The owners of the Sacramento Kings have until April 18 to apply to the NBA to relocate 400 miles south on California's Interstate 5 to Anaheim. Hurry up, already.
Awaiting is the Honda Center, which is modern and luxurious and years ahead of the Sacramento's Arco Arena, which in a polite moment could be called cosy.
This should be a slam dunk, though the Maloof family that owns the Kings are apparently determined to drag this out.
The Honda Center is home to the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, situated just down the street from Disneyland in Orange County.
Orange County hugs the Pacific Ocean and is home to more than three million people, which is a comparatively small part of 12 million in the greater Los Angeles area. The median household annual income in Orange County is US$74,000 (Dh271,802).
Arco Arena sits outside downtown Sacramento. The arena looked old the day it opened. Sacramento has a population of 2.1 million and a median household income of $57,000.
Continued efforts to build a new arena in Sacramento have gone nowhere. The NBA has given up on the idea, and now too, should the Maloofs.
Get this: free agents do not want to live in isolated Sacramento; they do want to live on a bluff overlooking the Pacific.
The Kings will never sustain winning in Sacramento. In Southern California, even with the Lakers and Clippers 30 miles away in downtown Los Angeles, they have an opportunity to thrive.
