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Karen Gail Miller (née Saxton; born October 14, 1943), is an American businesswoman. Following the death of her husband, Larry H. Miller, she assumed the role of chairwoman of the Larry H. Miller Group (LHM) of Companies, now known as the Larry H. Miller Company (LHMCO). From 2009 until the sale of the team in 2020, she maintained a majority interest in the Utah Jazz, a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise located in Salt Lake City, Utah. As of 2023, she continues to retain a minority stake in the team and its associated businesses. Miller is a major supporter of Big League Utah, a campaign to bring a Major League Baseball team to Utah. She engages in philanthropy through her family foundation. Business interests In 2009, when her husband died, Miller assumed control of their businesses (LHMCO), which then consisted of 54 car dealerships, a movie theater chain, and the Utah Jazz. As of 2022, most of these assets have been sold and the company expanded into new businesses, such as real estate and healthcare. In November 2020, her estimated net worth was $1.9 billion. As of early 2020, her businesses employed 11,000 people. As of July 2023, Miller was the richest person in Utah. At the time, Forbes estimated her net worth to be $4.2 billion. As of 2023, LHMCO's board was chaired by Steve Miller, the Millers' third son. Sports & entertainment Utah Jazz The Miller family started construction on the Delta Center, which would later become the Vivint Arena, in 1990. It was completed in 1991. The arena has been an economic boon for downtown Salt Lake City. It has attracted large amounts of foot traffic and numerous businesses have been established nearby. Gail Miller assumed ownership upon her husband's death. In 2017, she transferred ownership of the Jazz and Vivint Arena into a trust to keep the franchise in Utah for generations. The Millers are often credited with saving the team and keeping it in Utah when the franchise was experiencing financial problems in the 1980s. In 2017, the Miller family spent $125 million renovating the Vivint Arena. In 2019, a fan verbally abused NBA player Russell Westbrook. Miller later addressed the home crowd to speak out against the boorish behavior and proclaimed, "This should never happen. We are not a racist community." In 2020, Jazz player Rudy Gobert donated $200,000 to team employees who were furloughed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Miller announced that the LHM Group would "more than match" this number. In October 2020, the Miller family agreed to sell the Jazz and Vivint Arena to Ryan Smith, founder of Qualtrics, for $1.66 billion. This price is about 70 times what the Miller family originally paid. Smith had a long-standing interest in the team. He even sponsored a jersey patch that raised $25 million for charity. Smith made proposals to the Miller family on several occasions before finally reaching acceptable terms. Terms of the deal require the team to remain in Utah and the Miller family will retain a minority interest. The Salt Lake City Stars of the NBA G League and management of the Salt Lake Bees minor league baseball team were also part of the deal. The Miller family said they planned to use the profits from this sale to diversify their businesses and engage in more extensive philanthropy. The Millers rejected previous offers to buy the Jazz. In 2022, the Miller family announced that it was selling a portion of its remaining interest in the Utah Jazz. The transaction placed a value of $2.25 billion on the Jazz. The transaction was the result of an agreement made when the Millers sold their majority interest in the team. Big League Utah In early 2023, Miller, her family, and the LHM Company started an effort to bring an MLB team to Salt Lake City. This has been called the "Big League Utah" campaign. A "shovel ready" site in the Rocky Mountain Power District in west Salt Lake City has been identified to build a stadium. This site was selected because of its position between the airport and downtown. Miller's late husband, who died in 2009, spent a whole chapter of his autobiography on his love of ballparks, baseball, and softball. Miller described her efforts to bring MLB to Utah as extremely important to her and to her family. In 2023, the Larry H. Miller Company's real estate subsidiary purchased a 12-acre site near the proposed stadium. It was previously owned by ABF Freight, a shipping and logistics company. LHMCO expressed interest in buying the former Ramada Inn near the proposed baseball stadium. If LHMCO were to close on this property it would then have control of 18 acres of land near the stadium. These sites are part of the small amount of privately-controlled land in the area not owned by Rocky Mountain Power. In late 2023, Big League Utah announced the formation of honorary and community advisory boards. The honorary board includes Gail Miller, Gov. Spencer Cox, and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. Zions Bank President Scott Anderson, Vivint Smart Home founder Todd Pedersen, and Salt Lake Chamber CEO Derek Miller sit on the community advisory board. In the same announcement, Big League Utah said that it would form a foundation to address the needs of the people and businesses that occupy the area near the proposed stadium. In February of 2024, the Larry H. Miller Company announced plans to invest $3.5 billion to develop the Power District. The firm released renderings of the proposed development. The plans include a stadium intended for Major League Baseball. LHMCO worked closely with the Utah State Fairpark board, Salt Lake City, the Jordan River Commission, and other policymakers to ensure compliance with land use planning. Salt Lake City Stars The Salt Lake City Stars are a semi-professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in West Valley City, Utah, and are affiliated with the Utah Jazz. The Stars play their home games at the Maverik Center. The team was originally known as the Stampede. It was founded as a member of the Continental Basketball Association in 1997 and was league runner-up in the 2003–04 season, losing to the Dakota Wizards. After the 2005–06 season, the Stampede announced that the team would be joining the NBA Development League. From 2005 to 2015, the team played as the Idaho Stampede at the CenturyLink Arena in Boise. Before then, they played home games at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. The Stampede's sole NBA affiliate is the Utah Jazz, with whom they originally had a hybrid partnership. However, on March 24, 2015, the Utah Jazz and the Idaho Stampede announced that the Jazz had purchased the Stampede, becoming the 8th NBA team to become owners of their D-League affiliate. They also had past affiliations with the Denver Nuggets, Seattle SuperSonics, Toronto Raptors and most recently the Portland Trail Blazers, with the Jazz taking sole affiliation after the 2013–2014 season. Salt Lake Bees This franchise dates from 1994, when Joe Buzas, a former major .... Discover the Gail Muller popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gail Muller books.