An NBA relocation committee has unanimously recommended that the league's board of governors deny the Sacramento Kings' bid to relocate to Seattle, the NBA has announced.
The board, comprised of NBA club owners or their designated representatives, will meet the week of May 13 to decide the issue, the NBA said in a statement.
The decision is a smack in the face to the Kings owners, the Maloof family, who had agreed to sell their 65 per cent share of the team to hedge fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer for USD 357 million.
But it bolsters the hopes of eight investors led by Vivek Ranadive, a 55-year-old software company chairman from India and part-owner of the NBA's Golden State Warriors, who hope to keep the Kings in California's capital.
The Sacramento group produced a bid to match the original Seattle offer of USD 341 million.
But earlier this month, the Maloofs complained to the NBA that the Ranadive bid is inadequate financially and not firm enough.
NBA commissioner David Stern told reporters he considered the Ranadive plan a binding offer and said the bids are "in the same ballpark with respect to the net result to the selling family."
Stern has also said that the timeline to build a new home arena for the club in either city would be a crucial issue in deciding the team's fate.
Seattle had been the home of the NBA SuperSonics, who won the league title in 1979 but moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder in 2008.
Ranadive is chief executive of Silicon Valley-based TIBCO and vice chairman of the Warriors. Should Ranadive's group succeed, he must sell his interest in the Warriors.
