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Is ‘Sarver Out’ Really a Possibility?

At 4-22 many of us are looking for someone or something to blame for our bleak start to the season. From injuries, effort and scheduling to coaching. All number of reasons. The thing is, these issues aren’t new. Its been 9 seasons since we were relevant, 4 since we were even remotely competitive, and the constant through it all has been Sarver.

Obviously things could be better elsewhere, but it starts at the top. From being far to involved in the managerial aspects, to having literally no connection with fans, Sarver has failed, and is rightfully regarded as one of, if not the worst, owners in the NBA.

The issue is, that through being at the top in a sense he has a form of immunity. Sarver is yet to hit 60, so age is not relevant, whilst his social media involvement is basically non existent, so any racist/sexist/burner account leaks etc are off the table as well. His health is also not in question, coming in at what looks like a reasonable weight, so a heart attack seems unlikely. In other words, this isn’t a Donald Sterling situation, and ‘hoping’ for the problem to fix itself really isn’t adequate.

A common theory tossed around on here and on social media is boycotting the team. Whilst this seems viable, given naturally less revenue may prompt Sarver to sell, the numbers really don’t add up.

My numbers are a little bit old, but its fair to expect that they’d still be in a similar region today. According to Forbes our gate receipts were $35 million in 2016, 16% of our $218 million total revenue figure. The lowest gate receipt revenue in the league that year was Minnesota at $19 million. Hence if fans were to boycott, its certainly possible that we could knock 10-15 million off revenue (Assuming we could get 4k+ fans to stop turning up). Additionally areas such as merchandise sales etc would fall and further help reduce the profitability of our Suns.

According to ESPN we were 1 of 14 teams to have negative net income in 16/17, however after accounting for revenue sharing we were in the positive. Whilst its unknown how far we were into the negative, its reasonable to assume that a $15-$20million hit would put us further into the red, even after revenue sharing.

Essentially its certainly possible that we could make this franchise run at a loss, hence hurting Sarver’s pockets.
So its easy yes? We stop going to games, start making Sarver lose money, and eventually he has to sell. Wrong.
Back in 2004, Sarver bought the Suns for the measly price of $401 million. As of early 2018 Forbes has us valued at $1.28 billion. A 300% increase on his initial investment, with a possible sale price likely to be even more. Where this becomes an issue however is that the values of all NBA teams are rising exponentially. From 15-16 to 16-17 Forbes estimated a 1-year change of +22% across the league in team value, and a 16% rise here in Phoenix.

Basically, regardless of if the team is profitable, Sarver is making money given the exorbitant rises in the value of franchises across the league, meaning there isn’t really any incentive to sell now. After all, Sarver is a businessman at his roots, and he sees the Suns the same way.

Its this business mentality that tells me he really doesn’t care about ‘us’. With his pockets protected, and my assumption that he isn’t bothered if we don’t turn up, its almost impossible for us to get rid of him and hence the issues that plague our franchise.

So I ask: How can we 'fix' our Suns?