David Stern Says The NBA Sacramento Arena Will Not Happen

Commissioner David Stern backs Sacramento Kings owners, who expressed concerns about arena project. They almost moved team to Anaheim last year, and an official says their 'focus is still on Anaheim.'

NBA Commissioner David Stern said Friday a new arena in Sacramento is "not going to happen," and lent his support to owners of the Sacramento Kings who have said the arena project has too many financial and political uncertainties to open on schedule in 2015.

At a news conference at the NBA Board of Governors meeting in New York, Stern made no promise about the Kings' remaining in Sacramento beyond the 2012-13 season. "It just wouldn't pay for me to talk about anything beyond that," he said.

A year ago the Kings nearly moved to the Honda Center in Anaheim before agreeing to stay in Sacramento while city officials tried to finalize plans for a new arena.

In February the Maloof brothers, who own the Kings, and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson reached a tentative deal for a new public and privately-funded $391-million arena in downtown. Last month The Times reported the Maloofs were raising doubts about promises by officials to have the new arena built by opening night of the 2015-16 NBA season.

A basketball official close to the situation, but not authorized to speak publicly, said Friday the Kings owners' "focus is still on Anaheim."

"I'm protective of the Kings' rights to do what they can," Stern said. "[The deal] made the owners of the Kings incredibly uncomfortable. . . . It came with a cost that further burdened the team, and this was not a transaction they wanted to go forward with. That's their right."

Previously, Stern has strongly pushed to keep the Kings in Sacramento.

The Maloofs said Friday they remain "committed to remaining the Sacramento Kings," although they gave the city a list of concerns that need to be resolved before the family would commit to the new arena.

Johnson said, "It just feels like they were coming up with reasons of why not to do the deal."

Anaheim and Honda Center officials did not comment Friday.

Meanwhile, the 20-year-old Honda Center is in the process of making multimillion-dollar upgrades to increase its standing as an NBA-ready facility. Seattle also hopes to lure an NBA team.

On Thursday, Kings owners George, Joe and Gavin Maloof made a presentation to the NBA's relocation committee detailing their concerns about who would pay for pre-development costs, as well as rising political opposition to the $260 million in public funds to be spent on the Sacramento arena.

"We were working to get a deal done, not to kill the deal. How do we negotiate when we don't hear back from the city?" George Maloof said at a news conference Friday.

"It's fair to say the Maloofs don't want to do it," Stern said Friday. "If they had [said that] sooner, earlier, it could have saved some angst."

In Anaheim, arena operator and Ducks owner Henry Samueli has previously agreed to loan the Maloofs up to $75 million for the move south.

N.B.A. Cures the Problem of Ownership, While The Other Takes a Wrong Turn

N.B.A. solve the puzzle franchise on Friday, when it was announced the sale of the New Orleans Hornets, a neighborhood in the league since 2010, Tom Benson, owner of the saints, for $ 338 million.

But the league also faced with the collapse of a preliminary agreement to build an arena for the Sacramento Kings, and the very real possibility that the franchise will move as threatened in the past.

"I think there's nothing else to do," NBA commissioner David Stern said at a news conference in Manhattan after a meeting of the Board of Directors of the League of Governors. "I think what we've done as much as we can."

Now, Stern says he can guarantee that the Sacramento Kings will play only until 2014.

The preliminary agreement between the city and the Maloof family, which owns the Kings, was reached in February in Orlando, Florida, George Maloof said in a telephone interview that his family had accepted the terms of the new financial arena, but many issues have been resolved.

"We had a major financial institution, but from the time we got a Term Sheet February 19, we had questions," he said. These issues include the duration of the lease, the design approval of the proposed arena, operating costs play at the new facility, and naming rights.

On Thursday, Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento, former NBA star, said in a letter Maloofs, "In any case, the city, to make major adjustments in the current market conditions."

This message was reinforced at a meeting on Friday in Manhattan, between Johnson and the Maloofs.

"We can not solve it," Maloof said. He said Johnson was not interested in helping can be updated Power Balance Pavilion, where the team the option that says Maloof family is first raised on Friday.

At a press conference, Johnson said Maloofs have been over if they are renovated arena.

"I do not know the Maloofs going to do," he said. "I know that they are not going to fulfill its obligations under the arena in the city center."

Maloof stated that the filing of a request to move was "not what we think about."

Stern said it was right to abandon the Maloofs optional agreement, which calls for the contribution of at least $ 73 million and the Maloofs $ 255 million to the city.

League was Maloofs lend $ 67 million and will contribute $ 7 million to the project.

Selling the Hornets to Benson, the league returned to 318 million U.S. dollars he paid in late 2009 when it acquired the franchise is losing money from George Shinn, and about $ 20 million more to cover its losses.

Adam Silver, Deputy Commissioner, said that the league is not trying to make money on the transaction or participate in the bidding war. "For smaller markets, it is a very full price," he added.

In Benson, Stern said: "We really found the perfect owner."

Later he added: "We have worked very hard together to get rid of the current property."

Benson, 84, said he still would have tried to buy the Hornets if he does not speak of the saints.

"It is so important to the Hornets in New Orleans," said Benson, who was once a minority shareholder in the San Antonio Spurs. "If you were on the phone with the governor, I thought he was going through Kiss me."

Hornets left Charlotte for New Orleans after the 2001-2 season and was forced to move to Oklahoma City for two seasons after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city. They became stronger team at point guard Chris Paul in 2005, winning 56 games in 2007-8, 2008-9 and 49 games in 46 games last season.

But after the lockout ended in December last year, Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. This season the Hornets are 17-42.

Hornets may benefit from the success of the saints in the sale of sponsorship and subscription-based 71,000.

Saints made a "very good to enjoy the modest size of the market," said Marc Ganis, industry consultant who advises sports Benson to buy Hornet.