Mayor Johnson Scrambling to Keep the Kings in Sacramento

If there is one guy trying his hardest to keep a professional team in his town it's Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento.

In the last year or so, he's been trying to do everything he can to try and keep the Kings in California State capital. The main thing he's been doing is trying to secure a new arena for the team, something that's evaded him so far. Now with the team's 65% majority in the process of being sold to a group from Seattle, Johnson is scrambling to see if he can get an investor to match it. He somehow either found one or one came to him in Mark Mastrov, founder of 24 Hour Fitness. According to Johnson, Mastrov will submit a bid to the NBA on Friday to the buy the team.

On top of that, Johnson has said Ron Burkle, co-owner of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, will lead the effort to fund a new arena in downtown Sacramento. Johnson even has 20 other investors trying to buy 7% of the team that is up in bankruptcy court.

It seems that Kevin Johnson is going all out to keep the team from relocating to Seattle.

"With all due respect to Seattle, I do hope they get a team someday, but let me be perfectly clear it is not going to be this team," Johnson said. "Not our team. No way."

I must commend Johnson on his effort to keep the Kings in Sacramento. It sounds like one of those movies where you only have a certain amount of time to come up with the money or you lose your home/business/muppet theatre.

In that respect, I've actually changed my mood towards this story and wish that the Kings would stay in Sacramento. I'm rooting for Kevin Johnson as it seems like the true underdog story.

P.S. If only politicians were able to show this much zeal for less important matters than sports.

New Kingdom in Washington?

The Kings could be on the move. After the deal for a new castle fell through a while ago, it seems they have found a new one in a land to the North.... the Pacific Northwest to be more exact. Seattle investor Chris Hansen has approached the Maloofs to buy the Sacramento Kings. The figure in mind is expected to be over $500 million. It would most definitely mean a move to Seattle as Hansen and his group managed to negotiate a deal with the local governments in the city to build a new $490 million arena near the other sports stadiums there. While the deal is not finalized, it is expected to go through.

Is this the end for a professional team in Sacramento? Yes, even though Mayor Kevin Johnson tweeted earlier today "Bottom line Sacramento: it's not over." Someone is in denial. It's especially sad to see this happen when Mayor Johnson and the city tried so many times to keep the Kings in town. It seemingly was bad attendance over the years combined with the fact that the Maloofs where tempted by other destinations. The only difference here is that an outsider wants to buy the team and bring it to his hometown.

So if the deal does go through and the team does move to Seattle starting with the 2013/14 season, will they be renamed the SuperSonics?