Tag: Seattle

Kings new arena: Local businessman donates 25K to keep subsidy question on ballot

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 by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–Local business tycoon Chris Rufer has put up $25,000 in donated money to the campaign to stop the Sacramento Kings downtown arena which would place a subsidy question on the June 2014 Sacramento ballot. While the City, local government, and many supporters of the Kings proposed new downtown arena at Westfield Mall is under plans the opposition could turn out to be a wild card as they’re fund raising is starting to take on a life of it’s on.

Rufer whose business is in Sacramento is taking the opposing view. In addition to Rufer’s donation there are two groups working to oppose the arena build in downtown and they both have raised tens of thousands of dollars in their campaign to oppose it.

The groups are fighting to keep an intiative on the ballot that questions if public sudsidies should finance any new proposed sports or entertainment facilities in Sacramento. So far the group STOP Sacramento Taxpayers opposed to Pork and Voters for a Fair Arena Deal have stepped up raising nearly $40,000.

A group who is in favor of the subsidy has delivered collecting cash and checks in the amount of $26,000 and this group is fighting to keep the question of public subsidies being used off the ballot. The price tag for a new Sacramento downtown arena subsidy is $258 million.

The Voters for a Fair Arena Deal have raised $8,500 and STOP has raised $31,473 both groups who are pushing for the opposition to the new arena and putting the question about public funds being spent towards any new such subsidies need 22,000 signatures on the petition to get the queston on the ballot. The 22,000 signatures needed are due by mid December.

The campaign’s credibilty was in question over  the summer when Chris Hansen who wanted to buy the Kings and move them to Seattle funded the signature gathering effort to get the question on the ballot spending $100,000 and having a Los Angeles law firm manage the campaign. STOP said they had no idea that Hansen funded the campaign and Hansen later ended up having to pay a $50,000 fine for violating California campaign disclosure laws.

Rufer is the founder of a company group called Morning Star which is a tamato producer which profits $350 million annually. Rufer’s company now controls 40 percent of the tamato processing in America. Rufer had issues in his company when a former Morning Star executive Fredrick Scott Salyer was sentenced to six years in prison for rackateering and price fixing charges. Rufer said in court papers that alledgedly Salyer cheated the company by bribing executives from competing companies at Kraft foods and Frito Lay, Salyer also alledgedly bribed Rufer’s personal assistant to steal confidential company data.

Ken Gimblin is covering the Sacramento Kings new arena build for Sportstalk Radio

49ers faced a tough defense in Carolina

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Photo Courtesy 49ers.com

by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA– It was a tough Carolina Panthers team that the 49ers had to face there at Candlestick last Sunday. Carolina is a surging team they’re on a long winning streak. Someone had to win, someone had to lose and you look at these two teams they both have excellent defenses and that’s what really dominated and dictated this game which is two great defenses.

The bottom line was that Carolina got the last score that’s what gave them the win 10-9 and the 49ers just couldn’t get anything going on offense but it’s not like the Panthers dominated either. There’s a lot of hand wringing going on in San Francisco about the Niners offensive game plan and there’s something to be said about that. The 49ers just ran into a defense that was really, really good and it’s tough to move the ball against a team like that.

Once you lose Vernon Davis and the passing game is still coming around it makes it tough to go up and down the field. It was not like the 49ers weren’t in this one it unfortunate because the 49ers played a great defensive game. They were just as strong as the Panthers were but the simple fact is the Niners offense couldn’t solve Carolina’s defense.

10-9 is not like anyone dominated but Carolina sent a message and said “We’re here you have to deal with us” the rest of the league had to be aware of this game and Carolina is a team that is aiming for the playoffs  and the 49ers really wanted that win but they got to brush it off and look ahead to next week’s game against New Orleans.

One of the strengths of the Carolina defense was the rush, they have a great front seven their linebackers and defensive lineman were all fantastic, you talk about a team that’s going to send multiple guys to the Pro Bowl they’re that good and the 49ers offensive line have been really solid as well. When quarterback Colin Kaepernick is under pressure he’s like any other quarterback it just becomes difficult to make a play.

