Legal battle could keep Kings in Sacramento next season
Jan 25, 2013, 2:10 PM | Updated: 3:47 pm
An expert in sports law think legal entanglements could delay the sale of the Sacramento Kings to Seattle investors and ruin the return of the NBA to Seattle this fall. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
An expert in sports law thinks legal entanglements could delay the sale of the Sacramento Kings to Seattle investors and ruin the return of the NBA to the Emerald City this fall.
“The threat of litigation, given that the clock is ticking for having the Kings move to Seattle, could postpone that move for a year,” said sports law professor Michael McCann. “I don’t think that’s inconceivable.”
The Vermont Law School professor says a possible right-to-match clause in the Kings ownership agreement could send the sale to court. “If that’s true, if that clause is still in operation, then any of the other owners, one of which is in bankruptcy proceedings, could have an opportunity to match the offer that the Hansen group has put forward.
The Maloof family, owners of the Kings and Chris Hansen’s Seattle investment group, announced a binding sales and purchase agreement Monday. McCann says it’s not going to be the “clean buy” that the Hansen group wants.
Some observers suggest that none of these complications have caught Hansen off guard. We don’t know since Hansen has not commented since he confirmed an agreement to buy the Kings from the Maloof family.
“They’re probably just not worried about it. I think they’re confident that none of the minority owners, their financial situation or their interest level was really going to warrant a credible opportunity to match the Hansen offer and that they’ll get through this,” McCann reasoned.
If Sacramento somehow succeeds in keeping its team, Hansen could make an anti-trust claim against the NBA or sue for interference in a contractual obligation.
“Those are possible but I think at this point they’re more theoretical and I doubt that the Hansen group really wants to pursue that because if the Hansen group were to sue the NBA, that would make it very unlikely they would ever end up with an NBA team,” said McCann.
McCann thinks the best solution might be to keep the Kings in Sacramento and put an expansion team in Seattle. When pressed, the sports law professor still thinks it’s “more likely than not” that the sale to Hansen’s group will go through and the team will move to Seattle for next season.
