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20. Sacramento/Modesto/Stockton
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37. San Antonio/Del Rio
Download the complete list on the right.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns
The commissioner was working late on Wednesday, a conference call cutting into his evening commute out of midtown Manhattan. Far from the big city, out in the sticks in Sacramento, David Stern wanted to send word: The NBA isn't letting the Sacramento Kings leave without a fight.
The Maloof brothers had visited his office on Monday, determined for Stern to get between their franchise and city and between the acrimony and the risk of the regrettable resolution of exiting Sacramento. It's turned so nasty between Sacramento and the Maloofs that the Kings owners threw their hands into the air and gave up.
Essentially, they asked Stern: Step down out of the Olympic Tower, take over the new arena initiative and save the Kings in Sacramento.
"The NBA has never done anything to this scope," Stern said.
Maybe that's because the NBA has never had as profound of a franchise crisis as it does now. Stern has called this a "model" franchise in the sport, "a spectacular success story," and there's a genuine urgency for the commissioner's plans to visit Sacramento in early December and begin probing the possibilities with the politicians and developers and Kings ownership.
Make no mistake: The biggest issue in the NBA isn't about toy store basketballs and bad behavior technical fouls, but the stability of its most successful franchises. Sacramento has a league-best streak of 317 sellouts at Arco Arena, which has been the loudest arena in the league and the most anchored to its franchise. Pound for pound, cowbell for cowbell, there's a good case to be made for Sacramento as the best market in the NBA.
So, there's no salvation awaiting the Maloofs and Kings elsewhere, no city that'll ever love this team and cherish it and, yes, support it the way Sacramento has done in good times and bad. It won't be Las Vegas, where the Maloofs run the Palms Casino. Nor Anaheim. Nor St. Louis. Nowhere else.
The Maloofs lost a confusing public vote on a downtown arena initiative last week, a referendum that was never clear to anyone – not the citizens, nor the Maloofs, nor the commissioner. In the end, the campaign was punctuated with allegations that the Kings owners sabotaged the vote because they themselves didn't want to move downtown.
Especially in the West, the climate for public and private arena-stadium partnerships has never been worse. Good relationships go awry over building issues; love affairs between cities and teams turn traumatic. Nothing had ever come between Sacramento and its team – not Garry St. Jean coaching, not Olden Polynice playing center, nothing until this.
The NBA could live with the New Jersey Nets leaving East Rutherford for Brooklyn, but Sacramento is a soul-bearer for the sport, a beacon of possibility for small-market teams. "Some skeptics questioned whether the NBA could succeed in Sacramento," the commissioner remembered. It's flourished there, and it is everyone's responsibility to make sure this unravels no further.
Once, the NBA had a beautiful thing going in Charlotte, but when the city grew to disdain its owner, George Shinn, the people refused to ever vote him the public funding needed to build an arena. Charlotte never should've lost the Hornets, and it's a painful memory that was still on Stern's mind this week.
"It sort of dawned on me in listening that there is really nothing more important than this," Stern said. "Maybe I could have been more helpful in some other cities, like the first time that the Hornets left Charlotte."
If he didn't do enough to save Shinn from his political mess, Stern sounds determined not to make the same mistake with the Maloofs. He goes back with their father, George, to the early 1980s when he owned the Houston Rockets. His kids, Gavin and Joe, were the whiz kids who breathed life into one of the NBA's worst basketball operations. Sacramento was dying for a winner, and the Maloofs gave it to them.
Now this seven-year fight for a new arena to replace Arco has grown acrimonious, and Stern concedes that part of his job here is to "diffuse" the two sides. These are the worst fights in sports now: communities vs. owners, public vs. private funding. The arena issue has also raged in Seattle and Portland, two longtime thriving NBA cities.
Yet nowhere could the Maloofs move the Kings and ever replicate what's happened in Sacramento. Through everything there, the fans are still the loudest in the league and still selling out night after night. Just look at Memphis now. The Grizzlies were a novelty for a couple years, a hot ticket under Jerry West and Hubie Brown, but they're gasping for air now, ranking last in attendance this season.
As a sports town, the whole iden y of Sacramento is wrapped up in its pride for the Kings. A recent Sacramento Bee poll found that six out of 10 citizens declared themselves Kings fans. Still, this has turned terrible. Public officials are decrying the Maloofs as duplicitous, and newspaper columnists are taking sides with city officials and developers here, the owners there.
All of it has been polarizing, and all of it needs the commissioner's political savvy and his deft deal-making.
"The Kings and Sacramento are an NBA success story and I'm not interested in seeing the success end in failure," Stern said. "We don't accept that."
The NBA shouldn't now, nor ever. This is a fight the NBA can't lose because here's something no one would've once ever believed about Sacramento:
This is a city the league can't replace.
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How the are the Kings a model for small franchises? Isn't San Antonio a small franchise? Not only that they've had success...at least recent success. Three championships to be exact.
Personally, I don't give a if Sacramento has a team or not...I actually want the NBA to move to Vegas. I think it'd be great. But I think if any town is a beacon for small market it has to be the Spurs.
20. Sacramento/Modesto/Stockton
.
.
.
37. San Antonio/Del Rio
Download the complete list on the right.
If the Spurs were on the verge of leaving San Antonio because civic leaders weren't being helpful in building a new arena, I suspect the same things would be written about San Antonio.
