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Jazz Ownership To Transfer To Miller Family "Legacy Trust"

Lee Hale
/
KUER
Utah Jazz owner Gail Miller speaks at a press conference held Monday afternoon at Vivint Smart Home Arena.

Utah Jazz owner Gail Miller announced Monday that ownership of the team will now fall under a “legacy trust.” Which means the future of the team in Utah is secure.

Speaking at a press conference, Miller admitted that over the years she’s received a lot of offers to buy the team.

 

She and her husband Larry purchased the team for a mere $22 million in the eighties. Selling it now would mean a huge profit.

 

“It could be tempting," Miller said. "But we’ve been clear from the beginning that our mission has been to ensure that the Utah Jazz stay in Utah.”

 

The new "legacy trust" ensures that ownership of the Jazz and the Vivint Smart Home Arena will stay in the Miller family.

 

“We will oversee the trust and will continue to serve as stewards of these community resources indefinitely," said Miller.

 

 

Miller said the Jazz belongs to Utah and belongs in Utah. And that the goal has always been to bring a national championship home to the beehive state.  

Lee Hale began listening to KUER while he was teaching English at a Middle School in West Jordan (his one hour commute made for plenty of listening time). Inspired by what he heard he applied for the Kroc Fellowship at NPR headquarters in DC and to his surprise, he got it. Since then he has reported on topics ranging from TSA PreCheck to micro apartments in overcrowded cities to the various ways zoo animals stay cool in the summer heat. But, his primary focus has always been education and he returns to Utah to cover the same schools he was teaching in not long ago. Lee is a graduate of Brigham Young University and is also fascinated with the way religion intersects with the culture and communities of the Beehive State. He hopes to tell stories that accurately reflect the beliefs that Utahns hold dear.
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