Glendale could become a sporting dead zone

[jstewismybastardson]

Sporting woes sack Glendale

 

[IPostedWhat]

Is this going to be the return of Anthony Michael Hall in a new season?

 

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City spokeswoman Julie Frisoni said administrators were working on contingency plans, but were hopeful problems such as the Coyotes issue would be solved.

She acknowledges it would be hard to replace events equal to the crowds from hockey and football games.

Maybe Glendale should try to become the convention capial of the southwest US...Depending on the type of convention, they would pull in crowds equal to if not greater than the attendance at Coyotes hockey games.

 

[wings-pens2166]

it'll be interesting to see what kind (if any) reaction the NHL will have to this news. Anyone know if they have yet?

 

[jstewismybastardson]

City spokeswoman Julie Frisoni said administrators were working on contingency plans, but were hopeful problems such as the Coyotes issue would be solved.

She acknowledges it would be hard to replace events equal to the crowds from hockey and football games.

Maybe Glendale should try to become the convention capial of the southwest US...Depending on the type of convention, they would pull in crowds equal to if not greater than the attendance at Coyotes hockey games.

add more concerts by pairing with LiveNation
add an arena football team
add an ahl team

its doable

 

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What was that figure you provided, jstew? Something like the MTS Centre is the 19th busiest arena in North America?!? There are options if you're willing to look at them.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

it'll be interesting to see what kind (if any) reaction the NHL will have to this news. Anyone know if they have yet?

a writer asked Daly about the non-existant drop dead date ... the league isnt gonna talk until the seasons over because there are still tickets to sell

also the below story talks about $50 mill in bonds being sold or accounted for - heard on the radio that Bettman may have convinced the NHL BOG that the remaining $50 mill at 9% return is a good investment ... wheres that "gunshot to the head" smilie



GLENDALE, ARIZ. — Only Gary Bettman and his closest allies know for sure when we’ll reach the deadline to save hockey in Phoenix.

Is it early April? Mid-April? May or June?

Or could the answer be “all of the above”?

Maybe it depends on when the Coyotes have played their final home game.

That’s always been my line of thinking. That, if the deal with Matt Hulsizer withers and dies here in the Arizona desert, we aren’t going to hear it until the need to keep the mirage alive is eliminated.

As long as there are tickets to sell, the NHL will do everything in its power to minimize team losses already reported to be as much as $40 million this season.

After all, if there’s no sale to Hulsizer, presumably the current legal owner (the league) will have to back fill the bucks.

So watch the Coyotes’ schedule closely. And if they make the playoffs, settle in for a longer haul.

At least, that was my theory.

“Not necessarily,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly told me, Wednesday. “If we feel we have hit a brick wall, we will announce that.”

Judging by the deafening silence over the last several days, this train hasn’t hit the wall, yet.

In fact, reports late Wednesday indicate the thing is still on the tracks, chugging through the most dangerous part of the desert, where the people threatening to stop it aren’t outlaws, but lawyers, brandishing lawsuits instead of pistols.

The Goldwater Institute’s holdup is in progress, there’s no doubt about that.

But while the taxpayer watchdog exchanges gunfire at the front of the iron horse, it turns out some enterprising types have been unloading bonds out the back of the caboose.

Around $50 million in bonds have been sold, close to half of what the City of Glendale needs to raise to hold up its end of the bargain, says a report by Mike Sunnucks in the Phoenix Business Journal.

Sunnucks has been riding this story for a while, and he’s hit as many targets as he’s missed, which on this lurching locomotive is saying something.

What isn’t clear is when that $50 million total was reached, and whether or not there’s been any movement recently.

Have the bonds been stalled at $50 million for weeks, with somebody only choosing to leak that news now? Or are investors slowly shedding their fear of Goldwater’s unmasked marauders, willing once again to do what they do: measure investment risk, and go for the reward.

Daly’s response to a request for an update doesn’t exactly satisfy the curious mind.

“As long as we are continuing to work, it suggests that we continue to believe it’s possible we will be able to get something done,” the deputy commish said in an email.

It’s funny how that innocuous statement — with pliable words like “suggests,” “continue to believe” and “possible” — was interpreted by the small but vocal Coyotes faithful in Twitterdom, who suggested the deal was well on its way to completion.

My take?

Don’t let it get your hopes up.

And I’m talking to both the return-of-the-Jets crowd in Winnipeg and the save-the-Coyotes faithful here in Phoenix.

Anyone who thinks they know where this thing’s heading hasn’t been down the track.

This train could still screech to a soft landing, amid the cheers of Arizonians, or it could hit the bricks, with Winnipeggers more than willing to pick up the pieces.

Either way, you’ll know when you hear it.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

What was that figure you provided, jstew? Something like the MTS Centre is the 19th busiest arena in North America?!? There are options if you're willing to look at them.

