Archives › Aaron Bruski
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Maloof press conference a how-to-guide for burning bridges in Sacramento
Apr 13, 2012, 2:51 PM EDT
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That press conference was so George Maloof. The nearly 90-minute presser was everything a good old fashion PR nightmare should be. It started as a PowerPoint presentation delivered in monotone prose by Maloof attorney Barry McNeil, and ended in a classic George Maloof back-and-forth with media members that bordered somewhere between ‘desperate’ and ‘tirade.’ The…
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Kevin Johnson to Maloofs: There will be no negotiations during critical Friday meeting
Apr 13, 2012, 8:58 AM EDT
I wrote on Thursday about the recent developments in the Sacramento Kings arena situation, and namely the Maloofs’ recent actions that amount to a legal full court press designed to land the franchise in Anaheim. The quick and dirty to catch you up is this – the Maloofs, Sacramento, AEG, and the NBA came to…
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Report: Maloofs pitching against Sacramento at NBA Board of Governors meeting
Apr 12, 2012, 3:46 PM EDT
Here we go all over again. It was around this time last year that the Maloofs stormed angrily out of the NBA’s Board of Governor’s meetings, rejected and dejected after they were told they couldn’t go to Disneyland. Today, they returned to New York to pitch the idea that they were somehow wronged during the…
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David Stern comments about Kings arena situation with typical coded message
Apr 4, 2012, 9:47 PM EDT
David Stern took a moment to address the Kings arena situation in Utah before Wednesday’s game against the Suns. Brian Smith of the Salt Lake Tribune has been a great resource for the Kings arena information and he brought this quote to print: Stern on how he feels about the Kings staying in Sacramento, compared…
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Report: All eyes on Board of Governors meeting in Kings arena dispute
Apr 4, 2012, 2:42 PM EDT
In a story with many chapters, it’s fitting that the book on the Maloofs’ future in the NBA will be written on April 12-13 at the league’s Board of Governors meetings. After all, it’s where the tide turned for Kings fans last year, as Kevin Johnson came out of nowhere with both the will and…
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Sacramento City Council passes most important vote to keep Kings in town
Mar 7, 2012, 3:07 AM EDT
I interviewed Carmichael Dave, the person most synonymous with Sacramento’s grassroots effort to keep their basketball team, way back on April 5, 2011. The Kings were all-but gone by most accounts, and I asked Dave what he thought the Kings’ chances of leaving were. “90-10.” It turns out that he might have been a bit…
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Maloofs move significantly to meet Sac’s proposal, Kings fans provide political cover for arena deal to get done
Feb 27, 2012, 2:55 PM EDT
In the end, it was about a city and its team, and the will to fight for what was theirs. Kevin Johnson did the heavy lifting and the heavy hitters moved the ball forward, but it was the Sacramento Kings fans that gave the local politicians the will and the way to see the Kings…
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Sacramento City Council takes unanimous step toward key arena vote
Feb 15, 2012, 3:19 PM EDT
One vote down to bring a new arena to Sacramento, one more critical vote to go. Tuesday, the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously to continue finalizing proposals with private parking companies, who will in turn provide $200 million or more toward a new Entertainment and Sports Complex. For that money, the winning bidder will have…
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Sacramento City Council has votes for arena if reachable criteria is met
Feb 14, 2012, 10:45 AM EDT
The Sacramento Kings and their fans will hold their breath on Tuesday night, as the Sacramento City Council holds the first of at least two critical votes that will determine whether or not the team leaves town. Let me be the first to tell you that tonight’s vote will pass. Sources close to the situation…
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Sacramento one vote away from losing the Kings last night, but still in control of their destiny
Feb 8, 2012, 7:30 PM EDT
If you build it sticky-fingered shooting guards will come. And if Sacramento doesn’t approve an arena for the Kings quickly then Seattle has no problem playing Kevin Costner. And let’s not bury the lede here, Seattle almost got their wish Tuesday night as the Sacramento City Council narrowly voted 5-4 to bury a resolution that…
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Kings Arena Update: Critical Sac City Council meeting postponed at last minute
Jan 25, 2012, 8:45 AM EDT
It’s been a while since we checked into the Sacramento Kings’ arena situation, which almost faced another crucial moment on Tuesday when the Sac City Council meeting was set to turn into a shootout at the Cowbell Corral. On one side, arena opponent and council member Sandy Sheedy was ready to force debate on whether…
