Do not think that Larry Fitzgerald will fix the Phoenix Suns: Robert Sarver is still in charge

Arizona Cardinals superstar wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald has purchased a minority stake in the Phoenix Suns – but that doesn’t mean that things are going to change for the franchise.

The Phoenix Suns could use all the positive pub they can get.

Certainly winning will help with that, although Devin Booker making the All-Star Game will be a major public relations boost as well.

For a brief moment last week, the franchise did get that decent boost in positive attention when it was announced that Arizona Cardinals superstar (and Robert Sarver friend) Larry Fitzgerald had purchased a minority stake in the Phoenix Suns.

Following on the heels of his own announcement that he would be returning to the Cardinals for his 17th season with the football franchise, it ended up being a really great week for him, a wave the Suns and their fan base were more than happy to ride.

However, such news shouldn’t be too much for fans to get excited about.

For starters, he didn’t buy a majority  stake in the Phoenix Suns, as a minority owner, Robert Sarver is still the man in charge, so it’s not like there will be a sudden change in direction with the franchise in any major or significant way.

Ownership groups are just that, and there are multiple minority owners who essentially act as investors who help ease the financial burden on the majority stake-holder while taking taste of the franchise’s profits along the way.

So from that perspective, for Fitz, purchasing a piece of the team could very well be nothing more than an investment, and an extremely low-risk one considering the exorbitant valuations that professional sports franchise’s have at this time – and growing.

Sarver famously paid a then-record $404 million to buy the Phoenix Suns from Jerry Colangelo in 2004, and according to Forbes, in 2019 the franchise’s estimated worth was at $1.5 billion – a growth of nearly 400%.

And that is just the starting point: Steve Ballmer purchased the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion dollars in 2014 – after Forbes had valued the franchise at “only” $575 million months before, so if Sarver were to sell the team today, he would likely be able to get much  higher than just $1.5 billion.

While Fitzgerald may have eyes on having a larger stake (and thus a larger voice in the direction of the franchise) with a professional sports franchise someday (and who knows: maybe even a majority stake), this purchase could simply be a means of diversifying his investment portfolio.

He most certainly has other investments around the world of business, each of which tie up a portion of his wealth with the potential for any one of them to blow up and make him that much more than he has through his player earnings and endorsements.

Thus at the moment, this taste in the Phoenix Suns means nothing more than just that.

Not to forget: Sarver is going to sell the franchise someday  down the line (maybe Fitz knows something that we don’t – insider trading, perhaps??), and with the expected profit made on the sale to be significant considering the continually rising value in professional sports franchises, the rising number of billionaires around the world and the considerably few number of major sports franchise’s potentially to own, regardless of what he just put into the team, he is going to make a lot  in the sale

Regardless of whatever the future might hold for both he and the Phoenix Suns, at the moment, it can be nothing more than just an investment. He still has a professional football career to focus on – the thing that made him the money to potentially even buy part of a professional sports franchise in the first place.