I think that was a 2008 or 2009 number ... not sure where they stand right now

 

[wings-pens2166]

In fact, reports late Wednesday indicate the thing is still on the tracks, chugging through the most dangerous part of the desert, where the people threatening to stop it aren’t outlaws, but lawyers, brandishing lawsuits instead of pistols.

The Goldwater Institute’s holdup is in progress, there’s no doubt about that.

Or are investors slowly shedding their fear of Goldwater’s unmasked marauders, willing once again to do what they do: measure investment risk, and go for the reward.[/I]

thanks jstew...and I don't know who the writer of that was, but seems like a bit of an agenda here.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

thanks jstew...and I don't know who the writer of that was, but seems like a bit of an agenda here.

just another no good dirty member of the cdn media

 

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just another no good dirty member of the cdn media

Is that Shoalts?!? He's been living off this debacle in the desert for over two years now.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Is that Shoalts?!? He's been living off this debacle in the desert for over two years now.

Paul Friesen ... Winnipeg Sun i think ... sunmedia for sure

of course there is an agenda but then again ... the lease agreement deadline was once Dec 31 right ... now its just an unknown moving target because noone is talking

 

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Speaking of Shoalts, here's his latest entry...

Goldwater not budging on Coyotes deal - The Globe and Mail

Carrie Ann Sitren wrote a report for Goldwater that once again said the municipal bond deal to provide Hulsizer with $100-million (all currency U.S.) to help buy the Coyotes from the NHL for $170-million and cover this season’s losses of $40-million, is a bad one for the taxpayers of the suburban city of Glendale.

The interesting thing about this report is that Sitren compares it to a similar one for one of the most successful franchises in sport. The New York Yankees strong-armed the city of New York into coughing up $102-million through a bond sale for the baseball team’s new Yankee Stadium.

Like the plan in Glendale, parking revenue around Yankee Stadium is supposed to cover the bond payments. But it is not working out that way.

Sitren said in her report the Yankees’ parking revenue is 40 per cent below projections. According to her, the Yankees could not even cover as much as $1.5-million of the annual $7-million in bond payments. And the company that handles the parking owes the city $17-million in back rent and taxes.

Considering the millions of fans the Yankees draw each season and that on a good night a Coyotes crowd might number 14,000, that is not a promising indicator for Glendale’s bonds.

 

[pixburgher66]

You know, even though it's incredibly "tinfoil hat" to think like this, it's kind of there in the back of my mind...if Bettman is so desperate to see this work out in Phoenix, can you imagine the pressure he could put on officials through out the league to try and aid them in going far in the playoffs? Seriously. If the Yotes go far in the postseason it would most likely save them, because the fanbase would show up suddenly and Goldwater would get even more pressure to let it happen, or at least allow renegotiation or something. Just a thought.

 

[dash]

You know, even though it's incredibly "tinfoil hat" to think like this, it's kind of there in the back of my mind...if Bettman is so desperate to see this work out in Phoenix, can you imagine the pressure he could put on officials through out the league to try and aid them in going far in the playoffs? Seriously. If the Yotes go far in the postseason it would most likely save them, because the fanbase would show up suddenly and Goldwater would get even more pressure to let it happen, or at least allow renegotiation or something. Just a thought.

Not just on-ice officials pix...

/Flames screwed by war room last night

 

[pixburgher66]

Not just on-ice officials pix...

/Flames screwed by war room last night

I agree, obviously if it starts high up it trickles down to many departments. Obviously the chances of there actually being some sort of agenda are slim...but it makes you wonder.

 

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^^^

Do I actually believe this is happening?!? No I don't, but when you have a league owning a team that is trying to present the team to prospective buyer(s) in the best possible light, eyebrows will raise when close calls go the way of the Coyotes.

 

[pixburgher66]

^^^

Do I actually believe this is happening?!? No I don't, but when you have a league owning a team that is trying to present the team to prospective buyer(s) in the best possible light, eyebrows will raise when close calls go the way of the Coyotes.

Exactly...it's bad enough that the integrity of the league is tarnished because they 'run them', but for this to all be happening during the playoffs is even more worrisome.

 

[Ties5o11]

This is why the Goldwater Inst. lawsuit is so misguided. They claim to be protecting the taxpayer, but the investment into the arena has already been made. It makes zero economic sense to remove the anchor tenant from the arena for the local taxpayer.

I am still holding the situation that it is a moot point, since there are rumors that a) there is a buyer of the bonds, and b) the lawsuit will fail on the precedent of public support for other professional sports in the area (Suns, Cards, and Diamondbacks all receive or received public funding). But still.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

^^^

Do I actually believe this is happening?!? No I don't, but when you have a league owning a team that is trying to present the team to prospective buyer(s) in the best possible light, eyebrows will raise when close calls go the way of the Coyotes.

like when Burrows gets 5 and a game for boarding Vern Fiddler

/Gallagher has brainwashed me