Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Closing Bell

Phoenix Group Wants To Take Arena Renovation Deal To Voters

A Phoenix group wants to take the $230M deal to renovate Talking Stick Resort Arena to voters. The effort aims to delay or undo the agreement approved by the City Council Wednesday. The group, Common Sense Phoenix, filed paperwork on Friday for two potential ballot measures on the arena deal. Petition Partners has been hired to collect more than 27,000 valid signatures over the next month for the measures to make the ballot. That process could start as soon as Friday. Tim La Sota, an attorney representing Common Sense, said the measures would go on the November '20 ballot unless the Phoenix City Council calls a special election. The city of Phoenix is paying $150M toward the renovations.

La Sota said arena renovations could not be started until voters had a chance to decide the city deal’s fate. The bulk of the arena makeover is scheduled to start in the summer of '20. Suns attorney Jordan Rose said the city deal cannot be taken to voters and she does not expect a delay. “The action of the council was an administrative, non-referrable act and the courts will ultimately decide,” said Rose. She also wants more information on who is bankrolling the arena referendums. “This petition company is not inexpensive, to gather that many signatures someone will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, so this is absolutely not some grassroots effort,” she said.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2019/01/25/Suns.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2019/01/25/Suns.aspx

CLOSE