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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.
#2 Who’s responsibility is the cost anyway?
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.
#3 Build It and They Will Come only Works in the movies
Going back to the quote by Robert Sarver, if square footage is his major concern it's not clear what Phoenix City Council can do for him. The Arena, Talking Stick Resort, sits on a parcel of land that is only so big.
So Sarver’s public relations cry for renovations appears bogus. The only way to fix square footage, if more is required, is to build on a bigger piece of land.
Whether that’s a new stadium somewhere else in Phoenix or another city it won’t necessarily help the Suns franchise or Sarver.
A check of ESPN.com's attendance stats will show the Phoenix Suns average this season 14, 905 fans per home game.
This is the fourth worst home attendance in the NBA. Last season the Suns averaged 16, 866 per home date. In the 2017-18 season, they were 12th worst.
So is the attendance declining because the arena the Suns play in is outdated? The Talking Stick Resort Arena capacity is 18.422 fans.
This season the Suns have nine wins, they had 21 wins last season and 24 the season before. Is attendance falling because of the quality of on-court talent?
Essentially a brand new state of the art stadium either at Robert Sarver’s expense or the City of Phoenix or a $230 million upgrade to the existing facility does not solve the attendance issue.
The team won’t suddenly play better and win more games and fans won’t necessarily start showing up. In a new city maybe fans turn out just for the nuance of the experience but that’s not guaranteed.
Sarver should be concerned about the on-court talent improving which would most likely bring fans back to the stadium. This would result in more ticket (higher ticket prices) and merchandise sales.
It would even lead to playoff dates that would bring in even more revenue. It's the Suns' inability to grow their fan base that is preventing Sarver from financing his desire for a stadium upgrade or relocation.
He is also asking the City of Phoenix to raise taxes and fees on the local citizenry because they will need to recoup the money spent on the renovations somehow.
Sarver is being greedy by ignoring the declining attendance which suggests the citizens or fans of the Phoenix Suns want to see a better product not get gouged by taxes and higher ticket prices for a substandard product.
#4 The Bidding War
It appears Robert Sarver has played a public relations game of misdirection. A new stadium anywhere for his franchise costs a ton of money.
A retrofit or upgrade of the Talking Stick Resort Arena is too expensive for the city of Phoenix to approve.
However, by putting Phoenix on notice that they could lose their basketball team, by threatening to move to Seattle or Las Vegas, when the time comes Sarver has created a scenario where three cities might be looking to give him extras to either stay in or come to their city.
When the Seattle Supersonics left the city of Seattle in 2008 for Oklahoma City, it was over the owner's desire to have the City of Seattle spend $300 million dollars for a new stadium.
"Bennett told Gov. Chris Gregoire in a letter Thursday he will ask the state Legislature for at least $300 million instate-authorized public funds, for what he later specified would be a $500 million, multipurpose, suburban arena.
Bennett later said the plan will reach lawmakers by the end of the month."At the end of the day, it's up to leadership and the public if they want such a facility," Bennett said in a one-hour interview with The Associated Press.
Attendance was not really a problem in Seattle. The Supersonics last season in Seattle, 2007-08 had them record 17, 833 fans per home date. The potential of an NBA franchise re-locating there would cause a buzz among the city’s basketball fans.
Furthermore, the city of Seattle has approved a privately funded renovation of their Key Arena expected to be completed by 2021.
The renovation plan was approved in a 7-1 vote from the Seattle City Council in favor of a group led by Tim Leiweke. This could mean, with NBA approval, Sarver could relocate to a city rich with NBA history, a good fan base, and a NBA ready facility.
The NBA may expand after 2025 when a new TV contract would be negotiated so Seattle awaits either a team looking to relocate or an expansion franchise.
Las Vegas just received its first pro team franchise with the NH’s Las Vegas Golden Knights beginning play in the 2017-18 NHL season.
The arena in Vegas, the T-Mobile Arena, can seat 18,000 for a basketball contest. It’s a fairly new facility about two years old. Sarver’s ultimatum to the City of Phoenix may carry weight as the NBA announced back in August that the MGM will become the official data partner of the NBA.
"Those operators who create the best experience for consumers that have official data, that have the official imprimatur of our league and other leagues as well, are going to be those that win in the hearts and minds of consumers," Silver said during an afternoon news conference in New York City to announce the partnership.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver weighed in on the Phoenix situation by saying on the Bleacher Report’s “The Full 48” podcast. :
“Arenas are modern-day town halls. They’re community centers. And the NBA is a fraction of the overall dates,” Silver said. “A productive arena generally is booked 250 or so days a year. I think it makes perfect sense to have public-private partnerships in the case of arenas.”
Adam Silver, the NBA's commissioner even went further in his support of Sarver's proposal:
"Silver said he wrote a letter to Phoenix city officials saying the arena and the Suns have a huge impact on the city and having the Suns' games broadcasted globally is a huge advertisement for the city."
Either way, by getting three cities potentially excited about either losing an NBA franchise or gaining one, Sarver wins financially.
If Phoenix continues to rebuff his demands and the Suns relocate to Seattle he has a retrofitted arena ready in 2021 and all it will cost him is moving expenses and rent. The same thing applies with Las Vegas except it’s a newer arena.
If the City Council in Phoenix panics and gives in to Sarver's demands, Sarver gets what he asked for although it would cost him $80 million dollars.
Its also why staying in Phoenix does not appear to be Sarver’s choice but even at $80 million he would be paying about 8% of what Golden State has spent on the new Chase Center.
Phoenix.simply needs to get better talent and improve on the court. Simply rewarding an owner, ranked the fifth worst in the NBA by ESPN in 2017, with an upgraded or new stadium does not fix the Suns' flaws.
With DeAndre Ayton and Devin Booker starring for the Suns now, it might be best for the Suns to try and surround their two young stars with some support and the eroding fan base and lost revenue might return.
The Talking Stick Resort Arena is not the problem in Phoenix its Robert Sarver’s greed and lack of direction for the Suns.
Guess the Lakers players!
