Sacramento Kings Tickets

Sacramento Kings
Initially started in the city of Rochester, New York, as the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League, the Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings are members of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

At the conclusion of World War II, the United States lacked a major professional basketball league. The National Basketball League decided to fill that void by stepping up from a regional semi-pro league into the nation's premier professional basketball loop.

One of the top professional teams in the country was the Rochester Pros and they were invited to join the NBL for the 1945-46 season. The team, which had long been known as the Seagrams before briefly adopted the nickname "Pros", and later selected the nickname "Royals".

Success for the Royals was almost immediate. Founded in 1945, the team won the NBL championship in 1945-46. The following season, NBL Governors voted that the regular season "Pennant Winner" would be declared as the official NBL Champion, and the post-season would consist of a separate, non-championship tournament.

The Royals captured their second NBL Championship in as many years, but lost in the post-season tournament finals to the Chicago American Gears.

In 1948, the Royals moved to the Basketball Association of America along with the Fort Wayne Pistons, Minneapolis Lakers, and Indianapolis (Kautskys) Jets. A year later, the BAA merged with the NBL to become the National Basketball Association.

The Royals won the NBA title in 1951 by defeating the New York Knickerbockers. The Royals twelve-year stay in Rochester featured the services of nine future members of the Basketball Hall of Fame, one member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and a Hollywood Walk of Famer: Al Cervi, Bob Davies, Alex Hannum, Les Harrison, Red Holzman, Arnie Risen, Maurice Stokes, Jack Twyman, Bobby Wanzer, Otto Graham, and Chuck Connors.

In 1957, the Royals were moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. The move to Cincinnati was not initially a financial success. Despite making the playoffs for the first time in three seasons the Royals would still lose a reported $25,000.

The two top stars and Hall of Famers moving with the team were Maurice Stokes and Jack Twyman. Stokes' promising career ended due to a brain injury that resulted from a fall during a playoff game at Detroit in 1958. Twyman was the first Royal to average 30 points per game for a season.

To end all the team's financial problems the Harrison brothers brokered a deal with Rochester concessionaire Norman Shapiro to sell controlling interest in the team to him. Shapiro then moved the team back to Western New York for the 1958-59 season.

The reason that the sale and relocation to Rochester failed was because at the time the NBA was negotiating with a major television network to carry the league's games on a select basis.

The league did not view Rochester as a "Major League" city and refused to grant the authorization of the sale. Without the league's OK to sell the team back to Rochester interests the Harrisons reluctantly sold the Royals to Cincinnati owners.

In 1985, the Kings moved to their current home of Sacramento, California. Much of their early tenure in Sacramento was spent in the NBA's cellar, and the team made the playoffs only once between 1985 and 1995.

Some of their failure was attributable to unimaginable misfortune, poor management and the ill-fated selection of "Never Nervous" Pervis Ellison with the first overall pick in the 1989 NBA Draft.

The early 1990s were not kind to the Kings. Sacramento was known for having strong fan support. But it never had a good team and always struggled on the road.

The Kings squeaked into the playoffs in 1996 largely due to the effort of star player Mitch Richmond. Eventually the team was sold to the Maloof Family, who finally changed the direction of the team.

In light of declining attendance at ARCO Arena and increasing obsolescence of the building compared to newer NBA venues, there was a campaign to build a new $600 million facility in downtown Sacramento, which was to be funded by a quarter cent sales tax increase over 15 years.

Thus NBA publicly called for a new arena to be built at another well-known Sacramento facility, Cal Expo, the site of California's state fair.

The NBA promises that no public money will be used for the project; the Cal Expo board has long sought state legislation that would allow Cal Expo to form a joint-powers authority to issue bonds and lease land to developers, it is thought that negotiations for an NBA arena will more quickly bring this to fruition.

The National Basketball Association has been responsible for churning out one of best teams and players to ever play the beautiful sport of Basketball. Among one of the most historic teams to ever take part in the NBA, the Sacramento Kings is one team which has been present even before the NBA was established. The franchise was established back in the year 1945 and was originally hails from the city of Rochester in New York. It has, since then, been moved on to three other cities and has been based in the city of Sacramento in California since the year 1985. The Sacramento Kings have been successful in winning the champions a total of two times, one of which came during their playing days in the National Basketball League in 1945 and the other one coming the National Basketball Association back in the year 1951. They have also been the proud winners of the Conference Title which too came in the year 1951. The team also has five Division Titles to their credit, two of which came in the NBL whereas the other three were won during their time in the NBA. Over the course of the franchise's history, a total of eleven of the team's players have been enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, whereas two other of the team's former players were also inducted in the prestigious FIBA Hall of Fame. Buy your Sacramento Kings Tickets today and get a chance to catch this wonderful team play their game live in front of your own eyes.