For those of you have have been living under a rock the past 24 hours, here is the big news here in Utah. The Miller family sold the Utah Jazz. This is why it is big news in the Beehive State. The Miller Family put the team in a family trust 3 years ago. The purpose of the trust was the keep the team in Utah...forever.
They feel this was accomplished this goal in selling the team to Ryan Smith, a life-long Utahan and basketball fan. It will be interesting to see what he does with the team. Most people are hoping that the quality of play will improve. It will also show the rest of the basketball world that Utah is a different place than it was 35 years ago. There are more people here and more money to be made. It is also a much more diverse place than it used to be. This should attract higher quality role players. The kind that would have won Karl Malone and John Stockton a championship.
This may have come as a shock when the news first broke. It makes sense now. The Millers other businesses have suffered during the pandemic. Their theaters don't see crowds, and they sell very few cars compared to what they used to sell. The car business is starting to rebound. They money will give them liquidity to keep the movie theaters afloat until people feel safe to see movies in theaters again.
However, this makes me wonder. If the Miller family can sell the Jazz, any team owner can sell right now. One thought, or rumor, is the Memphis Grizzlies moving to Seattle. But other people have called this, to censor it in a more mild form, hogwash.
The pandemic has hit everyone in the sports world hard. If it has been unequal, it is because of the businesses outside of sports that the owners are involved in. For Gail Miller, the pandemic was probably the perfect storm. Other owners may profit from the pandemic, but only if they are lucky. Most do not make their finances public. If you are buying you can't find listings for sports franchises on Craigslist. These are quite often over-the-fence transactions. We likely won't know who is selling until the news breaks.
As far a sports franchises moving, there will be different reasons other than a sweetheart stadium deal in the next city. Public finances are going to be tight and highly debated for the rest of the decade. Sure, a city may float a sweet new stadium deal, but if it is publicly financed, expect a voter backlash. Even more so than usual. Those sweet deals are going to be on the back-burner for a few years. What I expect instead is for cities to bend over backwards and help cut the red tape and make privately financed venues easier to build. This will be more true as office buildings become vacant due to home offices become the preferred place for people to work.
I think we will see a few franchise moves as a result of owners selling. This will be unavoidable. What may happen will likely be a surprise. Some might be pleasant. Some will be no-so-dandy. The city and fans losing the team will be upset. The city and fans gaining the team will be pleased. As difficult as the Great Depression and Second World War were for the sports world, no team moved until 1954 when the St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles. I hope that will be the case and that no team will move because of the pandemic.
Some have said that leagues may offer expansion as a way to raise money. But we have a name in sports history for leagues that have done this...defunct. This is what happened to the old North American Soccer League. Baseball took 15 years after the end of the second world war to warm up to expansion. Sports leagues should consider expansion because cities outside of the current footprint are growing. But never for the sole purpose to raise money. Prospective franchise owners are going to be wary of spending money on a sports franchise before the dust from the pandemic settles. This is not the panacea that it initially appears to be. Some leagues may contract as a result of the pandemic, instead of expanding.
There will be a few other things that will happen as a result of 2020. We know that the NFL team in Washington is changing their name. In 2021, the baseball team in Cleveland will have a new name as well. I expect that the Atlanta Braves and Golden State Warriors will get new names...eventually. I also expect that the Kansas City Chiefs will change their imaging to not reflect Native American imagery and will play in Lamar Hunt Stadium instead of the now named Arrowhead Stadium. This makes sense to me now.
Sports will change in other ways that will make sense once we accept the change. Hopefully we embrace the changes.
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