The_Admiral

The city is currently trying to get out from under the Sheraton by selling it. Nowakowski said that is the first step in building up that sports fund, though he admits there would still have to be more creative thinking and cooperation from big business owners in the downtown Phoenix area. Nowakowski suggested those business owners could contribute money to finance a new building.

He calls that mentality the "Team Phoenix" approach.

That approach fosters all kinds of creative ideas for Nowakowski, some of which aren't just outside the box; they're outside the building.

He suggested a field similar to that of the Cardinals, which has a system to move outside of University of Phoenix Stadium and soak up the sun when it's not in use.

"If we have the Rattlers, why can't we have a retractable field that comes out if its turf and then comes into, like, a bandstand on the outside and you can have a free concert prior to the games?" Nowakowski asked.

In the event that this new arena idea comes to fruition, a 23-year-old building that took upwards of $100 million to build would sit unused in the middle of downtown. Nowakowski also has plans for repurposing that.

"If you take out all the chairs and the suites, it's really just a big shell," he said. "So you can have a three-story urban mall concept where on the first floor can actually be an urban park where people can come enjoy an urban park with free concerts and a food court and all the different amenities that an urban park provides and at the same time, an urban mall."

This is all one guy. Just one guy. Strap in for this one; we're going to find out this was part of a meth binge culminating in the revelation that a bank is just a big building with chairs in it.

And man, it had to be the guy with the Polish name suggesting arena football on grass, didn't it. Of course it did.

Lieb and Nowakowski both said the type of creative financial thinking driving the Milwaukee plan would be useful for a potential downtown Phoenix arena.

Bad use of "creative." Worse use of "useful."

I don't think that's going to happen, though. Broward County is supposed to be commissioning a study on whether the county would be better off without a heavily subsidized hockey team, which sounds as ominous as it does obvious, but all the report (from our friends at Namtteb Sports Consultants: you won't not like the way Namtteb thinks!) will say is that the Panthers have to stay or else Sawgrass Mills will be abandoned and taken over by alligators. Then there will be some dog-and-pony show where old guys complain about taxes, some people sign a petition that gets thrown out because under "Do Not Write In This Space" someone wrote "okay," and the government-business combine will keep on doing whatever it wanted to do in the first place. The Panthers' owners want the master lease and a fun toy to play with, the league wants a presence in South Florida where there are lots of hockey fans if not necessarily Panthers fans, and Broward County wants an anchor tenant at their arena if not necessarily at whatever onerous price Michael Yormark, who's long gone, was asking for.

I've never thought the Panthers were really in such dire straits as their horrible attendance and television ratings would have you believe. Somehow, they're built to keep puttering along through those things in ways the Thrashers weren't and Coyotes aren't.

"Our purpose, in initiating the expansion process in the manner we did, was not only to explore the possibility of admitting new members to the NHL but also, at the outset, to set realistic guideposts to distinguish between bona fide expressions of interest (i.e., those which have at least substantial ownership capabilities and an arena or the realistic possibility of an arena) from those indications of potential interest which were, at best, merely hopes or aspirations. Apparently, only Mr. Foley and Quebecor have the confidence in their ability to secure an arena and suitable ownership capability to move forward with this process.

Thread for when Gary Bettman gets a little salty.

Other leagues hire public relations agencies to write press releases like these. The NHL just has Gary Bettman write whatever comes to mind immediately after ragequitting expansion.

No, that was the luxury suite.

Wasn't the Colisee jury-rigged into reaching NHL capacity too? I thought that was the reason the seats stopped on the sides but went up really far in the ends (or stopped in the ends and went really far up the sides, one of the two). Northlands had to be expanded for the NHL, but it was always designed with that in mind, whereas the Winnipeg Arena and Colisee were just old and small.

Almost everything is a goddamned miracle when it comes to this league, if you think about it.

EDIT: speaking of the Oilers' arena, that the new one is called "Rogers Place" makes me laugh pretty hard. Hey, let's go to Roger's place!

As someone who very casually follows hockey, if the NHL is so gung ho on Quebec, why did they let the Nordiques leave?

But that's just it: the NHL isn't gung-ho on Quebec City at all. They never wanted them there in the first place and only let them in because Canadians were threatening to boycott Molson (the owner of the Montreal Canadiens) if they didn't. When circumstances got tough for small Canadian cities, the NHL took a stance of benign neglect and let them move without a fight like the ones we've seen in Nashville and Phoenix. When Quebecor tried to buy the Coyotes, the NHL basically didn't pick up the phone. Even with a brand-new arena that looks perfect for hockey, Quebec City will probably never be back in the league.

