Although the Sacramento Kings seem likely to stay the Sacramento Kings due to the NBA Relocation Committee's decision to unanimously oppose a move to Seattle, Chris Hansen says he'll continue to push to bring a team to the Emerald City.
Kings sale: Seattle investor Chris Hansen vows to fight NBA decision
The battle to bring basketball to Seattle is still far from over.
After the decision, Hansen -- head of the ownership group that tried to buy the team from the Maloof brothers to replace the Seattle Sonics -- released a statement to Seattle basketball fans that they shouldn’t give up hope.
As you are all well aware, we have a binding transaction to purchase the Kings for what would be a record price for an NBA franchise, have one of the best ownership groups ever assembled to purchase a professional sports team in the US, have clearly demonstrated that we have a much more solid Arena plan, have offered a much higher price than the yet to be finalized Sacramento Group, and have placed all of the funds to close the transaction into escrow.
Hansen still believes that his group should legally be the owners of the team after purchasing it from the Maloofs, and that his group is better organized, funded, and prepared than the Sacramento group -- and he plans on making his pitch to the NBA’s owners, who could hypothetically back his claims.
Technically, the Relocation Committee voted on nothing official Monday. It just decided to officially recommend that the NBA’s owners should oppose the move to Seattle. When the owners get together to vote at their meeting on May 13, they could oppose that recommendation. However, it would be a major shock if they did, especially considering the unanimous nature of the committee’s vote.
The owners would need to vote by majority to approve relocation, or by 75 percent majority to approve a sale.
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