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The Kings situation is highly complicated and involves a lot of moving parts. A key component of the situation is the announcement of a local (Sacramento based) ownership group that will make a competing offer for the Kings. A critical piece of that offer involves a new arena.
Mayor Johnson, however, also announced the following in his Thursday statement as covered by SB Nation's Kings site, Sactown Royalty:
Finally, the Mayor announced a new goal to not only keep the Kings in Sacramento but also to bring back the Sacramento Monarchs. Mayor Johnson stated that he has already notified the WNBA commissioner of Sacramento's intention to acquire a team, and Mark Mastrov is on board with this.
It's possible that some will see the inclusion of the WNBA Monarchs in the deal as some kind of "incentive" to the NBA. WNBA fans, however, will have a different question.
Would the return of the Monarchs come from expansion of the league or would a team be moved in this scenario?
So far, there do not appear to be an answers to that critical issue.
The Monarchs played in Sacramento from 1997 until their final season in 2009. They won a single WNBA championship in 2005 under head coach John Whisenant.