It looks like the NBA’s Sacramento Kings will eventually be leaving sunny California and heading to rainy Seattle, Washington in the near future. An investment group based in Seattle has signed an agreement to buy the controlling shares of the Kings.
Chris Hansen, a hedge-fund manager, leads the buying consortium as we will see the NBA return to the city for the first time since the Seattle SuperSonics left town back in 2008. The city of Sacramento has been trying to hang on to the club for a couple of years now, but many fans realized the day would be coming when the Kings were sold.
The financial details of the sale weren’t made public, but reports from basketball insiders believe the sale of the controlling interest in the franchise was worth approximately $340 million. The deal was confirmed Monday by Hansen as well as the NBA and the Maloof family, who own the Kings. However, the sale still has to be approved by the league and this could take a few months to do.
The buying group also includes Steve Ballmer, who is the chief executive of Microsoft. Seattle city council has given the group permission to build a brand new arena close to the waterfront just south of Seattle’s downtown area. The arena will reportedly cost close to $500 million and Seattle’s port authority is opposed to it.
Seattle basketball fans are thrilled the NBA is returning so soon after disappearing. The Supersonics were born back in 1967 and won the NBA championship in 1979. The franchise moved away to Oklahoma City in 2008 and was renamed the Thunder. The SuperSonics left due to a debate between the city of Seattle and the Clayton Bennett, the team owner.
The disagreements were over the amount of public investment in the city’s rundown KeyArena. While nothing has been confirmed by Hansen and his group, it’s widely believed that the Kings will be rechristened as the SuperSonics once the NBA approves the deal. The team is also likely to play its home games at the old KeyArena until the new stadium has been built.
The Thunder is the old SuperSonics franchise, so Seattle fans won’t be welcoming their old team back to town they’ll be getting a different franchise. However, Mike McGinn, the mayor of Seattle, said the fans aren’t really concerned which franchise it gets as long as the NBA is returning to the city.
McGinn warned fans that the sale is just the first of many steps, but it’s obviously a big one. He said there’s still a lot of work to do before everything is made official.
Seattle sports fans are regarded among the best in America as the Seattle Sounders MLS soccer team has the largest home attendance in the league. The city is also home to the Seattle Seahawks NFL team and the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball.
