Robert Sarver's Greed Driving Threat To Leave Phoenix

#2 Who’s responsibility is the cost anyway?

The tenants could jointly ask their landlord to jointly share the cost of renovations among themselvesÂ if they feel its necessaryÂ to renovate — The tenants could jointly ask their landlord to jointly share the cost of renovations among themselves if they feel its necessary to renovate

When one purchases a home they may do so by paying for it outright if they have the funds or arranging for a mortgage from a bank to finance the purchase. Either way, the home belongs to the homeowner or the purchaser.

When that home needs renovations because the owner’s dog scratched up the hardwood floors, the paint on the wall is dirty or dulled or the kitchen ceramic tiles are cracked and broken, it is the homeowner who assumes the cost of repairing the floors, repainting the walls or fixing and replacing the broken cracked titles.

Sarver, in purchasing the Phoenix Suns is not only responsible for paying the salary of the player roster and paying for and staffing the management of the franchise it also makes him responsible for the upkeep of the playing surface.

The owner of the Talking Stick Resort Arena is the City of Phoenix and the tenants are The Phoenix Suns of the NBA, The Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA and The Phoenix Rattlers of the AFL.

These tenants could jointly ask their landlord to jointly share the cost of renovations among themselves if they feel its necessary to renovate.

However, clearly, an AFL and WNBA franchise most likely cannot afford even a fraction of the $230 million dollar bill that Sarver is quoting for the renovations.

Typically the tenant allows the landlord, in this case, the Phoenix City Council, to make renovations and maintain the quality and structural integrity of the arena.

However, what Sarver is proposing is not a renovation of necessity but by desire and want.

Unless the building is falling apart or the lighting or plumbing does not work, The Phoenix City Council does not need to act. In fact, Sarver’s concerns about the Talking Stick Resort Arena when asked about renovating it or building a new stadium was the following:

"We have no choice to do one of those two because as you know, our arena is becoming outdated. We're soon to be the second oldest arena in the league. Smallest arena in the league square-footage-wise, not so much seating capacity, but square-footage wise and as I said the second oldest infrastructure wise.

"We have to have an NBA-quality facility. I know that. I think the city of Phoenix knows that. We have no choice but to get one of those two things done.”

Essentially Sarver claims he wants to update the Talking Stick Resort Arena which would potentially price the other tenants out of the building when the rent goes up.

It would be irresponsible for the Phoenix City Council to reduce the number of tenants losing rent and revenue by spending on Sarver’s desires.

Phoenix's City Council would have to recoup the funds spent on renovations by possibly raising the rent at the arena and possibly raising taxes on local citizens.

Note that Sarver's statement puts an emphasis on the square footage of the arena. It seems as if Sarver has already decided to move the team and the request for renovations might be a ruse.