by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–When Seattle billionaire and hedge funder Chris Hansen didn’t get the Sacramento Kings and wasn’t able to buy and move them to Seattle he resorted to paying for a campaign that would put a initiative on the ballot that would ask the public if they wanted to pay with taxpayers money to build new sports facilities in Sacramento. Once it was found out that Hansen had a hand in the initiative who he paid a $50,000 fine for not reporting unfunded money at deadline for the subsidy initiative.

Hansen who wanted to buy an NBA team has put his chances in jeopardy with funding the initiative which will go on the ballot the only problem for the initiative is that it will go down to defeat and the voters will go onto support a new arena for downtown which would do wonders for Sacramento and the Kings and an arena is needed in order for them to stay. The initiative could slow down the process a bit.

The problem for the new arena is the 18,000 signatures in favor of public subsidies that Hansen funded if that hadn’t been there there would be a strong chance it wouldn’t be on the ballot. Hansen said he didn’t pay for the funding of the ballot measure which was funded for $100,000 and he paid the fine. He must have paid for it because obviously the signatures and the law firm who forward the funds to the signature gatherers Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles wouldn’t have had it done.

So obviously he did, and it’s hard to understand why and most people in the greater Sacramento area favor a new arena for the Kings and number two this is the one item Hansen lacks in is patience and all he had to do was be patient and you could have had a nice offer and he would have had a chance and he would have had a team in Seattle in a couple of years and obviously that law firm is not going to go out and hire people if they don’t have money.

When Hansen wrote out a check to the law firm? He realized what he was doing, he wouldn’t be the wealthy man he is if he spent money and he didn’t know what he was doing. If Hansen says he didn’t fund the campaign the Easter bunny doesn’t come at Easter and what he’s saying has the same validity but make no mistake this initiative will be on the June 2014 Sacramento ballot and you could thank Chris Hansen for that because without his support there may not be enough to make the ballots.

It’s going to go on the ballot and there is a great chance it’s going to be defeated. There is a lot of law firms I respect but Loeb and Loeb to work with Hansen to do something like this I have no respect for at all. It’s like any profession whether it’s teaching, medicine, or law some individuals you don’t respect so as long as there’s money out there I’m not surprised that somebody wouldn’t take it.

Hansen did himself a great disservice by funding the initiative and I’m surprised he did this because Hansen was really going to have a shot at bidding on another NBA team or expansion team and all Hansen had to do was be patient and I guess Hansen wanted it right away and that’s why he did it. A majority of people want a new arena for the Kings who live and can vote in Sacramento will vote for the new arena. This will benefit not just the Kings but the city and it’s going to be very positive and it’s going to go on the ballot but the public subsidy will go down to defeat once it gets in front of the voters.

Ken Gimblin is covering the Sacramento Kings for Sportstalk Radio