NBA Kings’ Vivek Ranadive Bidding for Ottawa’s NHL Franchise

ottawa: Vivek Ranadive, the Indian American owner of North American professional basketball league, National Basketball Association (NBA), franchise Sacramento Kings, has now emerged one of the seven finalists bidding to buy the National Hockey League (NHL) franchise Ottawa Senators, according to several sports news outlets in the US. NHL is a professional ice hockey league in North America. According to sources, bids for Ottawa Senators are expected to fetch more than $800 million and could even hit $1 billion, making it the highest price ever paid for an NHL franchise. Final bids are due on May 15.

The Remington Group — which includes Canadian actor and Wrexham AFC co-owner Ryan Reynolds — is reportedly also among the finalists for Senators. A stipulation for a potential Senators sale is that the team remains in Ottawa in Canada. The team was put up for sale following the death passing of owner Eugene Melnyk in March 2022. Canada’s Ottawa Sun newspaper has also named Ottawa-based Indian Canadian Neil Malhotra, an urban planner and developer who oversees retirement home operator Claridge Homes, among others, as a potential bidder for Senators.

Ranadive is the first Indian American to own an NBA franchise and the founder of Silicon Valley based IT company TIBCO Software. He had bought Sacramento Kings in 2013 along with a group of investors, for $534 million, a record for an NBA team sale at the time after selling his share in Golden State Warriors another NBA team, of which he was the co-owner and vice chairman since 2010. The Kings is now reportedly worth more than $2 billion. Ranadivé also holds a majority stake in the Sacramento River Cats, a minor league baseball team.

While Indian Americans have been very successful entrepreneurs in the IT sector in the US, Ranadive was the first and only

Vivek Ramaswamy’s Surprising Surge

new york: Just 10 weeks after launching his campaign, Republican presidential hopeful and former biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy has risen enough in some polls to match the popularity of well-known candidates such as former vice president Mike Pence and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. He’s pulling respectable crowds in early primary states, and he’s reportedly already got some fans who cry out of happiness when they talk about him. While he still poses no threat to former President Donald Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the surge of interest is still a striking development in an already-packed race. Why are people paying attention to this guy?

Two short profiles in The New York Times and Politico this week focus a great deal on Ramaswamy’s personality and alwayssay-yes attitude toward media interviews as a way of explaining the surge of Republican interest in him. But what these reports overlook in their narratives is that he’s also getting traction because he’s promising to be more extreme than Trump. Ramaswamy remains a total long shot, but his ability to secure attention is a function of his extremism.

Politico’s report discusses how Ramaswamy “blends the youthfulness and hustle of Pete Buttigieg’s run in 2020 with the extremely online nature of Andrew Yang’s millennial fan base,” and notes how “he’ll say ‘yes’ to almost any interview request — no matter the outlet.” The New York Times explains that “confidence is Mr. Ramaswamy’s gift,” that this “smooth-talking” can be “infectious.”

These accounts are not wrong, but they don’t tell the whole story.

Ramaswamy has correctly identified the power of intense retail politics and media overexposure as a tactic for building a narrative, and, like Yang, he likely profits from being very online. But there’s an essential ingredient to why the matters are paying off: Ramaswamy is affirming the Republican base’s instincts by promising to succeed where Trump failed to deliver and perfect MAGA politics.

-- MSNBC person of Indian origin to take a leadership role as a sports entrepreneur. “But things are changing. I see a great deal of interest in sports among young Indian-Americans. Basketball is a global sport and anyone – no matter where you are from or what language you speak – can participate. I am honoured to be considered a pioneer in this community and I hope my experience inspires other people of Indian origin to become involved in the game,” Ranadive, chairman, CEO and governor of the Sacramento Kings, had told this reporter in an exclusive interview in 2019. -- Times of India