SALT LAKE CITY — With the future of Utah Jazz basketball facing major uncertainty ahead of the 1983-84 NBA season, team owner Sam Battistone boarded a private jet to Las Vegas.
Center Mark Eaton and head coach/general manager Frank Layden were also on the flight, among others, with the organization set to announce at a press conference that 11 “home” games would be played at the newly-built Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“We played in Vegas to make more money,” Layden recalled, laughing. “To see if we could draw more people.