Some teams Kaepernick’s been able to break out and get yards with his legs but Carolina has really quick linebackers just like the Niners do and it’s really tough too for a running quarterback to gain any yards. Kaepernick had that problem even when he was able to escape the pass rush there and there was really no field for him to rush.

Kaepernick couldn’t get any yards running and frankly when your being chased all over the place unless your receivers can come back and give you options it’s tough to make a play that way either. Kaepernick he has to work on a few things to be sure but also he’s not going to face a defense as good as that outside of Seattle the rest of the season.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

Kaepernick better than ever since week two and three

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By David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–Nobody expected the 49ers to lose last Sunday’s game in London the betting line was 16 points for the 49ers and the Niners covered the spread by double the amount of given points against Jacksonville with something like which was far too low the Niners won this one by 32.

Jacksonville is just an awful team and let’s give credit to the 49ers a game like this is one you could sleepwalk through and make it a lot closer than it should be. Let’s face it look at what the Jaguars did against the Denver Broncos just a few weeks ago they made just a little bit of noise in that one against a very good Denver team.

The 49ers did not let Jacksonville get into this game at all they didn’t let them sniff any smell of success. The 49ers were very focused their systems were shocked after those two loses in week two and three they haven’t really looked back as they’re now on a five game win streak. They’ve been a very different team since those games.

In their two loses to the Seahawks and Colts the 49ers were passing a bit more than they probably wanted to ever since then they focused more on their ground game which was their bread and butter. The last two seasons and when they got away from it they weren’t quite as successful and let’s face it part of the problem is that their wide receiving core has been decimated by injuries.

When all your options are gone and your left with a couple of guys it makes that much easier for defenses to take away those options and take the passing game out entirely. You saw against Indianapolis and Seattle the Niners were just stuck they couldn’t move the ball through the air and once the defenses realized they couldn’t move the ball in the air they were able to shut them down.

The 49ers have done a great job in the last five wins of establishing the running game early and working off of it and in the last two or three weeks we’ve really seen the passing game start to blossom again. Not a lot was made of it but Kaepernick did hurt his foot several weeks ago early in the season and while he was out of the game that foot injury kept him out and it might have kept him from being as mobile as he had been.

It might have kept him from making a number of passes that he was capable of. The last two or three weeks we’ve seen him really step up his game. Kaepernick is running a lot more, his passes are right on target, he’s doing a much better job finding his guys open and just making plays and we didn’t see that earlier on and I suspect this because that foot was bothering him a bit.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

Cal returns home to host Arizona

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By George Devine, Sr.

After a 41-17 loss to Washington in Seattle, the Golden Bears return to the salubrious confines of Memorial Stadium to host Arizona at the traditional Berkeley kickoff time of 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 2.

The visitors will come into Strawberry Canyon 5-2 on the season and 2-2 in Pac-12 play, after a 44-20 win over Colorado the previous weekend. Ka’Deem Carey rushed for four touchdowns and will be the one to watch for the battered Bear defense. He is now the leading rusher around the country. In addition, quarterback B.J. Denker ran no less than fifteen keepers for 192 yards, and will likely rival Cal coach Sonny Dykes’ vaunted “Bear Raid” offense. This despite 336 passing yards for Berkeley QB Jared Goff against the Huskies.

After the Arizona game, Cal is home again for the Joe Roth Game against USC on November 9, with kickoff time TBA. That will end the home season for the Bears, who play at Colorado on November 16 and at Stanford for the annual Big Game on November 23.

After Seahawks and Colts loses 49ers are now on four game win streak

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–It’s funny the 49ers looked really good against the Green Bay Packers on opening day they won that first game and they looked really good. 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick threw for over 400 yards and then they played Seattle and Indianapolis back to back and lost both games in what you might call embarrassing fashion.

The Niners really just got outclassed in both of those games maybe after those two games something woke up with them, maybe the embarrassment was enough for them to get back on track and maybe it was that they were playing two good teams. We all knew that Seattle was going to be tough and that the 49ers had their struggles up in Seattle.

