Sodboy13

This may be the night the Coyotes finally died. That was the crack in the façade. It's out there now. And in the context of that game, Christ, was it ever glorious.

Phoenix Al Qaeotes?

Sounds pretty fracking brilliant to me.

Parise and Suter come to town and give Glendale a huge attendance bump. 9,508. EDIT: Having an interesting chat on Twitter with a Coyotes season ticket holder. He says there are around 4,000 season ticket holders (remember those stories about the spike in sales once they made the playoffs?), and that for many fans, they're tired of the perpetual chain-yanking and have given up on going until the mess gets settled, one way or another. Sounds like a great sales pitch for Greg Jamison to find investors!

Patches are a bit of a nebulous area as far as fakery goes, right? Because it's pretty obvious that these patches for uniforms worn 10 or 20 years ago are "unlicensed reproductions", but at the same time, it's not like the NHL or any other league is in the standalone retro patch business.

It's funny, I was having a hockey talk with one of my wife's friends (who has Hawks season tickets) tonight, and she brought up the bootleg jersey issue. Apparently, one of her co-workers got into the racket on eBay, and received some sort of cease-and-desist letter. As for my wife's friend, she said "Why would you want one of those anyway? They're cheap, but the quality is crap, the colors are all wrong, nothing looks right, the Indian Head is bright yellow sometimes..." So it's not just us obsessives who notice. I own an Oakland Seals fake, because the NHL refuses to produce green-and-blue era Seals jerseys for whatever reason. The numbers were so poor though, I stripped them off and had EPS replace them with something far more authentic. Still scared to wash the thing, though.

I hope so. That would be like a zombie movie where the slow, shambling version of the undead attacked by proceeding single-file in a straight line. Set 'em up, knock 'em down.

Had an unexpected crossing of paths with George Fallar on Twitter last night. No response from him after that.

If Suns ownership was interested in buying the Coyotes, I could see it happening. Tell Glendale to go pound sand (they've got plenty!) and go back to the awkwardly-shaped basketball barn where you drew well regardless. You'd think, though, that if Suns ownership had an interest, they would have expressed it by now.

Per Craig Morgan, Greg Jamison has issued a statement. Try not to roll your eyes too hard, lest they fall out. "We will not be able to complete our purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes today in time to meet our deadline with the city of Glendale. However, our journey to purchase the Coyotes will continue. We realize this will require additional conversations with the city of Glendale and the NHL. We still believe we can reach an agreement that satisfies everyone. We hope negotiations with the city proceed as smoothly as possible, as everyone involved wants the Coyotes to remain in Arizona. "To the Arizona's sports and hockey fans, and the City of Glendale, we appreciate your patience and diligence. We wish everything was completed today as we worked extremely hard on the deal. However, we have taken significant steps to keep the Coyotes in Glendale for the long-term. I've seen first-hand the wonderful support Arizona hockey fans have provided the Coyotes and we will continue our efforts to keep the NHL in Arizona." Pretty liberal use of the royal "we" there, Greggy.

I'd have to guess Columbus. I can't hate on the Jackets. Their lease deal is more along the lines of your standard issue municipal handout, the fanbase is practically begging for anything to cheer for while enduring way too much front-office incompetence, with bad breaks piled atop that (losing the Yakupov lottery and the All-Star weekend.) That's some Thrashers-level stuff for a fanbase to endure, though at least fans of the Beej can take solace in knowing their ownership doesn't actively loathe hockey. Plus, you didn't hear any stories during the lockout about bars in Phoenix or South Florida getting packed for NHL 13 simulations or Saturday morning World Juniors telecasts.

I figured the center was empty because anyone who really wanted to go to a game would just buy the $7-per-game/free parking/free jersey combo, but of course it had to be more ridiculous than that, because it's the Panthers. I fully expect by next season, it'll be renamed the jetBlue Business Class Extended Legroom Section, Presented By Currency Exchange.

