Sam Amick of SI reported Wednesday growing indications that the Kings could be in Sacramento next year. In addition to a less-than-stellar television deal awaiting in Anaheim, according to Amick there have been internal discussions among league brass that would suggest they're taking Sacramento's recent efforts seriously.
Two sources said an NBA representative called on Monday to advise the Kings' business team to prepare the season-ticket packages and corporate sponsorship plans that had been on hold since rumors of the move were legitimized in February. Team employees had been in a holding pattern for months, but they were told to be ready to deliver the goods to their customers in the coming weeks should a happy ending be on the horizon. There was similar movement in other areas of the organization, with the notion of a Kings return suddenly seeming somewhere between possible and probable.
However yesterday, an official for the Kings refuted those claims according to a report from Randy Youngman of the Orange County Register.
A spokesman for the Sacramento Kings on Thursday denied a published report saying an NBA representative had called the team earlier this week to alert the team to be ready to sell Kings season tickets in Sacramento for the 2011-12 NBA season.
"We received no such phone call from the league," said Troy Hanson, the Kings' vice president for media relations/basketball operations.
NBA representatives Clay Bennett and Harvey Benjamin are still in Sacramento, continuing their fact-finding mission regarding the capital city's viability as an NBA market. According to a league official, the NBA has not yet scheduled a visit to Anaheim for Bennett and Benjamin to meet with Honda Center and city officials.
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