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Utah Jazz Ownership Restructured and Placed in Family Trust

Amazing news, obviously, especially since I felt like someone punched me in the stomach when I first read there was a news conference this morning.

A question, however. If both the team and the arena have been placed in the trust, does that also mean that non-basketball revenue from the arena also stays in the trust and can be used by the Jazz to, oh I don't know, pay luxury tax?

I tried finding some numbers as far as how much of any basketball arena's revenues are from other events, but I would think that music concerts and those icecapades things that white people love so much get some decent coin in. And I assume when NCAA regionals are held there and what not, the NCAA pays for the use.
 
My buddy who's a pretty smart dude said it's simply a shell game and won't affect us financially in any way.

He's a Redskins fan and said when Jack Kent Cook died, the team went to his son but his son couldn't shell out the 100M (or whatever it was) for the estate tax and therefore had to sell the team to Dan Snyder. This move is to prevent that from happening and nothing more.
 
Wes Mantooth said:
My buddy who's a pretty smart dude said it's simply a shell game and won't affect us financially in any way.

He's a Redskins fan and said when Jack Kent Cook died, the team went to his son but his son couldn't shell out the 100M (or whatever it was) for the estate tax and therefore had to sell the team to Dan Snyder. This move is to prevent that from happening and nothing more.
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While this may play a small part this is much, MUCH bigger than some tax planning. This is exactly what Gail has represented it as. Keeping the Jazz in Utah for perpetuity, as far as that is possible.

The truth is none of us have a clue what is really written in the trust, and we never will. So its all speculation. However, if the Millers didn't want the Jazz in Utah, the team would have been gone a long time ago. I don't know of many moments that showed bigger stones than when Larry leveraged himself for half the Jazz, then for the arena and the other half.

Sports teams are not a great business model. Rich people pursue them for different reasons. I think there are a few that mistakenly do so to make money. Larry pursued them to in order to keep them in Utah because they were a huge part of the community. He would have been much better off taking loans to invest in his auto business.

He originally bought them very hastily with the purpose of keeping them in Utah, could have made a lot of money a year later selling, but instead took way more loans to buy the rest and keep them. He knew he could not pay those loans without a new bigger arena, so he also built the Delta Center. I'm sure there were many times along the way that the Jazz were not the most convenient business asset, but the Millers kept them, and the trust is just another piece of the consistent message of the purpose and destiny of the team we all love.
 
Wes Mantooth said:
That said, I'm very hopeful based on the comments here that the money will have to be reinvested into the team which will mean we will go over the LT and do whatever it takes.
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Gail was just on Jazz Game Tonight and she said that the Jazz organization is more committed than ever to bring a championship to Utah. All I can read into that is they are willing to pay players to stay and come here.
 
Wes Mantooth said:
That said, I'm very hopeful based on the comments here that the money will have to be reinvested into the team which will mean we will go over the LT and do whatever it takes.
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Gail was just on Jazz Game Tonight and she said that the Jazz organization is more committed than ever to bring a championship to Utah. All I can read into that is they are willing to pay players to stay and come here.

She also said that the Jazz are the first pro sports team to ever do this and it took special permission from the NBA to do it.
 
Scat said:
Gail was just on Jazz Game Tonight and she said that the Jazz organization is more committed than ever to bring a championship to Utah. All I can read into that is they are willing to pay players to stay and come here.

She also said that the Jazz are the first pro sports team to ever do this and it took special permission from the NBA to do it.
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It reminds me of the Green Bay Packers being publicly owned. Instead of an owner, we'll have a board of directors that make overall decisions and hire the basketball people. As a lifelong Packers fan, I wholeheartedly support this ownership structure for a small market franchise like the Jazz. My support of the Miller family is at an all-time high right now.
 
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