So losing in Seattle wasn’t quite a big surprise losing to he Colts was a surprise at the time but in retrospect losing to the Colts wasn’t such a big surprise. It turned out that the Colts are a really good team, they weren’t only able to beat the 49ers but they beat the Seahawks just a couple of weeks ago. Then they went out on Monday night and beat the Denver Broncos.

The Colts are a good team and their a playoff force to be reckoned with the 49ers may have lost that game but you can’t be embarrassed about losing to the Colts because their apparently quite good. Someone said their one of the top five teams in the league if not top three. So no shame to losing a team that good the 49ers have used it to their advantage.

They have taken and fixed some of the problems in their offensive scheme and moved forward and their playing a lot better football even though they’ve had several injuries they had to fight through and they lost a couple of players here and there for a couple of games Patrick Willis lost a game or two, Ray McDonald was banged up, Aldon Smith is out on indefinite leave as he deals with his problems, and the 49ers are having continuing issues at wide receiver.

The 49ers they got back to do what they did best, their running the ball and passing when the opportunity presents itself and in the last several weeks running back Frank Gore has been just fantastic this is a guy who a lot of people wanted to write him off at age 30 who they said is washed up I don’t know why they would do that in the fact a lot of running backs tend to slow down when they hit that age.

You have to look at each player individually and at age 30 Gore looks just as good as ever maybe he’s not as quick as he once was but nobody is as patient as he is and nobody blocks better than Gore. While maybe he’s not going to break off a 70 yard run he breaks off more double digit runs than anybody in the league. Gore is as dependable as they come in this league he had a great game against the Titans scoring a couple of touchdowns from inside the ten yard line this is a guy whose a leader and when he does well you know the 49ers are going to do well.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

Kings arena: anti arena group to ally with non-union contractors

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by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–The new ownership of the Sacramento Kings might have to dig in at the ballot box politically this coming June as a anti arena group has geared up to oppose the new arena proposal. The new group Voters for a Fair Arena Deal will not be working with Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed To Pork or STOP. Non-union contractors who appeared at one of the Kings rallies at the Westfield mall the site of the proposed new Kings arena are joining the protest against the new arena and plan to support VFAD.

The non-union contractors are upset that they were not included in any process of the new arena build, the new arena is expected to be built by only union labor.VFAD is separating itself from the better known group STOP due to questionable petition gathering by STOP and how signatures were gathered by STOP were in question. Also STOP’s involvement with Seattle hedge fund manager Chris Hansen who paid $50,000 to have signatures gathered by STOP. Hansen who lost his bid to move the Kings to Seattle might have been seeking a way to stop the Kings from building a new arena in Sacramento if it were put to a vote regarding public funding.

Hansen later said he had nothing to do with paying the $50,000 for the signature gathering after receiving heavy criticism by city and NBA officials behind closed doors sources say to put a ballot measure to have any new public funding for any new sports facilities built in Sacramento to be voter approved first.

The public’s share of subsidizing the new Kings arena downtown is around $258 million. Hansen later backtracked after realizing he might have damaged his chances to buy, build a new arena, and own an NBA team in Seattle. VFAD is going forward with the petition campaign saying they want the public funds policed for new sports facilities which should be voted on by the Sacramento voters.

The non-union contractors who will not be involved in any of the construction work are willing to contribute to the ballot measure effort by donating $15,000-$25,000. VFAD will not be joining STOP to work in concert with getting the measure on the ballot distancing themselves from STOP because of what is considered questionable campaigning in obtaining the petition signatures and their involvement with Hansen.

Community activist Craig Powell from the group Eye on Sacramento said, “we are not opposed to the new arena, we are not opposed to the public subsidy for an arena. What we are in favor for is a subsidy we can afford.” Craig has said that the price tag of $258 million in public subsidies is too much and will do damage to the city budget.

