Money Woes for Suns?

[WizardOfAz]

Lost money last year, will lose money again this year:



http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1203awa03.html

 

[George O'Brien]

Yogi Berra once said, "If the fans stay away, no one can stop them".

Attendence is down this year due to the poor start. The Suns have a salary structure of over $60 million, so losing money is a real possiblity.

 

[WizardOfAz]

Originally posted by George O'Brien
Attendence is down this year due to the poor start.

Accrding to ESPN.com, roughly 15% of the Suns seats at AWA go unused on the average night. I guess that would cause "financial stress" especially if the team is operating close to the margin.

 

[Ryanwb]

Originally posted by George O'Brien
Yogi Berra once said, "If the fans stay away, no one can stop them".

Attendence is down this year due to the poor start. The Suns have a salary structure of over $60 million, so losing money is a real possiblity.

Wow, the D'backs want to have a salary in the 50 million range by 2005

 

[devilalum]

This is getting old really fast.

If they're losing money why do they whine to the fans about it. (and I consider making it public whining to the fans)

Why do they think I care how many millions they make or lose. The bottom line is they handed out all those bad contracts now deal with it.

If their answer is, "We may have to suck for a while until we can get our payroll under control," then I'm going to find something else to do with my time.

This goes for the Suns and the Dbacks and I know I'm not the only guy in town that feels this way. Nothing cuts into the bottom line worse than mediority.

 

[sly fly]

Originally posted by devilalum
This is getting old really fast.

If they're losing money why do they whine to the fans about it. (and I consider making it public whining to the fans)

Why do they think I care how many millions they make or lose. The bottom line is they handed out all those bad contracts now deal with it.

If their answer is, "We may have to suck for a while until we can get our payroll under control," then I'm going to find something else to do with my time.

This goes for the Suns and the Dbacks and I know I'm not the only guy in town that feels this way. Nothing cuts into the bottom line worse than mediority.

Well said.

 

[slinslin]

And they made lots of money because of the fans in a lot of years before...

According to forbes they are like the 4th or 5th most valueable nba franchise for crying out loud and made the 3rd highest profit a couple of years ago.

 

[WizardOfAz]

KG in town and 3,000 empty seats at AWA.

 

[Skkorpion]

Colangelo just wanted to squeeze Phoenix for more AWA improvements.

Mission accomplished. City council forked over $12 million more yesterday for a new scoreboard.

New scoreboard should help fill those empty seats.

Hey Jerry, it's about winning. You used to know that.

When the Coyotes are the best of the 4 pro teams in town, we are in trouble folks.

This is really disappointing. Jerry Colangelo used to be a truly great owner with guts and the magic touch. Not any more.

Haven't we trashed five coaches in a row now - Paul Westphal, Cotton Fitsimmons, Danny Ainge, Scott Skiles, and soon-to-be-fired Frank Johnson?

Maybe we need to look elsewhere in placing blame?

 

[Cheesebeef]

Originally posted by Skkorpion
Colangelo just wanted to squeeze Phoenix for more AWA improvements.

Mission accomplished. City council forked over $12 million more yesterday for a new scoreboard.

New scoreboard should help fill those empty seats.

Hey Jerry, it's about winning. You used to know that.

When the Coyotes are the best of the 4 pro teams in town, we are in trouble folks.

This is really disappointing. Jerry Colangelo used to be a truly great owner with guts and the magic touch. Not any more.

Haven't we trashed five coaches in a row now - Paul Westphal, Cotton Fitsimmons, Danny Ainge, Scott Skiles, and soon-to-be-fired Frank Johnson?

Maybe we need to look elsewhere in placing blame?

Skkorp did Jerry kill your dog or something when you were a youngin? This guy continues to do everything in his power to try and win everywhere he goes - does he have more money than God - no - and thus he does need to run his clubs as a business at times - but good lord - name me one other team who has FOUR Max players on it - name another team that drafts as well as we do - name another team in the valley or in sports history that won a championship within 4 years of it's existence and was upfront about what it had to do financially in the upcoming years.

I mean for all the credit you apparently give Bill Bidwill and his people - it's juts ridiculous to me that you have been bagging on Jerry for the last year or so since I've been on this site - 7 footer don't grow on trees - NBA contracts unfortunately are guaranteed - but Jerry still has the fire burning to turn it around and at least he doesn't sit by when some coaches can't see that their assistants are a joke or that their coaches have no clue what they are doing or hold on to coaches who have been given extensions because they don't want to pay someone who not working for them (making the lowest salary in the league for coaches).

Jerry is the best owner this town has and ever will see - I just don't get the negativity towards him from you.

 

[George O'Brien]

If the Grizzlies can bring back Hubie Brown, maybe the Suns can bring back Cotton.

 

[WizardOfAz]

Originally posted by cheesebeef
I mean for all the credit you apparently give Bill Bidwill and his people -

Check that - I believe he wrote that the Coyotes are the best of the four pro sports teams in towns.

I've never - ever - heard anyone try to make that arguement.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Originally posted by Skkorpion
Colangelo just wanted to squeeze Phoenix for more AWA improvements.

