What if Sarver’s threat to move the Phoenix Suns is a GOOD thing

You want more reasons why? I’ll give them to you.

Sarver is a banker/businessman and has lived his professional life in a very calculated manner. By fixing up the arena (especially pushing for the short(ish) quick fix as compared to campaigning for a new facility), he is acting under the principle that one has to spend money to make money.

Take the average American for instance. When a family is preparing to move, they replace the water heater, update the cabinets, add a new coat of paint to the outside of the home, pull the weeds and mow the lawn. While the house is essentially the same, by spending a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars on updates, the sellers can ask for many thousands more.

That little bit of spending became an investment in their future.

Maybe Sarver really does see the end of the his time as owner in the near future and is trying to get the money secured for the renovation believing that $150 million in upkeep can turn into a $500 million return on his eventual sale.

If so, he is all the better (richer) for it.

Phoenix Suns

Not only that, but having those funds secured and the guarantee of an updated arena within a year or two is also one less thing that a potential new owner would have to worry about in the buying process. Interested owners could come in with a modern arena ready-made and no worries that they’ll immediately have to begin quarreling with politicians themselves, attempting to pursue updates for the arena (or fight for a new one) as soon as they take over.

Of course getting a financing deal done sooner rather than later too allows Sarver to sell the team more quickly, but all of that is still only the tip of the timing iceberg as there is a national  reason for pushing for this to be completed ASAP.

Again, Sarver is a banker/businessman. He is probably very well connected and in touch with the economy and banking on a national level.

While the economy is buzzing along right now, many economists (and CFO’s the world over) are predicting that the next great recession (if not a depression)  is closing in.

Like the idea of maximizing equity on the property, if he sells before  the economic bubble bursts, not only is the amount of money that can be made on the sale maximized, but the number of people willing to put up  the money for the purchase is maximized as well.

Specifically, if the economy tanks and banking is dramatically hurt, how many potential buyers in the banking world might be forced to drop any interest they may have now? People he is probably in contact with on a regular basis, members of the upper strata of the American rich who jokingly jab him from time-to-time that if only he would sell the franchise they  could do a better job.

But then let’s say too that nothing happens and the next council and mayor eventually find interest in helping out – and then the economy begins to sag. A national economic decline alone could put the kibosh on the deal in Phoenix, further hurting the arena and franchise’s value, and potentially ending all hope of major renovations for many years.

There is an argument to be made that this conspiracy theory is light years  more likely than Stephen Curry’s Moon landing one.

But while this could all just be one wild and crazy theory, Robert Sarver’s reported threat of moving the Phoenix Suns might fully have been out of exasperation because he is trying to get a deal done as quickly as possible so he could sell the team, and things just aren’t moving quickly enough.

A lifetime of pleasant beach-life is calling you, Robert. Answer that call (on a washed up seashell).