Virginia Beach officials are cooling off rumors buzzing today that the Sacramento Kings will be announcing a relocation from central California to southeastern Virginia. The supposed move was first reported today by Inside Business, a newspaper in the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia.
The Kings, who for the past several NBA seasons have been scraping the bottom of the Western Conference, could confirm the move as soon as next Wednesday if plans to announce the construction of a new basketball arena go forward. The announcement is set to be made by city officials and the Maloof family, which owns Kings.
Inside Business reports that to construct an NBA-worthy venue, Virginia Beach will raise its hotel tax by $1. Comcast is also slated to help finance the new arena, in exchange for a 25-year naming rights agreement.
A Fox affiliate station in Sacramento reports that it confirmed with Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms’ office that “a basketball team is moving to their coastal city.”
But based on what a spokeswoman for Sessoms tells DCist, it’s probably best to tamp the speculation way down. Mary Hancock says all that’s officially planned is a presentation next Tuesday to the Virginia Beach City Council in which Comcast will present designs for a new sports arena. She would not comment on any reports that members of the Maloof family would be on hand, or even if an NBA team is attached to the proposed facility.
Not that there isn’t discord between the Kings and their current home. The team is said to have been looking for a way out of Sacramento for a while. In April, the Maloofs told ESPN they don’t trust Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (who is married to former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee) after a deal to keep the Kings rooted in Sacramento collapsed. The Kings have also pursued a potential move to Anaheim, Calif., which is already home to a major-league arena.
Some of the immediate reaction has been appropriately incredulous, especially considering no major league team makes its home in southeastern Virginia. “The Virginia Beach Kings? Seriously?” The Washington Post offered.
But Hampton Roads is the 36th largest metropolitan area in the United States—smaller than Sacramento (25th), but bigger than other current NBA markets, including Milwaukee, Memphis, New Orleans and Oklahoma City.
And the area has been home to a professional basketball team before, albeit only for a few years between 1970 and 1976 when the Virginia Squires played in the American Basketball Association.