Mission accomplished. City council forked over $12 million more yesterday for a new scoreboard.

New scoreboard should help fill those empty seats.

I heard it was $17 million for a scoreboard and a lounge.

What is that about? Taxpayers get to pay to "improve" a sports/multipurpose arena that is only 10 years old? What's next? Tear it down and rebuild it in some new fancy style? I mean, after all, it is 10 years old...obviously it's outdated.

 

[WizardOfAz]

Originally posted by Skkorpion
Mission accomplished. City council forked over $12 million more yesterday for a new scoreboard.

Here is the entire story from today's paper:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1204phxarena.html

 

[scotsman13]

Originally posted by cheesebeef
Jerry is the best owner this town has and ever will see - I just don't get the negativity towards him from you.

Well said cheese, you know i have a couple denver fans in my office here and they are sure loving having plummer over there. JC has done everything in his power to bring championship teams to the valley. has he made mistakes? yes but he is human and as such i think that the can be forgiven for making them and when he is successful, he has been so very successful that it is almost shocking. the suns are one of the winningest teams in the nba since they have come into the nba. they are one of the best at finding and developing players. horny, ceballos, dumas, finley, nash, knight, perry, nance, person, amare, marion, zarko and barbosa are all gems the suns have pulled out of the draft.

 

[Dr. Dumas]

I would have thought that the gin & tonic (double) i purchased a couple of games ago should be able to buy a new scoreboard.

 

[NickelBack]

Originally posted by WizardOfAz
Check that - I believe he wrote that the Coyotes are the best of the four pro sports teams in towns.

I've never - ever - heard anyone try to make that arguement.

Good point - I would love to hear the rationale fro that point of view.

 

[NickelBack]

Originally posted by cheesebeef
Jerry is the best owner this town has and ever will see - I just don't get the negativity towards him from you.

...and the beat goes on.

 

[devilalum]

I firmly believe the Suns will trade Eisley and this years #1 to Charlotte to save more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

This is especially frustrating because the high draft pick was pretty much all I had to get excited about lately.

Sorry but I'm just not ready to come back to earth and start giving the C's the benefit of the dought yet and I'm not getting excited about free agents until it really happens.

I remember one year( I think it was 93) the Suns had a deal all set that would have brought Dennis Roman (in his prime) for Richard Dumas. The next day Dumas checked into drug rehab.

Barkley and Rodman sounds a lot like Kobe and Tmac.

How many great free agents did Chicago, Clippers, Utah, Cleveland, Washington, etc.... think they woud get?

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Originally posted by devilalum
I firmly believe the Suns will trade Eisley and this years #1 to Charlotte to save more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

I firmly believe you are crazy. Lets not take it to the extremes. Also, trading Eisley will free up cap space, it won't necessarily save them money since they will replace the salary with different players.

 

[devilalum]

Originally posted by thegrahamcrackr
I firmly believe you are crazy. Lets not take it to the extremes. Also, trading Eisley will free up cap space, it won't necessarily save them money since they will replace the salary with different players.

Why wouldn't they do this?

You may be right about it not really saving money but if they want enough room to sign a high priced free agent this years pick is the only chip they have left.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

It is not hte only chipt hey have left. They still have the cleavland pick (which should come about this year or next) and Jahadi Whites expiring deal

 

[Joe Mama]

Originally posted by devilalum
Why wouldn't they do this?

You may be right about it not really saving money but if they want enough room to sign a high priced free agent this years pick is the only chip they have left.

Everybody gets excited about the NBA draft, especially when the team has a high draft pick or multiple draft picks. It gives us something to talk about during the summer. Well, we can probably kiss the multiple draft picks goodbye after this latest trade, but at least the Suns still have a high first-round pick. However if the Phoenix Suns traded their lottery pick a way to get rid of Howard Eiseley one would have to assume that they really didn't like any of the players at the top of the draft anyways.

If they traded Howard Eiseley they would be in even better shape this summer and especially the summer of 2005 to go after free agents. That said, I don't think it will happen. First of all I don't believe they can trade their draft pick without first getting the San Antonio their first-round draft pick that is owed from the Barbosa trade. Besides if they did clear that salary cap by trading Howard Eiseley they would obviously replace it this summer or in the near future with a free agent's salary... someone they think can contribute more than a rookie.

BTW all of those teams you mentioned that had significant salary cap space and failed to sign free agents were quite different from the Phoenix Suns. First of almost teams had a nice, young core of players already in place. Only Chicago had the reputation for winning that the Phoenix Suns have, and they were looked upon badly because of the way they treated Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, and Scottie Pippen. Lastly none of those teams have the great climate of Phoenix.

Joe Mama

 

[devilalum]

I've heard the Suns are considering sending the Cleveland pick to S.A. to settle the deal.

That would make it possible for the Suns to do whatever they want with this years pick.

There's no way the Suns are doing all this to get Kobe and McGrady. There are just too many variables involved. And when you're talking about two NBA players, we all know they change their minds on a daily basis.