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After a year away, the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame induction weekend returned to Virginia Beach, taking over the Westin on Saturday. Nine new members were added to the distinguished group of the best sports figures in the commonwealth. One of them was former Maury basketball great Joe Smith. He went on to become Naismith National Player of the Year at Maryland and was the number one overall draft pick in the 1995 NBA Draft. Smith played for 12 teams over a 16-year NBA career.
Michael Grange: Steve Kerr wearing a ‘vote for our lives’ t-shirt, says he’s supporting those who vote for changes in gun control laws in US in light of Virginia Beach shooting (and others). ‘It’s the only way we get out of this mess.’
Connor Letourneau: Steve Kerr on whether his Vote For Our Lives shirt has anything to do with Barack Obama being here tonight: "Actually, I wasn't aware that he was coming until a little while ago. The shirt has everything to do with the tragedy in Virginia Beach a couple of days ago."
Former Virginia guard Devon Hall is generating buzz ahead of the NBA Draft. On Saturday, the Virginia Beach native had his fourth workout. This time with the Utah Jazz. “This is my fourth one,” said Hall to reporters assembled in Utah following the workout. “I was in Brooklyn, Detroit, Minnesota, and now I'm here. It’s been straight through trips. It’s been good though. These experiences are great and the opportunities, of course, is great.”
The Virginia Beach metropolitan area is one of the largest in the country without a major professional sports team, and numerous attempts to lure one here have repeatedly left sports fans in the area disappointed. The area's most recent flirtation with the NBA was rebuffed just last year after a deal to get the Sacramento Kings to relocate fell apart after plans to build them an arena and pay for their moving expenses didn't come to fruition.
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According to sources, several of the team's minority owners were stunned (and ticked off) to hear that talks about a sale/relocation between the Maloofs and the Chris Hansen-led Seattle group reportedly have intensified. And one day after Virginia Beach removes itself as an NBA player? Hmmm. I also heard that high-ranking Kings employees were shocked by the reports that first surfaced early Wednesday on Yahoo!
So the options were simple: 1) Move the team. But there were no viable options, given the family's suffering financial position and the debilitating expense of a relocation fee. One league source told CBSSports.com Wednesday that NBA officials viewed the Maloofs' flirtation with Virginia Beach as a "laughable" alternative. 2) Sell the team to investors committed to keeping it in Sacramento: The Maloofs were "all about Sacramento," after all), or ... 3) Sell it to someone who would move it somewhere else.
Now that Virginia Beach is no longer a threat to lure the Kings, what happens next for the city of Sacramento? No one is quite sure. Not even R.E. Graswich, who spent the last three years working in the mayor’s office and the now-defunct Think Big Sacramento arena task force. Graswich was on the KFBK Afternoon News yesterday and was asked where California’s capital city might go from here. Q: You’ve been part of the mayor’s inner circle for quite some time. It seems like Kevin Johnson has just done everything he can do to maintain the team, but now some feel like he’s given up. Are we at the end of the road? A: Well you hate to say give up and Kevin Johnson in the same sentence. And even though I don’t work for him anymore, I still hate to say that, so I won’t say that. I don’t believe that he will give up. Unfortunately, it’s out of his hands. You’ve got a basketball team, which is a business and that business has really the ability to control its own destiny. So no matter what the mayor does, no matter what the city does, no matter what the governor or anybody else does, the decisions are going to be made by the Maloof family.
Virginia Beach, Va., today gave up its pursuit of the Sacramento Kings, acknowledging that a deal for a new arena couldn't be reached. "This just ain't gonna work at this point in time," the city's mayor, Will Sessoms, told The Bee.
After years of talks, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on consulting reports, and most recently an NBA team looking to re-locate, time seems to be running out on plans to build a new arena in Virginia Beach with the Sacramento Kings as the building’s main tenant. Today, Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms and Peter Lukko, the president of Comcast Spectacor, will release a joint statement regarding their ongoing negotiations to get the arena deal done. Unfortunately, those negotiations are at a stand-still.
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The drama over the Sacramento Kings' possible move to Virginia Beach will last at least one more day. Although Virginia Beach's mayor set a deadline of today for cutting a deal on a new NBA arena, the mayor won't make any announcement today. Mayor Will Sessoms is likely to make an announcement Tuesday, when the City Council meets, said city spokesman Marc Davis. Sessoms imposed the deadline because he needs a deal in place before he can go to the state legislature for a proposed $150 million subsidy.
Throwing down the gauntlet, Virginia Beach's mayor has set a Monday deadline to have a lease signed with a professional sports team – widely reported to be the Sacramento Kings – or he'll pull the plug on the city's arena efforts for this year. Mayor Will Sessoms, who has been pushing a plan for a $300 million-plus arena in his city, told The Bee he has informed the city's private partner, arena operator Comcast-Spectacor, he wants an agreement now. "We have a timeline that is right upon us to go to the state to ask for a substantial amount of money," Sessoms said. "We are not going to go up there and make a fool of ourselves. I need to know something by Monday. "I don't want to be wasting people's time or my time if we are not going to bring some conclusion to these negotiations quickly." Officials in the Virginia city say two state General Assembly representatives are prepared to request $150 million in state funds to help to build the arena when the Assembly reconvenes Wednesday – but only if Comcast reaches a deal with the team.
While Seattle would be an excellent choice for an expansion NBA franchise or an existing team’s relocation (the city plans to build a new $490 million arena) and Virginia Beach has shown plenty of interest in moving the Kings to its shore, they are not the only cities worthy of an NBA team within their borders. There are many reasons to place Louisville, Kentucky at the top of that list. And whereas Seattle and Virginia Beach are not immediately available as destinations for an NBA team, Louisville is in a position to accept a franchise as early as today. Although not everyone agrees. Preliminary talks about a Louisville NBA team have been met with some skepticism. A recent Cambridge Economic Research feasibility study revealed that the city may not benefit economically to the extent that proponents postulate. Additionally, a White Paper Analysis prepared by an agency called BoxcarPR stated: “With the region’s fervent support of its local collegiate teams coupled with poor personal income numbers, it is far fetched to think that a Louisville citizen’s dollar can be stretched even further to support NBA tickets.”
Despite a setback in funding, Virginia Beach took another step toward building a new arena and presumably luring the Sacramento Kings east. Their council voted 9-2 on Tuesday night to continue negotiations with entertainment giant Comcast-Spectacor. Just four days ago, Governor Bob McDonnell declined to include a $150-million subsidy for the project in Virginia’s state budget. There is belief among the council that McDonnell can still provide state assistance, but needs more time to assess the benefits of the deal. The new proposed 18,500-seat arena is expected to cost roughly $346 million to construct. Virginia Beach is expected to kick in at least $241 million, while Comcast Spectacor has committed to providing $35 million to the project.
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