(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Phoenix Suns.)
By Bob Young | The Athletic
After Jerry Colangelo put together an investment group to purchase the Suns in 1987, he almost immediately began to explore the possibility of moving the team out of the state-owned Veterans Memorial Coliseum into a new arena.
Even for that time, the Coliseum was small and antiquated.
“Veterans Memorial Coliseum was not built for an NBA team, and it really didn’t even meet the standards that were in place at the time. But that’s what we had,” Colangelo recalled.
Communities around the Valley of the Sun approached Colangelo about possibly building arenas in their cities, but Denny Maus, director of economic development for Phoenix at the time, envisioned a revitalization of Phoenix’s dormant downtown with a new arena as the catalyst.
He called Colangelo and asked to meet.
