New Owner - Mat Ishbia

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What needs to be understood is that paying that luxury tax is an investment. Having Durant on this team will significantly increase jersey sales and allow them to sell out stadiums even with jacked up ticket prices. Not to mention what will happen with those things if they happen to also win a title. Of course you don't want to be paying luxury taxes for a team that is playing poorly, but doing it to put together a team that now becomes a title favorite it is a good investment.
He took a 12 man office to being a multibillionaire . He knows what he is doing. And he reached out to Jerry.
 
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CardsSunsDbacks

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He took a 12 man office to being a multibillion . He knows what he is doing.
You could say that about most NBA owners and yet plenty of them won't be willing to pay luxury taxes. Sarver also failed to realize this when it was time to re-sign Joe Johnson back in the day. It's one thing to understand the idea of investing in going into the luxury and another to actually be willing to pay 40+ million when the time comes to do it.
 

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You could say that about most NBA owners and yet plenty of them won't be willing to pay luxury taxes. Sarver also failed to realize this when it was time to re-sign Joe Johnson back in the day. It's one thing to understand the idea of investing in going into the luxury and another to actually be willing to pay 40+ million when the time comes to do it.
I agree.
 

SunsTzu

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I just realized I can buy Suns gear again. Haven't done that since the KT and 2 firsts to the Sonics trade.
 

Superbone

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You could say that about most NBA owners and yet plenty of them won't be willing to pay luxury taxes. Sarver also failed to realize this when it was time to re-sign Joe Johnson back in the day. It's one thing to understand the idea of investing in going into the luxury and another to actually be willing to pay 40+ million when the time comes to do it.
And cost us at least one NBA championship IMHO quite frankly. Bu-bye.
 

Dr. Jones

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I really hope Sarver knows this happened. I hope he learned about it on Twitter too. He always seemed to be a put off by Jerry and the admiration he received.

Gambo swears Sarver was willing to pay up to 100 million in tax this season, so if you believe that it would not have been any different.

Mods. I have an idea. Can we use the language filter to mess with Sarver's name when anyone types it? Maybe turn it in to something funny or just make it illegible (even though we would all still understand)? This would bring me great joy to know that his name will never show up on this site again in its true form.

In short...... eff that piece of trash.
 

Mainstreet

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Report, full-time employees with the Suns over a year are to get a $20,000 raise as a request from Robert Sarver.

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Proximo

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If Sarver truly was willing to pay up to $100 million in tax this year then Cam J would have been extended. I think the fact he wasn't tells the true story there. Cam's extension wouldn't have kicked in this season either so he wouldn't have increased the cost now. Cam under contract also allows more leverage in a trade. He's a RFA so his value wasn't as high as it could have been. He's not a rental or expiring but locking him long term would have raised his stock some and potentially cost us 1 fewer picks or less the swap.
No, inaccurate - and I will tell you why - to make the deal we just did. Keeping his salary low for one more season made him more packageable, specifically for a Durant trade.
 

Proximo

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The guy that spent about 14 mil total in luxury tax over 10 years was going to pay over 100M?

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Yes, I do believe it. What I don't think people appreciate is he has been working towards selling out for the last few years. Spending big money to make the team more attractive for sale is the smart thing to do.
 

95pro

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Yes, I do believe it. What I don't think people appreciate is he has been working towards selling out for the last few years. Spending big money to make the team more attractive for sale is the smart thing to do.


Hey new owner, thanks for inheriting my luxury tax bill that i just ran up....
 

Proximo

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You could say that about most NBA owners and yet plenty of them won't be willing to pay luxury taxes. Sarver also failed to realize this when it was time to re-sign Joe Johnson back in the day. It's one thing to understand the idea of investing in going into the luxury and another to actually be willing to pay 40+ million when the time comes to do it.
And he would be a complete idiot if he didn't learn from that mistake. Whatever, it's a waste of time to talk about him anymore because he's gone.
 

