Robert Sarver's Greed Driving Threat To Leave Phoenix
Phoenix city council recently rejected a proposal to free up taxpayer funds to help Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver renovate or build a new arena. Sarver’s Suns play out of originally named Key West Arena now called Talking Stick Resort Arena.
It was built back in 1992 and underwent renovations under the previous owner Jerry Colangelo in 2004.
Now approaching 27 years, Talking Stick Resort Arena is the second oldest building housing an NBA Franchise.
Robert Sarver has threatened he will move the franchise if he is not accommodated by the city of Phoenix after Phoenix's City Council rejected his proposal.
"With a vote on a $230 million renovation plan for the Suns' arena by the Phoenix City Council delayed, it has been revealed that Suns owner Robert Sarver has told some council members he might move the team to Seattle or Las Vegas."
In the meantime, the Phoenix Suns are currently the 2nd or 3rd worst team in the NBA this season and have not made the NBA Playoffs since a Western Conference Finals loss to the Los Angeles Lakers back in 2010.
It has been hard times for the Phoenix Suns lately a franchise that has been involved in the NBA playoffs 29 times, recorded 19 seasons with 50 plus wins or more, and appeared in 9 Western Conference Finals.
They have also appeared in two NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993 losing both times. As of the 2017-18 season the Suns own a regular season winning percentage of 53.5%.
However, the last nine seasons under the leadership of Sarver have been depressing for Phoenix Suns fans.
There have been a number of questionable roster decision that was made by general manager Ryan McDonough under Sarver's watch. In the 2014-15 season, the Suns had three good point guards. By February 29, 2015, both Isaiah Thomas and Goran Dragic were traded.
In 2017 the third point guard was sent home for a vague tweet and traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Greg Monroe, a protected first round pick and a second round pick.
By February 1st, 2018 Monroe was waived by the Suns. All three point guards played or are playing significant roles for their new teams.
Other deals that would have been made under Sarver's watch was the trading of P.J. Tucker for Jared Sullinger and two second-round pick during the 2016-17 season.
Sullinger was waived the day after the trade. The hiring of former head coach Earl Watson was interesting.
He had spent one season as an assistant with the G League franchise Austin Spurs before taking the interim title of head coach for the Suns during the 2016-17 season and was given a three-year deal before the start of the 2017-18 season to be the permanent head coach. Watson was then promptly fired after a 0-3 start to the 2017-18 season.
Robert Sarver claimed ownership of the Suns in 2004 for a record purchase price of $401 million dollars.
His proposed $230 million dollar renovation of the Talking Stick Resort Arena, in which he would cover only $80 million or 35% of the cost to keep the Suns in Phoenix, is pure greed for the following reasons:
#1 How Other NBA Arena’s Got Built
Everything wears out with age and use. At some point, every team in every sports league has either refurbished, renovated, moved to a different stadium or rebuilt their existing playing surface.
Long gone are the old Maple Leaf Gardens, in Toronto Canada, the Boston Garden in Boston Massachusetts or Yankee Stadium in New York.
It's inevitable that change will happen. However, who’s responsibility to pay for a multi-million dollar project like Robert Sarver now needs for the Phoenix Suns?
The Golden State Warriors play out of the Oracle Center in Oakland, California and have for 1966-1967 and again from 1971-this season. They will move across the Bay to San Francisco to the Chase Center a new building.
The Warriors will start playing there in the 2019-2020 season. This plan for a new home for the Warriors came about way back in May of 2012 when it was first announced in a press conference. For a look at the design and images of the stadium check out the following link.
The key point concerning the Warriors new home is that the Chase Center was a privately funded project expected to cost $500 million dollars. It was built with private not public funds.
The Chase center, the Warriors "self-financed $1 billion arena" has actually required $1 billion dollars to complete.
Another example is the Toronto Raptors. They moved into the ACC (Air Canada Center) now Scotia Bank Arena, back in 1999.
The Air Canada Center cost $235 million and its construction was started by the Raptors original ownership group led by businessman John Bitove Jr.
Once again not one public dime was used to create the current home of the Toronto Raptors and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
To add to this point, we live in an era in which websites like kickstarter.com and gofundme.com exist.
People with all manner of ideas from plastic surgery enhancement to starting up the next great small business to raising funds for charity commonly raise funds by asking the general public to donate to their cause. It is not clear what other ways Sarver has tried to raise funds for his expensive project.