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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- On the last day of regular NBA play last month, the Utah Jazz reached a break-even record for the season.
Financially, however, they're not even close. The team was more than $10 million in the red, according to owner Larry Miller. And losses for the last two seasons combined approach $25 million, Miller said.
"We're losing a lot of money. Huge numbers," Miller said of the team he has owned for 21 seasons. "Blow-your-mind numbers."
Miller says the losses are painful, but concedes, it's self-inflicted pain.
During the summer of 2004, Miller authorized a quarter-billion dollars in long-term contracts to Jazz players, including $86 million to Andrei Kirilenko, $68 million to Carlos Boozer, and $50 million to Mehmet Okur.
That doubled the team's payroll, but Miller hopes those players will eventually put the team in league championship contention.
"Being competitive on the floor is important to us, and we believe we are headed in the right direction," Miller said. "You have to be smart about it, and I think we have been. This (loss), it's an eight-digit number. . . . But it's something we were prepared for."
Banked profits from the 2003-2004 season, a $10 million cut of league expansion team fees and roughly $15 million in "luxury tax" rebates from players under a collective bargaining-agreement help soften the blow.
And that's before a single ticket is sold, so it may not be too long before the financial pendulum swings the other way, team officials say.
Fueled by a strong showing in April, the team's season-ticket renewals are healthy and an additional 1,100 new seats have been sold, Jazz president Dennis Haslam said. Another buffer will come from the luxury tax, which takes money from NBA teams that overspend and shares it with teams that don't. The Jazz has kept itself in the latter group, officials say.
The Jazz aren't the only Utah sports team playing in the red.
Utah's Arena Football expansion team, the Blaze, will lose roughly $2.5 million this year, those familiar with team finances said.
And projections show Real Salt Lake, Utah's Major League Soccer franchise, will see $3.7 million in losses this year.
------ Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
