NBA Commissioner David Stern yesterday said that Kings Owners the Maloof family "have agreed to make a substantial contribution to" the city of Sacramento's $387M arena deal, but he "did not disclose how much," according to Tony Bizjak of the SACRAMENTO BEE. Stern said that he "expects negotiations between the league and city to continue into the weekend." He said, "There is a lot of discussion going on. We're hoping by the March 1 deadline there will be a financing plan that makes sense." Stern indicated that he "considered any contribution to the arena from the probable arena operator, AEG, to be a team contribution." City officials have said that they expect AEG to "put about" $50M into the deal as upfront money. The city is reported to have "asked that the Kings put in about" $85M of their own money. Stern said, "The team has agreed to a substantial contribution, both directly from itself, but also by catalyzing AEG to be interested. In effect, whatever money AEG puts in is because of give-backs by the team ... so we see that as a team contribution" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 2/22).
