OPINION

Opinion: Phoenix City Council doesn't have the votes to pass the Suns arena deal. But will they put the final stake into the heart of it?

Laurie Roberts | The Republic | azcentral.com

Splash one arena deal.

The Phoenix City Council on Wednesday voted to postpone a scheduled vote on on whether to spend $150 million upgrading the Suns arena. This, because the deal would have gone down in flames had it been put to a vote.

Instead, the city that tried to ram this deal down citizens' throats will now have five public hearings over the next month.

Commence the showdown between the city and Suns owner Robert Sarver, who recently called a council member and said he would take the team to Seattle or Las Vegas if the arena deal doesn't go through.

"Sarver’s talking about moving," the council member told me. "He basically told me the team will go (if they don't get a renovated arena). Vegas and Seattle were the two he talked about."

UPDATE: The council member on Thursday clarified the above quote, saying that Sarver didn't mention Seattle or Las Vegas by name during their conversation but that he did make it clear the team wants to leave if the deal is not approved.

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City Manger Ed Zuercher confirmed that Suns officials have mentioned the possibility of leaving.

“I don’t consider it a threat," he said. "They’ve talked about what their options are. Robert has never threatened me. He’s mentioned that there are other cities that are looking for NBA teams."

Which sounds a lot like, you know, a threat.

Suns CEO/President Jason Rowley, meanwhile, says the team has never threatened to leave Phoenix.

Nowakowski is the big domino

The council votes were reportedly locked up last week but they began softening once the city released details of the deal late Thursday and the public started weighing in.

The last straw came Tuesday night, when Councilman Michael Nowakowski began wavering – and reportedly wasn't answering his phone for the old arm twist.

Williams asked the council to postpone the vote until next month – allowing time for public hearings – rather than suffering a potentially lopsided defeat that could have killed future prospects for a deal.

Any four council members can kill the arena deal and as of Monday, there already are three no votes: Councilmen Sal DiCiccio and Jim Waring and Councilwoman Vania Guevara.

Then Nowakowski on Tuesday evening released a cryptic statement.

Arizona Republic

“I first want to say that I am proud and honored to have Talking Stick Resort Arena and the Phoenix Suns in District 7. The arena and the Suns play a vital role to our downtown economy,” he wrote, sounding like a guy who is going to vote yes.

“While I have always supported efforts to strengthen and maintain our economy, I must hold true to the value I place on making sure people are informed and heard,” he continued, sounding like a guy who is going to vote no.

“I want to make sure the community understands the economic impact of the arena, the responsibility the city has to the arena owner, what renovations are needed to continue operating the arena and the source of the funds that would be used for renovations.”

Is this why city officials are scrambling?

Given that people:

A. Aren’t informed and haven’t been heard, because that the arena deal is a rush job, announced not even six days ago ...

B. Haven’t been given the opportunity to understand the economic impact of the arena, because there have been no public hearings on this major project ...

And C. Have no clue what renovations are truly needed, because the city has released not even so much as a scrap a paper outlining how the $150 million would be spent …

It seemed a wise move for a politician facing a possible recall election in August.

Nowakowski's announcement sent city officials and Sarver scrambling, to no avail. He reportedly wasn't taking their calls.

On Wednesday, Nowakowski requested the five public hearings before the now-delayed vote and that documents outlining and justifying the deal be publicly posted.

And suddenly the city, which not even a week ago told me that neither was possible, is on it.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.