Fans of the Phoenix Suns have long rued the fact that owner Robert Sarver is a banker, whether or not the "frugal" connotation that comes with that is true or not. (Hint: It's not. The man may misspend his money on the wrong players, but he does spend it.) Well now, thanks to the Arizona Republic, the team's fanbase gets an in-depth reminder of Sarver's day job.
After reading the article, something immediately popped out to me: Bob $a(r)ver only devotes about 20% of his time to the Phoenix Suns. A lot of us probably assume that he spends most of his days thinking about how to improve (or destroy, depending on your viewpoint) the team, and then checks in at the ole bankin' office when time permits. But alas, he basically ignores the Suns and focuses on how to stop losing all of his money in the tankin' bankin' gig. Of course, he does manage to cause a lot of ruckus in that 20%.
Sarver only needed 20% of his available tinkering time to let Amare Stoudemire walk, use the money "saved" in that disaster to sign Hakim Warrick and Josh Childress to long-term deals (two players that barely cracked the season-long rotation), and trade for Hedo Turkoglu, probably one of the worst fits in a Phoenix Suns uniform outside of current pariah, Vince Carter.
Re-signing Channing Frye and Jared Dudley worked out, and I still believe Childress will be an effective player for the team as soon as they give him regular playing time. So, it wasn't all bad. But Bobby-boy might need to up his time allotment to figure out where the hell this team is going in the next couple of years.
[Note by Seth Pollack, 04/07/11 1:07 PM MST ]
For those that follow such things, the details of Saver's business losses are interesting:
Stung by the recession and real-estate slump, the company has been unprofitable for the past three years. It lost $10.8 million, or 17 cents a share, during the fourth quarter of 2010, although that was much better than the year-earlier loss of $26.9 million, or 41 cents a share.
It also received $140 million from a sale of preferred stock to the government through the Troubled Asset Repurchase Program. The company plans to repay the money over the next 24 to 36 months, while paying dividends in the meantime.