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Sacramento Kings To Kansas City Kings? Not Likely

The Kansas-City-needs-a-NBA-team talk has been resurfacing. 610 Sports brought up the topic on Thursday morning after news surfaced of an email the league sent the Sacramento Kings regarding their search for a new arena.

"On the heels of the disappointing – but not surprising – action (or inaction) of the state and Cal Expo board, it is fair to say that the NBA has ceased its activities on the Sacramento arena front. However, we will continue to monitor and respond to the activities and options of others that might reasonably ensure the competitiveness and viability of the Kings' franchise."

There are plenty of other details in the story -- you can read that at the Sacramento Bee -- but the ultimate question in Kansas City has become:

Could the Sacramento Kings move (back) to Kansas City?

Well, there are plenty of hurdles for Sacramento to pass through if they wanted to move to Kansas City.

The problem: It doesn't sound like they want to move to Kansas City.

The Pitch dug up a quote from Kings owner George Maloof from last summer when asked about Kansas City in particular.

"Some of it is the proximity. We live in Southern California and Las Vegas. To fly to Kansas City is a little longer, a little further. Here is the thing. We have not given up on an arena in Sacramento. The NBA is involved. They are going to get to a point and they are going to let us know what the results are. At that point we are going to decide whether to continue on to try to get a new arena or continue on with what we have."

The Sprint Center in downtown Kansas City has been getting quite a bit of traffic from concerts and other events but I think most would prefer a full-time tenant like a basketball (or hockey) team.

It just doesn't sound like that full-time tenant will be Sacramento.