Sacramento Reveals Fourth Big Investor in Effort to Keep Kings

Investors and the city of Sacramento continue to scrap and pull out all of the stops in an effort to retain the Kings. A fourth “whale” equity investor was unveiled. Per News10: “Vivek Ranadive, the third ‘whale’ equity investor to join Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov in the effort to keep the Kings in Sacramento, spoke publicly for the first time since the city of Sacramento announced they had a reached a deal to build an arena at the Downtown Plaza site. ‘Every now and then you have an opportunity that’s bigger than yourself,’ Ranadive said. ‘And the opportunity to keep the Kings in Sacramento, when the mayor called and asked me about it, I couldn’t possibly say no.’ Ranadive’s addition to the Burkle-Mastrov team came as surprise last Thursday while the group was in negotiations with the city. Then Monday night, Ranadive had another surprise, the announcement of a fourth ‘whale’ equity investor: the Jacobs family of San Diego who helped start Qualcomm. ‘We’ve also assembled a dream team of investors and owners. One of the lessons I learned was to surround myself with people a lot smarter than me, and so my partners are all smarter than me,’ said Ranadive. ‘So we now have people from all economic centers of the state, from San Diego, L.A. and from the Bay Area, all coming together to keep the Kings in Sacramento.’ The team of Ranadive-Mastrov-Burkle-Jacobs along with the city of Sacramento will now have to convince the NBA Board of Governors their deal to keep the Kings in Sacramento is stronger than Steve Ballmer and Chris Hansen’s bid to move the team to Seattle. Both groups will make their formal pitches to the NBA on April 3, with the official vote on April 18 or 19 in New York. […] One possible advantage the Ranadive-led group may have over the Hansen-Ballmer bid is the ability to help the Sacramento Kings and the NBA grow globally. Two years ago, Ranadive made history when he brought Bollywood Night to the Golden State Warriors where he is currently a minority owner, and broadcast the first live NBA game in his native India.”