Ken Gimblin is covering the Sacramento Kings for Sportstalk with game day reporters Tony Renteria and Charlie O

Kings arena: public subsidy losing support as voters want to withdraw signatures

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by Ken Gimblin
SACRAMENTO–The anti Sacramento arena group Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed To Pork or STOP have admitted that of the over 22,000 signatures to put a ballot measure asking voters should the city use public subsidies for any new sports facilities and this would include the new Kings arena project at the cost of $258 million are not sure of those signatures whose are legitimate.
Stop’s spokesman John Hyde said of the signatures, “we really have no idea who these people are” and admitted that some of the forms that STOP had signed might have been submitted by people who never signed STOP’s petition in the first place. If it turns out to be so this will further damage STOP’s credibility as they were involved with Seattle hedge fund manager Chris Hansen who lost his bid to buy and move the Kings out of Sacramento to Seattle and now there’s questions as to the signatures of the petitions that their holding.
Hansen was fined for missing the registration deadline of filing the petitions for the ballot measure and had to pay a $50,000 fine to the department of elections. Hansen has since disavowed his involvement with the petition campaign despite sources saying Hansen had paid a Los Angeles law firm Loeb and Loeb to organize and represent the campaign.
Upon learning of Hansen’s dealings voters who signed the petition are now moving to have their names removed from the forms according the Joshua Wood of DowntownArena.org. Withdraw forms were submitted to the city clerk’s office. The city clerk is going through some 1,500 signatures to see if they are valid if proven to be valid it would increase the withdraw volume up to 3,100.
Wood said that the great number of withdraws are unprecedented and that it’s a reflection of Hansen’s involvement with the signature campaign and then backing out and saying he wasn’t a part of it and apologizing for being involved in the campaign. Hansen thought the better of it after the NBA said they were not please with his actions and that his credibility with the league was near shot over this in any future bid to get an NBA team.
The city council agreed to a subsidy on public funds back in March by barrowing off any future sales tax that will pay back the public funds from arena parking and city public parking, also from ticket and concession sales made at the new downtown arena.
Ken Gimblin is covering the Sacramento Kings with Charlie O and Tony Renteria for Sportstalk radio

A’s close out regular season in Seattle

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By Daniel Dullum
Thursday, September 26, 2013

The Oakland Athletics have Thursday off before their final weekend series of the regular season, a trip to Seattle. Friday’s game offers a solid pitching matchup – Bartolo Colon (17-6, 2.64 ERA) for the A’s against the Mariners’ Felix Hernandez (12-9, 2.89).

Jarred Parker (12-7), who has pitched well of late, will get the start on Saturday for Oakland, and Sonny Gray (4-3, 2.90) will pitch the regular season finale.

Look for the A’s to use the expanded roster to get some rest for some of the regulars over the final three games. All playoff teams must trim the active roster back to 25 for the postseason. Changes in the postseson roster can only be made in the event of an injury.

Meanwhile, single game tickets for possible American League Championship Series games at the Coliseum go on sale at 10 a.m. on Sept. 27. The A’s encourage fans to purchase tickets online at http://www.oaklandathletics.com/postseason. Tickets can also be purchased by telephone at (877) 493-493-BALL (2255) and at the Coliseum box office.

The A’s will something called dynamic pricing (as opposed to lackluster) to accurately set and adjust ticket prices in real time. Tickets purchased for games not played are refundable.

Fans can lock in ticket prices and guaranteed tickets to the ALCS and World Series by placing a deposit on a 2014 season ticket plan. To make a deposit, call (510) 638-GoA’s (4627) or visit http://www.oaklandathletics.com/deposit.

The playoffs begin Tuesday with the divisional series in each league.

(subject Oakland Athletics)

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Stanford vs Washington State preview

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football_rev_enginesby Jerry Feitelberg

Stanford- Washington State Preview

The Stanford Cardinal will meet the Washington State Cougars this Saturday at CenturyLink Stadium in Seattle. Seattle will be a home game for the Cougars who normally play in Pullman.

The Cardinal enters the game with a record of 3-0 having defeated Arizona State last week at Stanford.

The Cardinal offense is led by quarterback Kevin Hogan who is 8-0 as a starter for the Cardinal. Hogan has thrown 62 times for 546 yards so far this season. Running back Tyler Gaffney has rushed for 331

yards and five touchdowns. Stanford has started out 3-0 for four consecutive season for the first time since 1908-1911. The Cardinal has to be wary of the Cougars. Last year the Cougars lost to Stanford 24-17. The Cardinal defense sacked the Cougar quarterback ten times last year.

