bosrs1

Fox Sports Arizona has a good chunk of details, as well. Here, literally, is the money quote:

Sherwood has been preparing a report that examines the financial implications for the city with and without the Coyotes that he will present to council members on Tuesday. Based on his task force’s findings, the Coyotes remaining in Arizona would mean about $1.5 million more annually for the city.

Spending $6 million a year to bring in $1.5 million in revenue? You just got Glendaled, son!

Sounds like it's the $10 million the city was saying they'd be willing to pony up. So much for Glendale not being the NHL's cash register.

With this whole thing, I never want to jump the gun or get ahead of ourselves because... well... we know what happens here...

But, is this seriously and finally a step towards the end?

It's certainly got that Winnipeg/Atlanta feel.

Why ask if you don't want to know the truth?

If the city council holds fast with the $6.5 mil that they have supposedly ratified as part of their budget then I think you're right. I think we're at the Winnipeg/Atlanta moment for the Yotes. If the council starts wavering and offers up $10 million then I think we might be in for at least another year of this nonsense.

City of Glendale passed the budget in a whirlwind meeting, with Sherwood (the guy touting the mystery buyer) being one of two votes against. 6.5M for arena management. They've narrowed to two finalists for arena management in the meantime, RSE being neither.

Meanwhile, a plane departs from Teeterboro to Quebec City, stopping for 45 minutes or so then headed to Portland ME.

http://flightaware.c...e/flight/N331BR

They actually passed the budget with 6.5? You have a link?

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2013/06/13/glendale-concerned-if-renaissance-bid.html

And the beat goes on. Glendale is asking good questions but they've now opened the door to $10 mil a year too.

REDACTED

Poor guy. Just the sound of utter defeat in his voice. Not his fault.

That's pretty sad that the team is calling people who once lived there, but I agree, can't blame the sales rep.

I got a call recently from the Padres if I wanted to get a ticket plan on my account. I told the guy I never had an account, to which he said something like "oh well actually because you bought tickets to us last year you're now automatically an account holder". I told him I moved back to NJ so it wasn't happening, obviously he didn't know that. I'm just harping on the "are you really THAT desperate" angle.

I don't know if the Padres are that desperate yet. I've seen even good teams do the same thing (like the Giants. I bought tickets from them once and get hounded at least twice a year via phone or email).

Actually it's too bad you can't take the Pads up on it. When I could afford seasons last year the benefits were great. I even got to be on field during BP during a game in late summer.

True, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the NHL moved the team to Seattle, planning on having them play in an arena that may never get built.

I mean they re-aligned the entire league without thinking the Coyotes situation through. Why start now?

True. Frankly I'd bet good money the Coyotes would already have been moved to Seattle if the NBA had moved the Kings. And now that the latter didn't happen the real hold up is that the NHL doesn't know for sure what they want to do, which is why there's been the renewed push in Glendale to try and bully the new council as well as the reported meetings with Quebec City heating up again. They've got 3 cities, none of which are great. Seattle has no real arena for them as Key would be the smallest arena in the league with the worst sightlines and no future arena yet in motion. Quebec City, while hockey loving, does nothing but harm their NBC TV deal and puts a team back in the Frenchiest part of French Canada, where players have never been too keen to go. And Glendale without 15+ million dollars a year in gov't subsidies is not financially viable. When you write it out like that contraction seems the best of the 4 possible options.

It would also give the NHL an opportunity to get a foothold in the new $490 million arena that is going to be built in Seattle before the National Basketball Association moves in.

That ship has sailed for now.

Indeed it has. The way the Seattle arena is structured the NBA has to move to the city BEFORE the arena can be built. So that's obviously not happening for the foreseeable future. And the fact that article gets that key fact wrong brings into question the validity of everything else said in it.

That said, I can see the GDNHL sticking a team in Key Arena indefinitely simply because they're the GDNHL.

Sounds to me like they really need Glendale to up their 5 million a year offer to the desired 16 to make it get anywhere close to penciling out. Hopefully Glendale holds firm since their own analysis showed they'd lose less money minus the team than by acceding to the NHL's demands.

How about Surprise? Or Chandler? Mesa? We still have a lot of options around Phoenix to try!

To do what, build a new arena? Not likely less than a decade after Jobbing opened. While it's different cities they also don't exist in a vacuum.

Besides, Surprise? You think they have "access" and "distance" issues now... try putting the team in Surprise.

That the NHL wants it sooner could be a sign how close this is to ending. If Glendale won't vote to change that $5 million to $16 million then the NHL will need as much time as possible to move them to Quebec or Seattle or wherever.

Lets hope Glendale sticks to their guns. If they do this should be the end (and it would be in any sane or rational league (basically any league outside the GDNHL))

Well Seattle is officially off the table. How long before the NHL has the presser announcing Quebec City?

Does everyone think that the potential buyers (whom are Canadian) will keep the team in the desert? I call BS on them saying that they will.

That bid reportedly has an out clause after five years.

