Sports Authority

Fans and Kings personalities celebrate at Fan Fest, one way the team connects with the community. Another is owner Vivek Ranadivé’s interest in real estate.

Photos by Aniko Kiezel

Dirt Cheap

HERE’S THE KINGS’ DEEPER PROBLEM: REAL ESTATE

After 37 years, I’ve fi nally fi gured out the curse of the Kings. It’s all about real estate.

I’m not talking about a real estate curse that involves ancient Native American burial grounds.

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By R.E. Graswich Sports Authority

For some Kings fans, the fi ctional image of bones beneath old Arco Arena explained why the team was so lousy.

The burial grounds theory collapsed when the team moved Downtown. If anything, the Kings got worse on K Street.

The real estate curse haunted the team’s ownership from the start. Since the Kings left Kansas City in 1985, they were run by men whose basketball wisdom was fogged by real estate. At some point, passion for dirt takes control.

The current owner, Vivek Ranadivé, was a Silicon Valley tech tycoon and electrical engineer when he bought the Kings in 2013. Today he’s a real estate guy.

The Kings and their private equity partners control big chunks of property. Their purchase of the River Cats baseball team, presented as a marriage of sports interests, isn’t about baseball. It’s about real estate. Buying the River Cats gives the Kings and their investors access to waterfront land in West Sacramento.

Ranadivé’s investments include 7 million shares of WeWork, a real estate company that lost about 85% of its value in the past 14 months. Vivek serves on the board of directors.

The real estate curse seems to have burrowed deep into Ranadivé.

Consider what he gave up to take control of the Kings (his stake is secret, but I believe he owns about 37%). When Ranadivé bought the Kings in 2013, the NBA required him to sell 7% of the Golden State Warriors. That seemed reasonable a decade ago.

Today the Warriors are worth three or four times more than the Kings. They have a bigger, newer, fancier arena overlooking San Francisco Bay.

Even worse, the Warriors have won four championships since 2015. It’s almost like they needed Ranadivé to leave before they turned everything around.

The real estate curse started with Joe Benvenuti, who purchased the Kansas City Kings and moved them west. He owned 50%. Gregg Lukenbill and several partners bought smaller pieces. TO PAGE 41