In a story that I thought was going to take a turn for the dormant for the next few years, a quick blip hit the radar today as it was discovered through legal disclosure that Chris Hansen had made a contribution to a firm that represented opposition groups in Sacramento, gathering signatures to try to put their arena deal to a vote.

At first, I was a little surprised to hear that he would do that, considering Hansen has pretty much taken the high road (almost to a fault) during the entire ordeal that resulted in the NBA (read, David Stern) not allowing the move to happen in the first place.

Then, predictably, the vitriol from the people in the national media (well, mostly Deadspin) started to roll out.

Being a calm, somewhat rational being that hadn’t heard a peep from Seattle’s savior yet, I waited for his statement.  Lo and behold, he apologized.

Ever done something in the heat of the moment?  Have you ever had multi-million dollar land acquisitions planned for months along with a purchase and sale agreement with a $30 million dollar advance deposit to show your serious all of a sudden be jeopardized by the worst commissioner in professional sports?  While I know this blogs readership is pretty affluent, my guess – probably not.

So yeah, he plunked down some pennies to figure out what opposition was being mounted and the efforts that they were taking to block the arena, considering the fine folks of Sacramento, their mayor and David Stern had just done to him.  It was a small hedge to his giant bet on a system that is irrevocably broken.  He tried.  Deal with it.

Chances are, the effort in Sac to stop this is futile – and even if it did come to ballot, prove you want the team Sac-town.  Vote it in, and you get to watch years of DeMarcus Cousins instead of us.

Lastly, if anyone thinks that this is going to stop the Seattle NBA train from pulling into town and “how bad this makes Hansen look!!!!!!111″ – you are verifiably crazy.  This is a league where money talks, and the guy who somehow scared owners into being unanimous when they didn’t want to, is almost out of office.

I can’t wait for sports next best rivalry in a few years.  Seattle definitely has it out for NorCal.

Ok – so the relocation committee is going to recommend against the Hansen/Ballmer/Nordstrom (HBN) group moving the Kings upon them purchasing the team?

It’s now time for the good guy to become the bad guy.  If he wants to play the NBA way, I am going to lay out the steps below and possible outcomes from the chain of events.

• Immediately raise purchase price of controlling interest of the Kings another $120 million dollars.
  • There are theories floating out there that while the HBN offer was more than Sacramento’s in terms of straight up dollars for dollars (then accounting for debts held by the Maloofs that needed to be paid back to the city or something to that effect brought the two offers to basically dead even), it’s now time for Steve Ballmer to open the checkbook again and make the offer basically too good for the Maloofs to refuse.  This would immediately make the offers not even in the same territory.  Other owners will see this and basically can’t refuse someone who wants to pay that much for a franchise. (Not even 100% of a franchise, I might add)
• Drop the relocation bid, but keep purchase in play.
  • This sounds counter-intuitive, but it is time for some dirty poker.  Keep the land use permit application going, but change it to a large outdoor mall in the footprint of the purchased land.  Draw up the sketches and put them in the press.  It is going to take time to knock down these buildings anyways to clear room, so “work” can technically start.
• Immediately draw up plans for a $600+ million dollar publicly funded arena in the Railyards location in Sacramento.
  • This is an immediate flash-bang (COD style) right in the middle of Sacramento.  The city is debating the location of the arena in their plan (still) and there are supporters for the downtown Sac site, as well as the railyards which has come up a few times.
  • The dollar amount immediately launches this into the “can’t or won’t” get done territory.  It doesn’t matter, HBN is going through the motions anyways and can recant all of the Sonics arena talk that they have had going so far.  The leaked OKC emails didn’t stop this from happening  so a flagrant website and movement for 2+ years can be easily forgotten in the eyes on the owners.
  • 100% publicly funded – that’s what the owners like, right?
• Appeal to the state of California for this arena funding, and try to get a state tax to pay for the Sacramento arena.
  • This is such an insane non-starter, but it takes a page out of the Bennett playbook, who went to Olympia with Stern and wonder why they got shot down.  Plus, I am sure LA voters and SF voters would love paying for a stadium for an opposing team.  But hey, they are trying, right?
• This plays into the first, but since larger investments were made in team acquisition, no private funds from HBN can be used.
  • HBN is already tied up in several real estate deals in the Pacific Northwest, and with the large purchase price of the team, this is the only way that they can stay competitive in the market is to get a publicly funded stadium only.
• Immediately not honor any progress made by the former competing ownership group with regards to the Sacramento Downtown Arena
  • HBN wants to enter their own agreements, and “explore” other taxable revenue streams that they think are more sustainable than a parking tax.
    • This isn’t true, but it again puts the public at odds with regards to financing and tax revenues to be used.
• Wait

I think the above is tenable for probably a year.  The Kings will be playing a known lame-duck season in Sactown (at least in the eyes of the fans, but HBN is “trying”) in which attendance drops, team support withers which makes all of the above that much harder to get anything done.  Soon, HBN won’t be able to run their franchise the way they would like and relocation will have to be done to save the franchise.

If you haven’t noticed, this blueprint was used in Seattle in 2008.  Is it fair?  No.  Does Sacramento take it in the ass? Yeah.  Does Seattle/HBN do what they said they wouldn’t?  Yes.

Pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?

Stern, if your meddling is going to block this move, approve expansion.  Now.  Your legacy means so much to you, this is how you save it.

The hard-hitting subjects this week were -

• NFL Pro Bowl and the Hawks that are in it
• The Saga that is the Sacramento Kings Sale
• The return of the National Hockey League
• Then RJ gets on the podcast

Hopefully after all those hard-hitting subjects you aren’t battered to sports death with all the knowledge bombs.  My guess, probably not – but hey!

As always, big ups to The Soundmen (@scottdsoundmen on the Twitter, facebook.com/TheSoundmen ) for playing us in, and playing us out.

As usual, click to subscribe to the podcast with that fancy logo in the top right hand corner.  You can find us here on iTunes – and as always…

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