Did the Nordiques have a strong following before they moved?

Yes, very, especially among separatists who felt the Canadiens were too inclusive. Attendance was always strong, even when they were so bad for a few years that they made the modern run of terrible Oilers seasons look like a dynasty.

Is the Canadian dollar better yet? I thought it was until I saw someone on reddit say it's below .90 of the US Dollar. Is that bad?

No, it's getting worse and worse. Peg your dollar, guys; this is stupid.

He said a while ago that he wants to sell the team but remain in charge of it, the kind of thing you're likely to say when you suggest that moving to an abandoned aircraft hangar outside of Columbus is a cromulent idea.

THey also signed Steve Downie. What a dick move, stopping Nashville from signing another piece of crap!

Usually I would be inclined to write off the Post story. The strong denials from the NHL, however, make sense when you realize that the Coyotes are currently involved in a legal case with the city of Glendale. Announcing that the team will pick up and go elsewhere might hurt the league's chances of getting as much money out of Glendale as possible before turning tail and running.

That's why they fought so hard to hide the fact that the Thrashers were being evicted. They needed to scare Glendale into giving them the $25 million "insurance policy" or else the team would move to Winnipeg, while the league knew full well that they had another mess on their hands and would probably send that team to Winnipeg. Man, things would have been so fun if Glendale had called the NHL's bluff and sent the Thrashers to who-knows-where.

If Vegas has to have an NHL squad at least the Coyotes resemble some semblance of a hockey team (player wise) instead of some crappy expansion team they could end up with.

uhh, you sure? They just signed Anders Lindback.

This is getting to be almost as good as the Lake County Fielders saga. Anybody remember that one?

Remember it? I was tangentially in it.

njmeadowlanders accused me of being Mike Richards's dealer. PLOT TWIST: Mike Richards is the NHL's dealer

...that's it? How much oxy are we talking here? Like distribution-level?

So the Coyotes need to come up with another $750,000 to meet a bond hike after today's court session.

Any chance Pronger is ordered to retire so the Coyotes can save another $5 million against the cap floor this year?

They'll get Boston's new village idiot on the phone and trade for Marc Savard. Judging by his body of work in the last week, he might throw in a draft pick.

That's not even close to iambic pentameter.

Peter Karmanos is in the Hall of Fame, Chris Pronger is in the Hall of Fame while his dead cap space helps the Coyotes remain cap-compliant, and Mike Richards had his contract vaporized for snorting coke. And a happy Anti-Thread day to you, too!

Yes thank you for explaining my already broad joke about how Shane Doan is not going to the Hall of Fame.

Now this means there's finally a Hall of Famer on the Coyotes roster YEAH THAT'S RIGHT I SAID IT

Don Maloney is saying the trade was contingent on Pronger agreeing to go into the Hall of Fame as a Coyote and I CAN'T TELL WHERE THE JOKES ARE ANYMORE HELP

The joke's on us for supporting the National Hockey League

This is fantastic for the world.

Among Pronger, Yandle, and Ribeiro, the Coyotes have about $9.5 million in dead cap space. This is worse than the time the Islanders traded for Tim Thomas while he quit the league to go free-stating in a Michigan forest or whatever the hell he did. And we're supposed to give this team revenue sharing!

Don't forget just how conservative coaches and teams get after January 1st. They can accept losing a shootout rather than in OT because of the ROW tiebreaker.

Bingo. If you lose in the shootout, you get a point and the other team gets a win that counts less. Most of all, you can't say you did anything wrong.

You want to kill the shootout, kill the loser point. Keep breaking ties in the win column with ROWs, sure, but stop padding the points and teams will play to win.

Also worth considering: the "extra open ice" in international play actually ends up suppressing offense in a lot of cases. Doesn't it follow that we'll see that here?

Judging by the only situation in which we see three skaters to a side in regular play, most teams are going to send two defensemen and a center out. HOO BOY, I'VE GOT GOAL FEVER!

lololololololol there will not be fewer than 85 shootouts.

EDIT: also, just to hedge, the percentage of shootouts after overtime won't go below 50%, either. 55.6% in 2014-15, 58% in 2013-14.