Friday, October 16, 2009

Kings May Be Moving Away From Sacramento


The city of Sacramento may not have the Kings around much longer. With the ownership (the Maloofs) failing at getting a new arena built and the current economic mess in California, the Kings may be on the way out.

According to ESPN's John Ireland, the Kings will probably be moving in the very near future ... possibly next season. They will have to do so if the franchise wants to be economically viable.

It's such a problem that even the NBA may endorse a move away from Sacto. There are plenty of NBA-ready cities and arenas out there that it would be foolish for the franchise to sit, wait and hope for new digs in Cali's capital.

So where do they go from here?

ANAHEIM KINGS? The Honda Center is an NBA-ready arena that has hosted a lot of basketball events already. The team would be close enough to keep some of its diehard fan base in northern California. The problem will be the fact that three NBA teams would be in the LA-Anaheim area and could be overkill. The Clippers have spent a quarter of a century trying to get some solid footing in the Lakers shadow. How hard would it be for the Kings to do the same?

KANSAS CITY KINGS? I like this. The Kings franchise moved to Sacramento from Kansas City over two decades ago. It should be easier to build a fan base there. They have the lovely Sprint Center ready for the NBA to come. Also, the NBA would get to have a nice regional rivalry between Kansas City and Oklahoma City.

LAS VEGAS KINGS? The Maloofs are Las Vegas kind of guys so it would make sense that they may think about moving to Sin City. The problems are numerous, however. Professional franchises have been very shy to even consider placing a team in the gambling capital of the country. Also, the Thomas and Mack Center is serviceable but isn't much of an upgrade over ARCO Arena.

SEATTLE SONICS? Seattle believes they are next up to get a franchise. They lost the Sonics over a year ago to Oklahoma City, but got to keep the Sonics name, logo and colors. Any franchise placed in that city would be the Sonics ... so the long running Kings franchise would pretty much be dead. Having said all of this, the stadium issues that made the original Sonics move haven't been resolved yet.

SAN JOSE KINGS? This move could make some sense. The team would only be moving south a bit and should be able to keep a lot of their fans. Yeah, it would butt in on the Golden State Warriors (who play in Oakland), but the Kings were already doing that in Sacramento. The HP Pavilion can house NBA basketball, but it's only five years younger than ARCO.

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