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Maloofs say that they will be flexible with March 1 arena deadline
Dec 15, 2011, 10:20 PM EDT
We expect the Sacramento Kings arena news to pick up now that we’re about three months away from the March 1 deadline for the city to have funding in place. That deadline has put Kevin Johnson and his Think Big Sacramento effort on a tight, tight schedule, but so far they appear to be on…
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Sacramento City Council votes 7-2 to go forward with next step in arena process
Dec 14, 2011, 7:09 PM EDT
City council meetings can be dull, but the Sacramento City Council meeting on Tuesday to decide if the Kings should go forward with a key element of their plan to secure a new Entertainment and Sports Complex (ESC) was anything but. Alright, it was still pretty boring, but Tuesday’s meeting had everything you could ask…
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I’d say I’m surprised but I’m not. Tuesday at about mid-day I saw my first indications that something was brewing in Sacramento – a seemingly innocuous tweet from Sacramento Kings fan Amy Hyden (@sacgirl88) to G/F Donte’ Greene about setting up an exhibition game: @dontegreeneCOS hey Donte, Is there any way you can set up…
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The Maloofs’ relationship with Sacramento is decidedly love-hate. When the Kings were winning and Joe and Gavin were plastered on TV during games, Sacramentans were ready to propose. But it’s funny how life works — the team started losing and (gulp) started asking the city of Sacramento for money, and everything has been downhill since.…
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Sometimes you need to see the look in somebody’s eyes when they’re forced to make a decision before you truly know how they feel. We got to see that on Tuesday night when the Sacramento City Council voted 7-2 to approve $550,000 to secure consultants, lawyers, and parking experts to start formalizing a funding proposal…
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AEG acknowledges interest in Sacramento Entertainment and Sports Complex
Sep 27, 2011, 8:28 AM EDT
It wasn’t a matter of if, it was when. Anschutz Entertainment Group, known better as the stadium and arena operations giant AEG, acknowledged for the first time Friday that they might provide “assistance” to Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson and the Think Big Sacramento coalition in their quest for an arena, according to the Sac Bee.…
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Mayor Kevin Johnson releases arena funding report, will the Maloofs and NBA bite?
Sep 8, 2011, 9:48 AM EDT
The plight of Kings fans, who came within an inch of losing their only major professional sports team, may be coming to a crossroads today, when the Think Big Sacramento coalition led by mayor Kevin Johnson releases their arena funding proposal to the public. All they have to do is come up with a plan…
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Sacramento Kings arena funding plan to be released Sept. 8
Aug 18, 2011, 1:11 AM EDT
We don’t know the specifics of how the city of Sacramento plans to pay for the proposed $387 million Entertainment and Sports Complex (ESC), but we do know when they plan to announce those plans. According to Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee, a menu of funding options will be presented to the public on…
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Study shows Sacramento arena would bring billions to surrounding area
Jul 1, 2011, 8:59 PM EDT
While the NBA stumbles all over itself trying to divide up a multi-billion dollar pie, the folks in Sacramento are making moves to put their own pie into the oven. The Think Big Sacramento coalition, which is the ever-changing moniker of the grassroots political coalition to keep the Kings in town (formerly Here We Build),…
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Jimmer Fredette, the most talked about player in this year’s NBA draft, was selected No. 10 overall by the Sacramento Kings on Thursday. 30 minutes later, the Kings had a splash page with his likeness up ready to sell tickets on their website. Within another 30 minutes, Jimmer was trending worldwide on Twitter and was…
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Kings Arena Update: Kevin Johnson working with Ron Burkle’s right hand man
Jun 17, 2011, 5:55 PM EDT
The Sacramento Kings arena saga took an interesting turn on Wednesday when it was announced that the Maloof family had given up majority ownership of the Palms Casino after a “recapitalization agreement” with their main creditors, TPG Capital and Leonard Green and Partners. The deal reduces the Maloof’s ownership from about 80 percent to 10-20…
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Look back to just before New Year’s Eve and the Kings and their fans were a despondent bunch, even more so than their recent history would entail. Tyreke Evans’ plantar fasciitis hung over the team, reports had emerged that Paul Westphal had lost the locker room, and rumors surfaced that the team’s owners, the Maloof…
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