Kings owner Ranadivé announces buyout of minority owners who helped keep team in Sacramento

The Sacramento Kings announced Friday owner Vivek Ranadivé and Arctos Sports Partners bought out the shares of minority owners Mark Friedman, Brad Jenkins, Mark Mastrov, Andy Miller and Kevin Nagle.

Those minority owners helped Ranadivé take ownership of the Kings from the Maloof brothers in 2013. The Maloofs threatened to move the Kings to Anaheim and tried to sell the team and move it to Seattle. Both plans were quashed by the NBA and the Maloofs eventually sold to Ranadivé’s group.

“We are tremendously thankful to Mark Friedman, Brad Jenkins, Mark Mastrov, Andy Miller and Kevin Nagle for their transformational investment in our franchise,” Ranadivé said in a news release. “They have been instrumental in our vision for the organization and their commitment made it possible for the team to stay where it belongs – in Sacramento.

“We are excited to welcome Arctos Sports Partners to the franchise and look forward to continuing to make Sacramento proud.”

Arctos Sports Partners touts its insights to the sports world on its website. Arctos is led by managing partner David O’Connor, the former head of the Madison Square Garden Company, which oversees the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, among other properties.

Arctos says on its website it plans to be “long-duration investors and partners with no aspirations for control ownership.”

With the Kings on more stable ground than in 2013, Friedman said in an emailed comment that he felt like he did his job in keeping the NBA franchise in Sacramento.

“My goal when investing was to help save the Kings and keep them in Sacramento,” Friedman said. “It has been a terrific experience and I am proud to have been able to leverage my expertise in helping develop the arena and reshape our downtown.”

The group leaving the Kings includes some of the key investors recruited in part by former Mayor Kevin Johnson during the 2013 drama that saw the team nearly move to Seattle.

Mastrov, founder of the 24 Hour Fitness chain, was going to be the lead owner, with Southern California grocery tycoon Ron Burkle taking the lead on developing a new downtown arena that was considered essential to the city’s chances of retaining the Kings.

Burkle then bolted the group over a conflict of interest — he owned a sports-agent company that represented NBA players — and the Sacramento ownership was scrambled. Ranadive, a Silicon Valley software tycoon, arrived and replaced Mastrov as the leader of Sacramento’s bid to keep the Kings.

Nagle, a pharmaceutical executive from El Dorado Hills, and Friedman, whose family owns Arden Fair mall, have been among the top two Sacramento-area investors since 2013. The two accompanied Ranadive and Johnson to Dallas in April 2013, when the Sacramento group convinced NBA owners to veto the team’s move to Seattle. A few days later, the Maloofs agreed to sell the team to the Ranadive group.

Nagle tweeted Friday that he remains invested in the Kings as part of a local ownership group called Play To Win. Nagle is the principle owner of Sacramento Republic FC, a USL franchise seeking to join Major League Soccer. That effort included recruiting Burkle to take over as Republic FC’s lead investor, which got the team a nod from MLS. Burkle backed out in February and the team’s MLS future is murky at best as it looks for a new lead investor.