Per Ric Bucher:
Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has gathered a strong contingent to bid for keeping the Kings where they are, but their level of commitment won’t be certified until they make the same non-refundable payment of $30 million to the Maloofs that the group from Seattle already has made, a source said. Should the league’s owners reject the Seattle group in favor of the Sacramento group without meeting that term, the source said, the Maloofs are almost certain to file an anti-trust suit against the league. The Sacramento group also has to deal with several different entities owning parcels of the land upon which the proposed arena would be built. Working through how much the land is worth and a sale price for each parcel is not a quick process; nor is the required cash-out by Warriors part-owner Vivek Ranadive to join the Kings’ group. I also have to wonder, considering the potential benefit for the Warriors in having all of Northern California to themselves, how motivated they’ll be to expedite the process if doing so enhances the chance of the Kings staying. For what it’s worth, the league office is playing this “straight down the middle,” according to one source, showing no preference toward either side.