Just a hunch.
If the spurs were on the verge of leaving san antonio, the entire city would break out into riots and chaos.
They're "a" model. It didn't say "the" model.
How the are the Kings a model for small franchises? Isn't San Antonio a small franchise? Not only that they've had success...at least recent success. Three championships to be exact.
Personally, I don't give a if Sacramento has a team or not...I actually want the NBA to move to Vegas. I think it'd be great. But I think if any town is a beacon for small market it has to be the Spurs.
Dont spit out of your mouth, get ur facts straight before you start barking. They are not basing this on the fact of how many chips a team has won...Kings are successful for the sole reason of that they put fans in Arco even during the dreadfull early 90's when they were bad. Maybe if you would go once in a while to Sac-town and saw the athmopshere during a b-ball season or a b-ball game you would see what its all about. Fans have been loyal to the team since they moved there, and they got a 317? streak of sold out games. Maloofs have made a load of money on the Kings and with some of the moves they made they managed to put Sacramento on the map.
It's not about fans, it's not about noise, it's about MONEY, and if the owner thinks he/they can make more elsewhere, arrivaderci Sactown. Your municiplaity needs to get their together and get a CLEAR plan on the ballot. In SA, it was a pretty clear initiative, out of towners would pay a rental car tax, and the unstated reality was that if it failed, the Spurs were gone. Sentimentality doesn't play in the business world, and the NBA is a BUSINESS.
King fans have supported the team even when they sucked and despite no Finals appearances. How well would the Spurs be supported if they sucked, or even if they had no les?
I think they'd be supported just as much as Sacramento. I'm not using les to justify that...but to say that Sacramento is a beacon and not mention other cities like San Antonio or other small markets.
Um, not really, Duffer.
http://www.databasebasketball.com/te...tm?tm=sas&lg=nCode:San Antonio Spurs Attendance Year Total Avg 2003-04 739,706 18,042 2002-03 736,970 17,975 2001-02 906,390 22,107 2000-01 913,176 22,273 1999-00 889,444 21,694 1998-99 537,357 21,494 1997-98 783,455 19,109 1996-97 706,641 17,235 1995-96 811,422 19,791 1994-95 920,413 22,449 1993-94 904,167 22,053 1992-93 658,337 16,057 1991-92 658,337 16,057 1990-91 651,965 15,902 1989-90 603,660 14,723 1988-89 459,514 11,208 1987-88 346,960 8,462 1986-87 328,368 8,009 1985-86 336,407 8,205 1984-85 364,398 8,888 1983-84 375,900 9,168 1982-83 397,489 9,695 1981-82 434,243 10,591 1980-81 440,553 10,745 1979-80 468,657 11,431 1978-79 489,207 11,932 1977-78 373,707 9,115 1976-77 376,136 9,174
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HemisFair_ArenaThe arena initially held 10,146 fans for basketball. As Spurs games began regularly selling out, the roof of arena was literally raised and lifted during the summer of 1977, adding an upper deck at the facility and allowing for a capacity of over 16,000. While the renovation boosted capacity, it did result in a large number of obstructed view seats in the lower levels due to the support beams required for the upper deck. Throughout its lifespan, it was considered one of the loudest arenas in the NBA.
Johnnyblaze
those statistics can be misleading about attendances, they only count ticket sales which includes season ticket holders also, but doesnt count the number of ppl who are filling in the seats or attending the game....
No , but I'm going to take a wild guess and say 8,000 tickets weren't given away free each night in the mid-80s.
And even if they did give away 8,000 tickets per game, I would say not having people buy those tickets - regardless if the seats were filled or not - would count as little fan support.
The history doesn't support that statement.
LOL, you know what's funny? It just now dawned on me that you aren't Buddy Holly.
I don't know who to feel worse for.
Duff, Buddy or you with your aging memory.
It has nothing to do with memory, I just made an assumption based on the content and didn't pay close attention to the name.
Okay, Manny?
No, no, Bear....I'm Joe.
Eyes must be going bad, too.
Got durn, please don't tell me you seriously went for that stink-bait,No, no, Bear....I'm Joe.
Eyes must be going bad, too.
Sometimes even Bill Russell went for the layup even though he could have taken the jumper.
Well, you can understand the mixup. Both you and Manny are descendants of cultures known for their gardening skills.
I'd been to enough games in the 80's where I could actually hear the echo of the player's sweat hitting the floor it was so empty. Those numbers actually look pretty generous.
We need a ruling from the Literary License Committee on this one. "Echo of sweat"? The judges are conferring.
Anyhow, it reminds me of the story about when the Sonics were playing in Atlanta a few years ago, before a few hundred loyal Hawk fans. As Gary Payton was bringing the ball up court, somebody yelled from the stands, "Hey, GP!", and Payton yelled back "What?"
Semi-related, but that reminds me of 'Sheed with a Kings fan a week (?) back.We need a ruling from the Literary License Committee on this one. "Echo of sweat"? The judges are conferring.
Anyhow, it reminds me of the story about when the Sonics were playing in Atlanta a few years ago, before a few hundred loyal Hawk fans. As Gary Payton was bringing the ball up court, somebody yelled from the stands, "Hey, GP!", and Payton yelled back "What?"
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