Vivek Ranadivé and co. said they were going to bring technology to the Kings and they're doing so in some very innovative ways.
One of the mantras of Sacramento's new ownership group has been something called "NBA 3.0" in which they aim to bring the Kings and the NBA into the 21st century through innovation and technology.
Yesterday it was announced that the Kings would be the first professional sports team to start accepting the virtual currency bitcoin for merchandise, tickets, and even concessions. For bitcoin, this is a big step forward for its own legitimacy, as most retailers and merchants don't accept the currency due to its extreme volatility; One bitcoin was worth $13.51 on Jan. 1st, 2013. That has gone all the way up to $1,165.90 and back down to $863.35 since then.
According the Wall Street Journal's report, the Kings are even being unorthodox in the way they're accepting bitcoin. Most retailers who accept bitcoin do so by having the bitcoin processors give them actual cash so as to not take on any of that volatility. Vivek, meanwhile, is willing to accept bitcoins for the Kings account.
"It's only a matter of time before the volatility goes away"
In my personal opinion, the Kings are protected from risk partly because the people who would likely pay for Kings merchandise in bitcoin probably weren't going to be paying in dollars in the first place, and with (currently) limited options on where to spend bitcoins, the Kings have cornered the market on professional sports merchandise. It's just one more way the Kings are trying to create a global, rather than simply local, fanbase.
On another technological note, the Kings also announced that for the Jan. 24th game against the Indiana Pacers, the Kings will be providing a unique experience by equipping members of the team and broadcast with Google Glass. The test video for the product looks really cool and you can check it out below:
Sacramento's new ownership is breathing fresh life into a franchise that had gone stale, and it's nice to see that they're determined to not only improve the product on the court but also off of it.