After nearly 4 years, I've learned better than to say "Well, that's it", but this seems to move the needle in the right direction (as far away from Glendale as possible). Why haven't we had a Yotes-o-Meter this whole time?

Here is a question I have...there's a company called Dorholt Custom sports that was making Devils xmas tree jerseys (before the throwbacks from CCM were available), Cleveland Barons jerseys, Fighting Saints, a few others...all jerseys that at the time were no longer produced. Technically they fell into the fake category as they were not officially licensed by the NHL, but being the only way to get your hands on them would be an old used version from Ebay...I feel it wasn't as bad as Chinese fakes of existing jerseys. I think they still do the red xmas tree jerseys, which is bad since you can now get them from the NHL Shop, but they remain the only place to get a new white version of the xmas jersey. There used to be a place in Ontario called Silvestri Sports that did NHL throwbacks before the league did, too. Bought Atlanta Flames and Capitals jerseys for friends from them. The jerseys were a heavy mesh, but the Caps one had all the letters sewn on individually.

By the way, I'm watching the Coyotes tonight on the Fox Sports Arizona feed. Commercial breaks are running about 2/3 network promos & PSAs to 1/3 actual paid advertisements, and that ratio may be generous. Can't sell tickets, can't sell spots, can't sell the team.

I think my favorite detail from the many side stories that developed throughout this whole affair is the crowd who railed against Mike Sunnucks of the Phoenix Business Journal, who constantly berated him as some good-for-nothing conspiratorial liar because he said bad stuff 'bout the 'Yotes. Congratulations, gang, you were proven right! Sunnucks said Jamison had the money lined up earlier this week! You won!

THN's Ken Campbell cites a nebulous "source close to NHL ownership" as saying Greg Jamison was never able to raise a single dollar. So much bull , I can't even. Why would you, as a member of the Glendale City Council believe a single damn word the NHL says to you the next time they trot a "prospective owner" in front of you?

League incentives?

Sharks majority owner Hasso Plattner buys out shareholders Kevin Compton and Stratton Sclavos. There's your Coyotes money. Greg Jamison's puttin' the band back together. You know, like that movie. Blues Brothers 2000.

Two things from today: Mike Sunnucks is reporting that Jamison has scrounged up the money from somewhere, and will make the purchase just under the city's deadline. Elliotte Friedman is reporting the league intends to expand to 32 teams, which would pretty much seal up all of the potential markets the Coyotes could relocate to. None of this fixes the main problem with the Coyotes (no one wants to watch them play and they lose $25M+ a year), but it does throw quite a wrench into them going anywhere.

Then the league will just drag in Ice Edge again, or try to convince Glendale that Jerry Reinsdorf is really super-serious about wanting to buy the team, for reals, you guys. I just don't see this ending Thursday. It's been too stupid for too long. We're fast approaching 15 years of "People not wanting to own the Phoenix Coyotes".

Thursday or bust for out free $300 million, says Glendale's mayor. You can almost hear the money being flown in from league headquarters now. Then again, the mayor hints he could be open to drafting a new deal instead, so this thing could drag on ad infinitum.

The rumor from a couple weeks back that the league will "loan" the money to Jamison to buy the team if he can't pull it together on his own keeps rolling around in my head, and I can't shake it. Cheapskate.

Trying to decide which part of the latest update is funniest. Here's some candidates: "It's been 18 months and I still don't have the money. Another 72, 73 tops though, and I should be pretty much set." Well, he told you nothing last time, so what would queer the deal for you? A nude reading of Mein Kampf performed on bath salts? History suggests otherwise, good sir. Gosh, I wonder why she has no problem with Glendale giving away $300 million in taxpayer money it doesn't have? "BAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!" --John Spano and Boots del Biaggio, from prison "I'm pretty well-connected. I'm aware of all the Tweetings. Sometimes I Pinterest them and make a Facebook post about them. You should like my page on Grindr." "Don't drag me into this, you loopy desert whore." --Pollyanna

Well, I think we can agree on a core argument, which is that putting the arena in Glendale was a Really Bad Idea.