The Coyotes could have used that clause in the mid 90's

If I remember correctly Jerry Colangelo, who moved the team to Phoenix in the first place, wanted out shortly after the move and Bettman had to scramble to find enough stooges to buy the team from him, lest the Great Arizona Hockey Experiment end after only a few years.

Yep. I'm reading the Bettman Book now, and it talks about this. Colangelo wanted out in 1998. His partners bought out his shares, then two years later was desperately looking to sell the team himself. At that point, there was talk of selling or moving the team, but Bettman was able to find a patsy to buy the team.

So basically this whole debacle has been going from the moment the team landed in Phoenix. So much for the idea that they were "doing better" when they were downtown.

Did anyone else hear that the NHL met with the Quebec ownership group in NYC over 2 weeks ago? Would seem that if this last minute PHX group doesn't work out and Seattle's not an option they might finally be setting up to pull the trigger and send the team north.

Glendale waived their right to sue as a condition of the NHL saving the team in bankruptcy court. Those guys think of everything.

At least the new city council has slowed the bleeding. But yeah they'll never see the money the last group of crooks threw at the NHL.

Yeah, he has a lot of theories, but they just don't have any legs.

There was also a story in the Arizona Republic about how the arena only costs $5.5 million to run and not the $15 million Greggers asked for and most certainly not the $25 million Bettman asked for. Also, it has come to Glendale's attention that the NHL sandbagged it on arena bookings to make the Coyotes look more important than they are. I guess this really pissed off the NHL such that they cancelled a meeting with the latest Ice Edge stooges. I have to say, it's not looking good, but it's looked this bad before, too.

Looks pretty good to me. If the NHL is now angry at Glendale and canceling meetings this is the best possible news. The Coyotes might finally be on the way out of town.

Uh, oh.

What?

Well now that Seattle isn't an option (the NBA just effectively killed the Kings move to Seattle), it makes sense that they're prepping to announce Quebec City for the 'Yotes. The NHL was probably told in advance how the NBA relocation committee was likely to vote as a courtesy since they'd been inquiring for a while now. Great day for Sac and soon to be great day for Quebec City. Crap day for anyone in Seattle.

Funny, how I'm reading the article, they are seeking a non-Coyotes consultant to run the arena, which would indicate to me that that money would not be going to the hockey team itself, but to these new consultants, whomever they would be.

http://www.azcentral...ement-deal.html

Exactly. They're prepping for life without the Coyotes. And with the Coyotes not getting the "management fee" kickback the numbers won't even come close to penciling out for any would be Arizona based owners. This all but guarantees they're gone either this off season or next.

the owners as expected are pushing for relocation because they're sick of subsidizing Bettman's failure. It'll either be Quebec or Seattle depending on what the NBA does.

Well, that's a long time coming.

Do we anticipate the Sacramento Kings situation being settled early enough to make Seattle a real possibility?

The Kings situation should be resolved a week before the NHL playoffs even start. So yeah Seattle could be a very real possibility since there is an interested owner who has the financial wherewithal to make it work in the PNW. If not, Quebec is even easier.

Good news out of the Ottawa Sun. Looks like a decision on the Coyotes is imminent by the league. And the owners as expected are pushing for relocation because they're sick of subsidizing Bettman's failure. It'll either be Quebec or Seattle depending on what the NBA does.

I knew that the new regime in Glendale took the gigantic subsidies to the new owner off the table, but I wasn't certain if the $25 mil a year welfare check to the league would continue. If that is off the table, I think the Coyotes are gone for sure. We know that Bettman has his foolish pride, but I can't see him (and the owners) throwing more money into the fire now that there is no light at the end of the tunnel in Glendale.

They're also exploring having someone else manage the arena other than a hockey team. Seems to me they're setting up the writing to be on the wall.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/20130326glendale-oks-hiring-firm-handle-arena-talks.html

Guys this is a fascinating conversation. But WTF does it have to do with the Phoenix Coyotes?

Cross-referencing this from the Sacramento Kings thread, because it looks like the Kings are staying put, which would eliminate Seattle as a destination for the Coyotes.

Don't see how that means the Kings are staying put. There are still some big questions about the financing of the Sacramento arena deal. And on top of that they've just swapped lead investors at the last minute and Seattle still has a signed sales agreement (something the NBA has never rejected in league history).

The faux-Vegas one isn't half bad actually.

I can see how that would be preferable to Quebec City, which only has a state of the art hockey arena on the way and a serviceable hockey arena ready to use in the meantime.

Seattle also has a larger, American, English speaking TV audience which is worth far more to the league than the second smallest market in North America behind Green Bay with an almost exclusively francaphone Canadian population. That said, you're right that Quebec has some great points in it's favor, not the least of which is a dedicated hockey loving fanbase which the team would have all to itself without having to share with the NBA, NFL, MLS, and MLB. Which is why they'll likely get Team 31 due in no small part because they'd pay the expansion fee far more readily than Levin would in Seattle or any other US market for that matter.