not met and there are no plans for a meeting. His fight for the Kings contrasts somewhat with the response Stern got from Washington politicians before the SuperSonics eventually moved to Oklahoma City. Stern recalled that the Seahawks and Mariners got public funding for new stadiums that wasn’t available for the Sonics.

Stern said it “saddened” him to depart because Seattle was a great city, but that “history was being rewritten” about the way the NBA left it.

With reporters from both cities jamming the room where his news conference was held, and occasionally appearing bored by their repeated questions, Stern added he couldn’t see any scenario in which both Seattle and Sacramento would be happy. He and Silver both doubt expansion is something that would be considered soon.

He said the committees that will decide in April have a difficult choice.

The post David Stern discusses Kings’ future appeared first on IdealCapper.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal has been reached.

One person says the Kings could sell for more than $500 million. The Kings’ future in Sacramento has been uncertain because the Maloofs and the city haven’t been able to come up with a long-term arena solution.

Yahoo! Sports first reported the discussions between the Kings and Hansen. Yahoo! reported a possible sale could land the Kings in Seattle for the 2013-14 season, where the team would play at KeyArena as a temporary home until a new arena is constructed.

A source close to the Maloofs, however, insisted to ESPN that an agreement has not yet been reached and that the Maloofs are still unsure whether they want to sell the team.

Hansen reached agreement with local governments in Seattle last October on plans to build a $490 million arena near the city’s other stadiums: CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field. As part of the agreement, no construction will begin until all environmental reviews are completed and a team has been secured.

Hansen’s group is expected to pitch in $290 million in private investment toward the arena, along with helping to pay for transportation improvements in the area around the stadiums. The plans also call for the arena to be able to handle a future NHL franchise. The remaining $200 million in public financing would be paid back with rent money and admissions taxes from the arena, and if that money falls short, Hansen would be responsible for making up the rest. Other investors in the proposed arena include Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and two members of the Nordstrom department store family.

“I know as much as you do,” Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn told The Associated Press when asked about the situation. “If it’s true, ain’t it cool?”

His counterpart in Sacramento thought the news anything but cool. At an afternoon news conference, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said Wednesday was significant because for the first time Kings fans know the team is for sale. Johnson said he would do all he could to try to find a buyer with a Sacramento connection to possibly purchase the team and keep it in California’s capital city.

“We’re going to fight, and we’re used to being in this situation,” he said.

The NBA had no comment. Representatives for Hansen did not return messages seeking comment. Any franchise looking to relocate must submit their plans to the NBA by March 1 and the move must be approved by the league.

“As we have said for nearly a year, we will not comment on rumors or speculation about the Sacramento Kings franchise,” Maloof family spokesman Eric Rose said when contacted Wednesday by the AP.

The Kings’ asking price would top the NBA-record $450 million the Golden State Warriors sold for in July 2010. Johnson said he’s had past discussions with more than one group about possibly stepping forward as owners if the Kings were up for sale.

“All indications that I have seen and read and heard is they are exploring opportunities to sell the team, and that is public and that is the first I have ever heard,” Johnson said. “We need to put ourselves in a position to find an ownership group and buyers to keep the team here in Sacramento.”

Johnson said he had not spoken with any members of the Maloof family or NBA commissioner David Stern on Wednesday.

News of the discussions came a day after officials in Virginia Beach, Va., announced they were dropping their efforts to build a new arena. Virginia Beach was thought to be a relocation option for the Kings.

The Maloofs backed out of a tentative $391 million deal for a new downtown arena with Sacramento last year, reigniting fears the franchise could relocate. Johnson and the Kings broke off all negotiations in the summer.

In 2011, the Kings appeared determined to move to Anaheim before Johnson convinced the NBA to give the city one last chance to help finance an arena. At one point, Johnson seemed so certain the team was gone he called the process a “slow death” and compared the city’s efforts to keep the Kings a “Hail Mary.”

Johnson made a desperate pitch to the NBA Board of Governors in April 2011, promising league owners the city would find a way to help finance a new arena to replace the team’s outdated suburban facility. That pitch bought the Kings time, before the brokered deal between the city and the Maloofs fell apart last year.

Johnson said the Maloof family still must repay a $77 million loan to the city and other lenders.

While some players around the league took to Twitter on Wednesday to express their excitement about the possibility of the NBA returning to Seattle — especially those players from the Puget Sound area — others were more reserved.

“There’s a part of me that’s disappointed because Sacramento, I’ve enjoyed my times. I think Sacramento is a great town,” said Denver coach and former Seattle coach George Karl. “I’m not going to lie — I’m happy that Seattle is going to have a team more than Sacramento. But I am disappointed that Sacramento can’t keep their team.”

The post Seattle investor eyes Kings appeared first on IdealCapper.