Gothamite

Goldwater has already indicated that the deal under discussion is unacceptable, so there's still hope.

Look, Bettman has convinced a city to drive itself into crippling debt, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, in order to finance a hockey team its citizens don't actually want. "Stupid" he's not.

A lame-duck team would be the worst possible outcome from his perspective. He would suffer a whole season of humiliation, as every game would be accompanied by a reminder that Bettman couldn't even move a failed team correctly. Best scenario is to move the team quickly and then try I forget this sorry episode altogether.

That's why it's so sad.

Yep, I suspect Troy at MEARS would have jumped at the chance to auction this off. And she wouldn't have gotten pennies on the dollar.

If Glendale was even paying a reasonable/comparable arena management fee, the NHL would have moved them years ago.

A pawn shop? That's unspeakably sad. She would have gotten so much more if she put it up for auction, and there's a very good auction house in Milwaukee that could have handled it.

Interesting.

Yep, that'll save Glendale the $35 million.

If the second most delusional person in this fairy tale is starting to wake up, maybe it finally is.

So they're laying off city workers and closing off public services, while nearly three-quarters of the city's budget deficit comes directly from subsidizing a hockey team that nobody in town seems to particularly care about. Pathetic. relocate the gd'ed team. And all this time, they're trying to figure out a way to funnel more public money into this sinkhole on ice. Time to let go of the ego trips. Bettman has to admit that this was a bad relocation. Glendale has to admit that they're not a major-league city.

So they're laying off city workers and closing public services because they're broke, while nearly three-quarters of the city's budget deficit comes directly from subsidizing a hockey team that nobody in town seems to particularly care about. Pathetic.

It might be different in different states. In some cases, there is county or state money involved, but I'm guessing that if a stadium isn't actually within the borders of a city, that city doesn't contribute to it no matter what the team name is.

If the prople over at Goldwater actually believe in the ideals they represent, then they have to get involved. This welfare is simply too outrageous to go unchallenged.

Not necessarily. Not if people are dumping their tickets that cheaply.

Right. Because allowing the team to move would be so much more embarrassing...

No, there wasn't. I was kidding about the Dodgers. That was the joke. I should have said the Yankees, who seem as likely to move as the Coyotes, since Bettman's willing to spend his owners' money indefinitely rather than admit a mistake.

Everybody who knows the size of Gary Bettman's ego. At this point. I'd say the Dodgers are more likely to move than the Coyotes. So long as Glendale is willing to keep writing checks, he'll fight tooth and nail to keep them in town. He'll drag out any number of fictitious "owners" so long as the rubes eat it up.

And yet they've reportedly been in financial trouble, which doesn't speak well for the strength of the league.

For smaller purchases, you might be right. But what about the car dealer quoted in the article, who rightly fears that the extra $300+ dollars this will add to the price of a car will send his customers one Town over? Tourists may not realize that sales taxes are higher in Glendale, but the locals sure will. I know plenty of people who will drive a couple extra miles for their regular errands, willing to hop a city line to regularly buy groceries, clothes or to fill up their tank.

Don't stop there - it was just getting good. They're already on the verge of ruining themselves. Now Glendale wants to up their payments? Madness.

Objection, Your Honor. Assuming facts not in evidence. I don't think anyone has that intention. We don't dislike Coyote fans. At least I sure don't, and I've seen no indication that anyone else does. We tease them for their very low numbers, but we respect the existing fans while ridiculing the market as a whole (as should Coyote fans interested in placing blame where it belongs). I am sick of Bettman, the Glendale City Council and anyone who is eager to support a demonstrably-unwanted team with demonstrably-illegal subsidies. And let's not pretend that the effects of a very bad deal will be limited to Glendale taxpayers. The business of sports means that what one municipality gives to a team becomes precedent for the next market. In 1952 Milwaukee built a publicly-funded stadium to lure a relocating baseball franchise. It worked, and set a precedent that quickly became the standard for all cities that still exists today. So if Glendale is willing to funnel tens of millions of taxpayer funds to a failing team under the facade of wildly-inflated and unjustified "stadium operating fees", then the next city might be obliged to. We all have skin in this game.

And yet, they managed to lose money. The team has not once turned a profit. It has lost money every year, even the first 5. An inconvenient fact, but still very much a fact. And that's why so many of us have finally come to the conclusion that the market cannot be saved. Even with a good team, even with playoff hockey, the facts have shown that the market is just not sustainable.

Why not? They've done it before, trotting out the "new owner" after reaching a tentative deal, only to have the deal fall apart under its own illegal weight after the details were made public. It's a transparent attempt to steer the conversation. The deal couldn't possibly be illegal - look, they finally have an owner!

Sounds like the problem the NFL is having, with terribly sloppy play becoming the norm, making the game less safe for the players.