Gavin Maloof put his 13,489-square-foot Southern Highlands bachelor pad -- custom-designed and built back in 2004, then subsequently expanded -- on the market in 2013, for $12.5 million. That price doesn’t seem to have found any takers and the mansion has been marked down to $11.2 million as of this writing. But hey, that 11 mil gets you six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a 10-car garage, and bragging rights to the location of Lil Wayne’s "Lollipop" music video. Unlike most homes in Las Vegas, it comes with a basement, too. The many amenities include built-in bookcases, heated pool, walk-in wine refrigerator, theater, gym, a built-in barbecue, an elevator, and golf course frontage. True, you have to join a homeowners’ association and pay $520 a month, but that’s a small annoyance compared to what your $11.2 million buys you and the place comes fully furnished, too.
While George Maloof has been staying out of the headlines lately, Gavin has been making them, along with brother Joe, pressing the flesh for an NHL franchise for Las Vegas. (The fast-arising MGM/AEG Arena is the intended venue.) The plan is for lead investor William Foley to own 80 percent of the team, with Joe, Gavin, George, and Phil Maloof holding the rest. Gavin and Joe have been lobbying all over the Vegas Valley, and to-date have secured an impressive 13,500 season-ticket deposits – starting at $150 – with hopes of impress the NHL with this concrete show of support for their Vegas Wants Hockey campaign. At the end of September, a formal presentation was made to the NHL Executive Committee in New York City and now Foley, the Maloofs, and their season-ticket holders are just waiting on a final decision.
Although junior partners in the enterprise, of their involvement Sacramento Bee sports columnist Ailene Voisin wrote, "I don’t think they would do this unless they are in a managing role. That’s their style. They want to run things. They want to be out front and in the spotlight. They want to be relevant. It’s not in their DNA to be behind the scenes."
The Maloof brothers are flush after selling the Sacramento Kings for a $297 million markup in 2013. That transaction marked the end of a turbulent relationship that in its 2003 heyday had seen ESPN Magazine rank the ownership among the top three out of 121 professional sports franchises in the nation, based on "honesty and loyalty to core players and local community." But things soured big time, thanks to the effects of the economic downturn and some major PR blunders, to the point where by 2012, the Kings had dropped to 121 of 122 teams in ESPN’s Ultimate Team Rankings in the categories of fan relations, stadium experience, and ownership. The brothers shopped the team around, eventually trying to move it to Seattle (after offering it to Anaheim and Virginia Beach), but the NBA’s board of governors voted to reject the transaction and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson eventually brokered a deal with TIBCO Chairman Vivek Ranadive’s investment group to buy the Kings and keep them in Sacramento.
George was depicted in the documentary Down in the Valley as "the unquestioned villain" of the move-the-Kings saga. However, not only did he agree to appear in the film, but he also had the stones to show up for its Sacramento premiere. "Was it awkward? Yes," queried Sacramento Bee sports columnist Marcos Breton. "Did Maloof ultimately get what he wanted in a big payday by selling the Kings for more than $500 million? Yes."
"I believe the Maloofs were good guys who got in over their heads financially, ethically, and morally," said the film’s director, Jason Hehir, who gets a forlorn-looking George Maloof to roll up his shirt sleeve on camera to reveal a Kings logo tattoo on his arm. "I would love to see George Maloof at half court of the new Kings arena," said Hehir to the Bee, echoing George's own wistful on-camera sentiment: "I would love to go back someday and say 'hi' to everyone."
Tomorrow: Part II -- So, what of George Maloof these days?