The Cougars, under coach Mike Leach, are 3-1 so far this year and have matched last year’s win total.

Cougar quarterback, Connor Halliday leads a pass happy attack. Halliday has thrown for nine touchdowns but has been intercepted eight times. Cougars wide receiver Gabe Marks is second in the Pac-12 with 31 catches and fourth with 348 yards. The Cougar defense has limited opponents to 17 points in winning three straight for the first time since 2006. The Cougars upset the USC Trojans 10-7 in Los Angeles on September 7th.

Stanford has won eleven games in a row second only to Ohio State(16 ) and the Cardinal defense has a takeaway in 27 straight games. The Cardinal won the last five meetings with the Cougars.

Stanford senior safety Ed reynolds will sit out the first half of the game. Reynolds was ejected from

the game with Arizona State after he hit Sun Devils QB Taylor Kelly in the helmet.

Star offensive lineman David Yankey is not available due to a “family situation.”

Sonny Gray’s gem spoiled in A’s 7-4 loss to Seattle

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By Emily Zahner & Gabe Schapiro

On the mound for the Oakland Athletics in just his third Major League start, Sonny Gray (1-1, 1.00 ERA) shined bright and glowed with confidence. In the second of this three game series against the Mariners, Gray, facing off against Joe Saunders (10-12, 4.86 ERA), had the look of a veteran as the A’s were defeated by the Seattle Mariners 7-4 on Tuesday evening. The A’s fall to a record of 71-54, 1-½ games back of the first place Texas Rangers who picked up a victory tonight. The Mariners improve to 58-67, and remain in a distant third place.

The 23 year old from Smyrna, Tennessee lead off the game by shutting down the Mariners’ hitters 1-2-3. If run support was something he was worried about, the A’s offense took care of that in their half. Mariners starter Joe Saunders was hit hard early, as the A’s batted around and were a double away from hitting for the cycle against him in a 40-pitch first inning. Jed Lowrie, hitting lead-off for the fourth time this season, started off the game with a triple down the right field line. Homeruns by Josh Donaldson and Nate Frieman gave the A’s an early 4-0 lead in the first, giving Sonny some early run support. Gray cruised through two, then hit some trouble in the third. He started the inning with a four-pitch walk to Michael Saunders, and as lead-off walks so often do, it came back to bite him. Three batters later Nick Franklin got a hold of a change-up that was meant for the outside half and drifted in, sending it into the right field bleachers, making the score 4-2.

The A’s scattered a few hits through seven innings, but neither team was able to get on the board again through seven. Gray finished his night after seven strong innings, holding the Mariners to just two hits, two runs (both earned), and striking out seven on 94 pitches. Of his outing tonight, Manager Bob Melvin was pleased, saying “he was great… he’s got some presence out there, he certainly has the stuff and he continues to give us impressive outings.” In Sonny’s last outing, he fanned nine over eight innings. Gray is establishing himself as a competent and reliable started for the A’s, which with Bartolo Colon going to the DL and Brett Anderson still on rehab assignment, is arguably something Oakland needs the most. The A’s bullpen might be another topic of serious discussion.

The momentum drastically shifted to the Mariners in the eighth. Sean Doolittle was the first man out of the bullpen, and the Mariners bats, seemingly relieved to no longer be facing Gray, came alive again. Four consecutive hits later and the game was all tied at 4-4. Ryan Cook was summoned to stop the bleeding, but he couldn’t find his control and the runs kept on coming. After two wild pitches, two walks, and a fielders’ choice play at the plate that injured catcher Derek Norris, the Mariners had built up their first lead of the game, 7-4. Jesse Chavez, the third pitcher of the inning, stabilized the chaos and mercifully ended the inning. Bob Melvin later confirmed the Norris had fractured his left big toe.

The disastrous five-run eighth would prove to be too much to come back from, even for a never-say-die club like the Athletics. The back end of the Mariners bullpen kept the comeback kids at bay, closing down the ninth 1-2-3, clinching the 7-4 win. The A’s and Mariners complete their three game series tomorrow at 12:35pm.