Can anyone explain what the Utah Jazz ownership news means?

[Anonymous]

I thought it was already a locally owned entity what does this change?

[jamarcus24]

In short it means Gail is turning ownership of the franchise over to a board consisting of Miller family members.  Any decisions regarding the team will need to be made by majority.  This move was a confirmation that the Miller’s have no intention to sell the team to another buyer who could potentially move the Jazz out of the state.  So the Jazz are staying put for the foreseeable future.

[ironman1315]

Another thing I would guess is in there is a direction to the trustees that they can’t sell the trust except under very narrow and limited circumstances.

[Utah]

It means nothing other than when she dies, the kids won’t have to sell the Jazz to pay the taxes. 

[Puget Ute]

I don’t recall the specifics, but I believe any asset transferred within the last couple of years of a person’s life are succeptible to the estate tax (for assets worth more than $4.5M?). I recall the Dodgers had to get sold to pay the taxes about 20 years ago. The Jazz are ‘worth’ somewhere between hundreds of millions, and billions of dollars, so the taxes would be prohibitively expensive.

[Utah]

I think the trust helps offset the tax burden for a generation or two. I’m not 100% sure, but lets not give the Millers sainthood yet.

Yes, this does keep the Jazz in Utah, but the bigger issue for them is the death tax. By putting the Jazz in a trust and making it “non-profit” the Millers can continue to serve on boards, draw huge salaries, profit off the Jazz and when she dies, won’t get stuck with a 100-400 million dollar tax bill that will require selling the team to pay.

You are right that she has to now stay alive for a certain amount of time (I think 3 years), but as long as she hits that benchmark, then the trust is exempt from the tax and saves the Miller family hundreds of millions of dollars.

A good side effect is the Jazz stay in Utah…UNLESS the trust decides that the smart money would be to sell or move, then the trust can do that. There may be language in the trust that will make that hard to do, but this really hasn’t changed anything, other than now the Millers won’t be forced to sell the Jazz when she dies to pay the taxes.

[Utah]

For example, if someone from Vegas came to the trust and offered double what the Jazz are worth (let’s say they offered 2 billion), odds are the trust would be forced to sell the team and move them to Vegas.

[ironman1315]

It all depends on the trust language. If the trust says you cannot sell this trust except in the following circumstances like imminent bankruptcy then even with the offer the family can’t sell. And I would guess, just by the way they talked, that this is what they did.

I also heard that they said that even if they sell the family doesn’t actually get any money, but this is more of a rumor than anything.

[Author]

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