Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images
The Utah Jazz organization has a few problems.
The Jazz are one of the smallest market teams in the NBA; however, they have the third highest payroll (after the luxury tax) this season.
The Jazz weren’t a strong defensive team last season. This season, they brought back all of the same players, and they are still a terrible defensive team!
The Jazz organization has tried to sell the league and Jazz fans on the idea that Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap can co-exist on the same team. The production for both Boozer and Millsap is way down compared to last year.
The major excuse given by Jazz management is that once the team is healthy, then the team will start to compete at a top level. Last year when the team was healthy they played their worst basketball.
This season, while Korver and Miles are injured, the rest of the team is healthy, and the team is now playing the same level of basketball they played to end last season. Awful selfish basketball!
This style of basketball isn’t going unnoticed by the Jazz fan base. Salt Lake City has always been one of the strongest basketball cities in the nation. Yet, anyone watching the Jazz’s first two home games against the Clippers and Rockets could see a noticeable absence of fans in the arena.
Traditionally, the Jazz don’t start drawing large crowds until after the end of the college football regular season. Traditionally, though, this affects the upper-bowl more than the lower-bowl of Energy Solutions Arena. This season, the lower-bowl just isn’t filling up. There are a lot of patches of empty green seats in the lower-bowl, and that is not good news for the Jazz organization.
The downturn in the economy has slowed ticket sales for the Jazz. Yet, last year, the team was able to weather the economic downturn better than this season. So what has changed? Nothing, and that is the problem.
Larry H. Miller was able to build the Jazz on a base of comfort and trust. He exemplified the slogan, “You know this guy!” Larry H. Miller was willing to shake hands with fans, and even come on the radio to talk about the team with the fans once a week.
Through this interaction the fans knew that Larry H. Miller was devoted to putting a winning team on the court, and keeping the Jazz in Utah.
Greg Miller, who took over for Larry H. Miller after his father started suffering from serious illnesses and eventually passed away, doesn’t have that trust with the fans.
There are many reasons Jazz fans are wary of Greg Miller. Greg was has been in charge of running the car dealership arm of the Miller corporation, and too many customers have been burned by shady business practices at those dealerships.
Greg never claimed to be a fan of the game like Larry, and that means he will look at the Jazz organization much more like a business trying to make money first.
Some changes which reflected this business first approach to the Jazz: The decision not to televise preseason games, the move away from televising any games on KJZZ, not accommodating long-time season ticket holders during last season’s playoffs to try and make a quick buck, and resorting to gimmicks instead of relationships of trust for selling tickets.
The opening speech Greg gave before the start of the season reflected the tension between the fans and the new head of ownership. Greg gave an awkward speech in which he somewhat threatened fans. He stated the team would stay in Utah as long as there was proper fan support.
While some might say his intentions was to complement fans for supporting the team in the past. The message was very clear; the team with the third largest payroll needs to sell some tickets, or else!
A good example of the disconnect between fans and management is the hiring of David Locke to take over the radio play-by-play duties for the Jazz. When the announcement was made, there was a large outcry over the hiring of Locke. Many locally remember him from his days of calling WNBA basketball games were worried about the direction the team wanted to go.
We're going to send you the most entertaining Utah Jazz articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
7 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete