Mayor Kevin Johnson has been a beacon of hope in Sacramento over the past few years in terms of making efforts to keep the Kings in Sacramento. He convinced the Board of Governors in April of 2011 that Sacramento deserved an opportunity to come up with an arena deal to save the Kings after rounding up more local sponsors. He convinced his fellow local politicians that such a deal was both possible and feasible. He brought together groups like AEG and the NBA to work on such a deal and even got it to the point where it seemed like it was happening before the Maloof family backed out at the last minute.

Now Mayor Johnson has to do it again. In an interview with USA Today's Sam Amick, Johnson lays out some of his plan for keeping the team here and why he believes the city will get a fair shot.

Johnson went on to say that a competitive offer from Sacramento's standpoint would likely be in the $425-450 million range.

Due to the fact that a Sacramento based ownership group would not have to pay a relocation fee or a $77 million city loan, they do not have to match Seattle's offer dollar-for-dollar It was reported today by CSN's Matt Steinmetz that the Maloofs have a handshake deal with the Hansen/Ballmer group in the range of $525 million, although that report has not yet been confirmed by other sources.

Amick goes on to say that any Sacramento offer would have to involve a viable arena plan to even be considered by the NBA. This would almost certainly mean any potential buyer would have to agree to the arena plan that Mayor Johnson, AEG and the NBA put together this past year that was rejected by the Maloof family as there's no time to craft a new one.

A few names have made themselves known today as possible investors. Ron Burkle we have known about since the attempted Anaheim relocation attempt, but Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported that 24-Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov was also interested.

Johnson says that he wants there to be a strong, unified response from Sacramento.

Well said, Mr. Mayor. A big tip of the hat to Sam Amick for getting that interview, I highly recommend reading the article in its entirety.