The group led by Christopher R. Hansen, a hedge fund manager, and Steven A. Ballmer, the chief executive of Microsoft, had been thought to have the upper hand. It has a tentative agreement to buy 65 percent of the team from the Maloof family and approval to build a new arena from Seattle, where the group hopes to move the team if it wins.
The rival group, which includes the founder of 24-Hour Fitness, Mark S. Mastrov, and Paul E. Jacobs, the chief executive of Qualcomm, has an offer worth about as much and approval to build a new arena in Sacramento. The group has another attraction: Vivek Ranadive.
Ranadive, a software businessman from Silicon Valley who is vice chairman of the Golden State Warriors, will become the face of the Kings if his group is chosen. With deep pockets and extensive contacts, he plans to promote the N.B.A. heavily in his native India and to Indians living in the United States.
Cricket is the most popular sport in India, but several sports, including basketball, vie for the second spot.
“I believe basketball will be the global sport of the 21st century because it can be played by young and old, boys and girls, indoors or outdoors, rich or poor,” Ranadive said this week in a phone interview. “Independent of whether the Kings bid succeeds or not, I’m very committed to making it the No. 2 sport in India.”
The two sets of bidders could learn their fate in the coming days or weeks. On Wednesday, the N.B.A.’s advisory finance and relocation committees met to discuss the offers. They may recommend a bid to the league’s owners this week, although Commissioner David Stern told reporters Wednesday that it would probably take several more weeks before the owners vote on the sale of the team. Either way, the recommendations of the committees are expected to hold sway.
If the group trying to keep the team in Sacramento wins, Ranadive will have to sell his minority stake in the Warriors so he can become the general partner of the Kings. He would then be the first majority owner of Indian descent in the N.B.A. and become an instant celebrity among the Indian diaspora and in India.
His star power in India should help supplement the N.B.A.’s fledgling efforts there. The league opened an office in Mumbai in 2011 and now has six employees looking for ways to market the league. Three N.B.A. games are shown each week on the channel that broadcasts the country’s largest cricket league, and the N.B.A. has started a Web site in India. Several N.B.A. players have traveled to India to hold clinics and promote the sport.
Parallels with the N.B.A.’s efforts in China are often made. Stern, who this month traveled to India for the first time, said the comparisons were unfair because the Chinese have been playing the game far longer, have their own leagues and have produced N.B.A. stars. But the potential for growth in India is enormous, Stern said. India has more than 1.2 billion people and an emerging middle class, many of whom speak English.
“The demographics favor us,” he said. “This is not about finding the next great Indian player, though over time we know it’s inevitable. It’s about working with schools, creating programs. But we’re not unmindful of television, merchandising or events. This is a long-term proposition.”
Ranadive’s drive to raise the profile of the sport in India, while welcomed, will not be a deciding factor in which group gets the Kings. Money may be secondary to which group offers more reassurance about its ability to build an arena, which generates revenue and stabilizes a team’s position in its home city.
“Although the purchase price is important, it’s only one factor,” said Irwin Raij of Foley Lardner, who advises teams on stadium deals and is a former member of the Sacramento First Task Force, which helped the city evaluate options for a new sports complex several years ago. “If you’re the league, you want to make sure the arena deal is real.”
If Ranadive’s group wins, expect him to take some of his marketing and promotional ideas to Sacramento. With the Warriors, he has held Bollywood nights and sold a record number of season-ticket plans partly because so many Indians now follow the team. Ranadive, who attends nearly every home game, created a smartphone application that lets fans follow the team. He has recruited other Indian executives to help promote the sport.
Becoming the face of the Kings, Ranadive said, “could be that catalyst” that catapults the sport in India. “We would have a full-court press on this.”
Howard Beck contributed reporting.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/sports/basketball/money-arena-and-india-play-into-potential-sale-of-kings.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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