The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted almost every industry in some form or fashion, and the Sacramento Kings have been no exception. While every NBA organization has suffered losses, the financial stability of Kings ownership has been a particularly big cloud looming over any discussion about the future of this franchise, both on and off the court.
The Kings already made a big wave of cuts and furloughs this summer, but most basketball operations employees were fortunately safe, until now.
According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, essential groups (front office, analytics, and scouting) were not affected by this round of furloughs, either, but the G-League staff was, along with a handful of support members in basketball operations across several departments. Furloughed employees have a tentative return date in November, pending the start of 2020-21 season, and employees on furlough will receive full medical benefits.
In a statement, Sacramento Kings interim general manager Joe Dumars stated:
Given uncertainty about the start of next season due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, we have made the difficult decision to furlough a handful of full-time positions across out basketball operations departments primarily around support roles.
As of today, the identities of furloughed basketball operations staff members have not been revealed, so we don’t know who or what departments were directly impacted.
Despite the financial realities of the pandemic, this is heartbreaking news for our tight Sacramento community. Considering the abundant wealth in the league as a whole, it’s easy to feel immense frustration that these employees (and the others furloughed back in July) couldn’t be taken care of in some way, but that is not an issue I’m going to be able to solve from behind my keyboard this morning. It’s just sad. We can only hope that this will be the last round of furloughs, and that all Sacramento Kings employees will be able to return to work as soon as possible.
Copy-paste from other thread:
Couldn’t they have furloughed Vlade and Peja? It could be argued that they are non-essential employees who did not contribute much. Now they, and Joerger, still get paid, while people lower in the pecking order have to deal with this.
Also, it is kind of sweet and sour that the Kings are on the forefront of social issues but apparently won’t go the extra mile to pay their employees. I wonder if Matina took a paycut.
Also funny that Vivek lets Dumars be the messenger.
“convenient” or “blame avoiding” are the terms I’d use about using Dumars as the messenger for this. Status Quo in today’s America.
Hidek Ranadive!
Factual.
Is DJ still getting paid now that the season is over?
It’s shitty for sure. I got laid off in the spring of ’09, and it was several years before I got back to where I was. I definitely feel for those affected. I’m not really sure what other decent choices management may have had, but I’d guess they were few, if any.
My assumption is that by November, cases and deaths are going to be way up as colder weather arrives, and that the ’20-’21 season will need to also be in a bubble. That’s going to leave a lot of Golden 1 Center employees who generally get well during Kings games and concerts in a tough spot. Other than soaking billionaires to provide aid to people who, you know, work for a living, or have been laid off, I have no other easy solutions.
And just because the easy solution is also the most sensible doesn’t mean that it has a chance in hell of happening. As Thomas Frank noted, America is a nation of footmen, overeager to serve our betters, rather than inconvenience them by daring to ask them to pay their way. We hold bake sales rather than ask the wealthy to do more to fund our schools. We create GoFundMe accounts to pay for chemotherapy and other life-saving procedures, rather than work together to demand universal health coverage.
Serfs up, y’all.
Has any other team in the league done a second wave a furloughs? I know a lot of teams have layed off or furloughed arena staff, but this is the first I’ve heard of basketball operations staff.
I think Fertitta in Houston has already furloughed people that don’t even work for him.
Part of that might depend on how many or how few employees were furloughed by teams the first time around. I haven’t seen actual numbers on a team by team basis (though, I also haven’t really dug for that).
This sucks. I am furloughed from my job as well, with no set return date. I am in the fortunate position that I can pay my rent/basic needs even with only receiving unemployment, and I do still have my work health coverage, and me and the others from our company will have a job to go back to eventually, as according to the last email my boss sent us our company isn’t in danger of going under. Still, I really feel for those that are not in as fortunate in a position, where they can’t afford to stay at home as much as possible while being able to put food on the table.
Until signs of intelligent life appear @G1C, I have furloughed myself as a fan.
So, do staff get paid through a strict Kings cap? or is ownership allowed to pump money into the organization as they please? Reason I’m asking is because I know our ownership group is Tech-Heavy and right now Tech is worth the most they’ve ever been. Companies and their CEO’s are rolling in the dough and the future only looks greener.
Actually, the non-Kings pressures run the other way. They still owe rent on a building that cannot be used for concerts or games. Off the court, the owners decided to become K street landlords and hotel owner. There is no way they aren’t loosing a lot of money there. Unlike the Kings, they cannot cut those loses without selling at a price that would have been inconceivably low until now.
It’s a lock that the Kings are in BAD shape day to day / liquid at this point with a ton of team equity to bail them out.
Most likely the team will need to be sold or they will cut spending a ton to delay that from happening. Vivek wants to avoid selling before the team turns it around. Matina will support the cuts because a third owner isn’t keeping her around based upon her Midas touch and cheery disposition.
You are talking about the Kings organization in a vacuum, Beephop talks about the owners themselves, who really on their wealth on other sources than just the Kings.
I’m aware. When Vivek has to keep calling them for capital because the Kings and there holdings are not liquid, that’s what the owners tap. Because they are tied of doing that, the ax is swinging again.
I thought heard a bit on NPR about the City scrambling because the Kings don’t actually pay rent on the building when they aren’t playing.
If that’s true, I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Close. The stated reason for the city scrambling is because the event parking revenue was the avenue used to pay off city bonds, not because of the rent.
This sucks.
It sucks, but if there’s any silver lining to be had, they still get their benefits and are eligible for unemployment, as well as still having a job to come back to. Definitely beats a pink slip.
Yeah, that’s exactly the position I’m currently in. I count my blessings I’m able to get by even while being on furlough.
In Sacramento, there have been 4 ownership groups. Each time, the group eventually became both bad at basketball moves and unable to make the day to day budget work. (Before that the Kings / Royals played in several cities for similar reasons) When Vivek bought the team, I hopped that cycle may end. It has not. In fact, it’s already bottomed out in 7 years. As a basketball team they are not well run and they appear to be pretty screwed day to day fiscally.
This isn’t just “a few more people were laid off” If you are a fan of the Kings or downtown Sacramento, despite the lack of any real reporting on it, the day to day fiscal issues for the Kings for the foreseeable future are grim. Really grim. And, it’s going to have a big impact on the things fans expect and/or hope the Kings would otherwise do.
Sad for those employees, but when the new regime comes in, many of them wouldn’t have been kept around anyway. This just accelerates the timeline for them. Vlade could show up the Kings by giving a portion of his payout to those affected.
Atleast they weren’t fired like me. ð¤·ï¸
At least they didn’t make a decision like this and then film a fast food commercial flaunting their phantom wealth over a burger and glass of wine. That would be so stupid.
Badge Legend