Columnist Ron Kantowski: Palms helps pay the bills in Sac town

Tuesday, April 16, 2002 | 9:29 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

If the Sacramento Kings go on to win the NBA Championship this summer, they might as well hang the banner from the rafters of the Palms hotel-casino. Because that's what will have paid for it.

According to a Sacramento Bee story, the Kings have lost $15.5 million over the past three years, forcing Las Vegans Joe and Gavin Maloof to use profits from their other successful businesses -- namely the Palms and their New Mexico beer distributorships -- to offset the loss.

The Palms has become an official Kings' sponsor, purchasing signage at Arco Arena and TV commercials during Kings' broadcasts. In return, the Palms has become a Las Vegas' stamping ground for well-heeled Kings players as well as many of their NBA rivals.

Ironically, the last time the Kings broke even was four years ago, when they were awful. This year, they have the NBA's best record at 60-20 but player salaries have doubled since 1998.

The Maloofs also spent $5.7 million during the past year paying back part of a $73 million, 30-year loan from the city of Sacramento they absorbed upon purchasing the Kings from Los Angeles developer Jim Thomas.

According to The Bee, the Maloofs were willing to share their financial statements regarding the Kings but declined to be as forthcoming with their profit margins from the Palms and other interests.

Maybe that's why the brothers don't seem too concerned by the Kings' bottom line.

"You invest, invest, invest," Joe Maloof told the Bee as yet another capacity crowd filed into Arco recently. "We're in it for the long haul."

He thought it would be a good chance to make up a little time before the unscheduled Hoover Dam pit stop.

Only when you're behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 Turbo, you can make up a lot of time. Tracy pushed his sports car to 190 mph -- about 5 mph faster than he reached on Shoreline Drive during Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, where he finished seventh.

Remind me to call Tracy next time I need lottery tickets.

It was just another chapter in the continuing saga of CART's "bad-boy" racer, an image that Tracy said is mostly -- emphasis on "mostly" -- undeserved.

"Anybody who knows me knows that I'm a fairly normal guy. It's something CART has played up as a marketing thing," the Summerlin resident told the Los Angeles Times.

But there aren't many normal guys linked romantically -- if that's the right word -- with porn star Jenna Jameson, who attended Bonanza High School.

Again, Tracy, who was spotted with a new (and totally dressed) girlfriend at Long Beach, black-flagged that Internet rumor.

"I met her a couple of times, but there's no connection," he told the Times. "I don't know how people started talking about that. Maybe you can hook me up."

In that so few fans are coming to most of the games these days, the man apparently thought Cashman Field was the perfect place to lay low.

But he forgot it was dollar beer night, and that parole officers appreciate cheap beer as much as ex-cons do.

According to the PRCA, women competed against men before the PRCA formed the Cowboys' Turtle Association, but no accurate records exist.

Mussell, 23, has been riding saddle broncs since she was 18.

"She wanted to ride bulls and her father and I wanted to discourage her from doing that," said Kaila's mother, Cindy Mussell.

But it wasn't for the reason you'd think.

"We said to her 'There's other girls that ride bulls, but there's no other girls that ride saddle broncs,' " her mother explained.