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Phoenix Suns fans have about had it with the franchise's ineptitude and the recent string of losing seasons under owner Robert Sarver. The attempt to get $150 million of public funding to go toward the renovation of Talking Stick Resort Arena was the last straw for longtime fan Josh Miller, who opened the petition at change.org, according to The Arizona Republic.
Miller described himself as “a lifelong Suns fan and former season ticket holder” on the petition and said “every day I lament what Robert Sarver has done to my beloved Phoenix Suns.”
The petition was approaching 150 signatures by Friday morning and was broken up into two parts — the first discussing Miller's issue with the organization.
“From their inception in 1968, through 2010, the Phoenix Suns were one of the NBA's model franchises,” wrote Miller in the petition's description. “The Suns were typically among contenders for the NBA championship. In their history, the Suns have won 7 division titles, and played in the NBA Finals twice. Despite not winning a championship, until recently, the Suns had the fourth highest winning percentage in NBA history.”
Miller went on to list Sarver's mistakes since his ownership of the team started in 2004, noting the unwillingness to spend extra money to keep some of the team's biggest players and the hiring of inept yes men for the front office.
The second part of the petition, however, addressed a potential solution to this ordeal, comparing the Suns' issues with tanking to that of the Philadelphia 76ers, who were forced to hire longtime guru Jerry Colangelo..
“The only solution is for Mr. Silver to force Robert Sarver to sell the team to an owner who wants to invest in the franchise and is interested in putting together a basketball team that can compete in the NBA.”
Sarver noted he did not intend to relocate the team to Seattle or Las Vegas, but rather intended to give the team's current arena in downtown Phoenix a makeover to make it a more appealing one to host an All-Star Game, among other goals.
