Yahoo Sports reports that Editor’s note: This story was originally published on June 9, 2024.
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
“The City of New Orleans has a long tradition of jazz funerals, but Saturday it is holding a Jazz funeral.” So read the news reports out of New Orleans on June 9, 1979, after it was announced that the NBA Board of Governors had voted unanimously the evening before to approve moving the 5-year-old franchise to Salt Lake City.
Team owners Sam Battistone and Larry Hatfield told the NBA board it had lost $2.8 million in its final season in Louisiana, and had never broke even.
In Salt Lake City, the mood was different as the Deseret News heralded the change as a big deal in the Intermountain West.
Comments from NBA Commissioner Larry O’Brien, Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson and Chamber of Commerce President Wendell Ashton praised state and city leaders and the Salt Palace where the team would play.