Proximo

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Hey new owner, thanks for inheriting my luxury tax bill that i just ran up....
If you are a multibillionare and still making money, losing 40 million isn't that big of a deal believe it or not - it might just be your yearly interest income. After all people paying 3-4 billion for a sports franchise aren't doing it to make money, they are doing it because it is fun to own a sports team.
 

SunsTzu

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Report, full-time employees with the Suns over a year are to get a $20,000 raise as a request from Robert Sarver.

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1. I'm happy for the employees getting a bonus. I doubt they've had many over the years(I remember not wanting to pay execs a playoff bonus being one of the reasons Kerr left).

2. I'd hope this is something Ishbia would have done on his own.

3. If Sarver wanted them to have bonuses, why didn't he just give them? Seems pretty shady passing the buck(literally). I'm so glad he's gone.
 

Mainstreet

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1. I'm happy for the employees getting a bonus. I doubt they've had many over the years(I remember not wanting to pay execs a playoff bonus being one of the reasons Kerr left).

2. I'd hope this is something Ishbia would have done on his own.

3. If Sarver wanted them to have bonuses, why didn't he just give them? Seems pretty shady passing the buck(literally). I'm so glad he's gone.

Why even mention it if Sarver was not involved at least as far as a recommendation. Salaries may have been frozen during the sale of the team.
 

Cheesebeef

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1. I'm happy for the employees getting a bonus. I doubt they've had many over the years(I remember not wanting to pay execs a playoff bonus being one of the reasons Kerr left).

2. I'd hope this is something Ishbia would have done on his own.

3. If Sarver wanted them to have bonuses, why didn't he just give them? Seems pretty shady passing the buck(literally). I'm so glad he's gone.
Yeah… what kept Sarver from doing this while he was actually owner?
 

JCSunsfan

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1. I'm happy for the employees getting a bonus. I doubt they've had many over the years(I remember not wanting to pay execs a playoff bonus being one of the reasons Kerr left).

2. I'd hope this is something Ishbia would have done on his own.

3. If Sarver wanted them to have bonuses, why didn't he just give them? Seems pretty shady passing the buck(literally). I'm so glad he's gone.
This is funny. Sarver negotiates as part of the purchase of the team that Ishbia pay all the employees a bonus. I usually pushed back against the "Sarver is cheap" thing, but making the new owner pay for the bonuses is cheap.

I can hear Sarver now. "And you have to tell them its from ME!"
 

Cheesebeef

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This is funny. Sarver negotiates as part of the purchase of the team that Ishbia pay all the employees a bonus. I usually pushed back against the "Sarver is cheap" thing, but making the new owner pay for the bonuses is cheap.

I can hear Sarver now. "And you have to tell them its from ME!"
lol
 

JCSunsfan

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Suns have 71 employees, so $1.42 million spent here. How many billion did they sell for? Sarver bought the Suns for $400 million and sold for $4 billion. Not sure how much of that Sarver himself pocketed. Wonder if he will have to pay capital gains on that.

Ah. Found it. Sarver pocketed $1.48 billion. His initial investment was roughly $150 million. So his profit was $1.13 billion. Make that $1.128 billion after he tipped the employees.

Capital gains gives him a $170 million tax bill, unless he found a way around it.

I have no doubt Robert also paid himself a salary all those years.
 
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Mainstreet

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I think the money did come out of Sarver’s sale. It’s not a raise, it’s a bonus.

I mistakenly said raise when the tweet clearly said "bonus."

I'm not sure why Sarver is taking such heat on something that seems like a positive gesture after the sale of the team.
 

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I mistakenly said raise when the tweet clearly said "bonus."

I'm not sure why Sarver is taking such heat on something that seems like a positive gesture after the sale of the team.

Because he didn't pay it. It's easy to suggest people get bonuses when you're not the one paying them. I think they should get bonuses too, does that make me a good guy?
 

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