Yeah, turns out the Coyotes' "owners" were completely full of shit when they said the intent to cancel the lease "blindsided" them. Apparently the city had been in contact with the team for months and they knew this was coming.



I remember the name Tony Tavares from the last two years of the Expos. No wonder the Coyotes didn't want him around, he's a sports franchise Angel of Death.

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I think we need to move the city of Glendale to the Shoutout section. Looks like they know they're screwed and trying to save face.

The NHL wants a team in Phoenix. The Coyotes and NHL will screw one of the cities there...just depends which one raises their hands and says "ME...ME...ME!"

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I disagree. It sounds to me as if they've been building up a solid case, going through the aldermen's emails, finding more city workers who left to work for the team. I know the NHL is gonna send their best white-shoe Really Smart People down from New York for this case, but that almost makes me think an Arizona judge will be more likely to side with the city on a matter of state statutes.


It's gonna be Scottsdale and/or an Indian tribe with land somewhere near Scottsdale. Of course, I think it's long past time to give up the ghost with Phoenix. I don't care how good Auston Matthews turns out to be. It's not worth it anymore.

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Update:

The Coyotes no longer get $15MM a year in taxpayer money to play in Glendale, so they announced a plan to team with Arizona State on a brand-new arena in Tempe. Then ASU bailed on it because they took the temperature and realized no one wanted to build another new Coyotes arena. Now they're paying a state senator to push a TIF bill that would funnel tax money into building a new Coyotes arena somewhere east of Phoenix, but the bill can't seem to make it out of committee or get on the docket.

So Gay Bettman wrote a mean letter to the Arizona state legislature claiming that he was very angry and that the Coyotes have to move out of Glendale and into another brand-new arena or else. Everyone, from the legislature to the old mayor of Glendale to everyone with a newspaper job to everyone on Twitter was just like "yeah fuck off." http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2017/03/1 ... esnt-suck/

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If only some Canadian city with a rabid fanbase had an already built NHL arena...

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Leash wants to shoot the Coyotes.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

They would have gotten a team alongside Las Vegas but the fucking Red Wings threw a fit.

The Coyotes should have been allowed to move to Hamilton in 2009 or Winnipeg in 2010 and avoided all these years of embarrassment. Of course, then you still have the Atlanta Hawks kicking the Thrashers out in 2011. Knowing the NHL, they'd have bought that team and moved them to Phoenix.

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Right now the Red Wings have more issues than whether another team locates within 300 miles. They better start to put some asses in the seats, and a new arena ain't a long-term solution for that.

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Not a mult.

Proximity isn't the issue, it's that they might get bumepd out of the Eastern Conference and have to make two trips a year to West Coast cities instead of one. But there's a belief that the Carolina Hurricanes are circling the drain (as their logo indicates) and they might end up being purchased by Quebecor, and that wouldn't disturb precious baby Detroit's schedule.

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Maybe it's been addressed before, but what is the NHL's obsession with Arizona?

Marauding spawns of Satan is what they are. Death to all of them.

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That have LOUS, LATINS, and NO LEASH

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ROZATIS

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It's been a bit of a moving target. When Jim Balsillie arranged to buy the Coyotes out of bankruptcy and move them to Hamilton, it was about not only keeping the NHL out of Hamilton but about maintaining the league's right to approve who its owners are and where they do business (such as "not Hamilton").

But since that threat was addressed, it's been about perpetuating the "public-private partnership" model of funding new facilities. Glendale not only spent about a quarter of a billion to build the Coyotes' arena, they paid the NHL $25MM in 2010 to keep the team from moving back to Winnipeg (they called this an "arena management fee") and then another $25MM in 2011 to again keep the team from moving back to Winnipeg. Of course, the second time around, the Thrashers were getting thrown out on their ass with nowhere to go but Winnipeg, which they did, but this was kept well enough under wraps that no one in Glendale could call the league's bluff -- they wound up giving the league 25 mil for nothing. Now that Glendale doesn't want to subsidize the Coyotes anymore (they were paying $15MM a year until they realized their city attorney drew up the contract and then immediately went to work for the Coyotes), the team is asking the state to build them a new arena and probably subsidize them in "arena management fees" as well.

But if Arizona's statehouse tells the NHL to fuck off, and all indications are that they actually will, then the fear is that everyone else will and no one will get free arenas anymore. (Edmonton and Detroit just did, Calgary and Long Island need them next.) But if the Coyotes are allowed to move, then the fear is that the NHL will be seen as having walked out on a city that built them a state-of-the-art arena right next to a successful NFL stadium and then gave them money just to exist, and then no one else will want to give them free arenas that will just be walked out on. Bettman's defenders always claim he's playing 12-dimensional chess, but all I see is a team that loses shit-tons of money every year.

They still think they can be a national sport if they just get popular in Phoenix and Nashville and shit. It's not gonna happen. The absolute ceiling for the NHL is being considered on equal footing with baseball and basketball in the Midwest and the Northeast. That's it. Give up and let Quebecor buy the team.

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So it's all about precedent? This stuff is fascinating.

And who are the real power brokers in the league? Similar to how the rumor was that Reinsdorf held a lot of sway in the way MLB did things, is there an owner or set of owners who are really pulling the strings?

That would be Jeremy Jacobs of the Bruins. Not only has he owned the Bruins, the arena, and a chunk of NESN for years, his company handles the hospitality side for a ton of venues, including about seven or eight other NHL arenas. (Part of the reason there will never be a team in Hamilton is that one of those arenas is Buffalo, his home, and he doesn't want anyone threatening beer/concession/suite sales in Buffalo.) He doesn't like to spend money very much, so he's been a driving force of all three lockouts. He's basically a cross between Bill Wirtz, Jerry Reinsdorf, and Mr. Burns.

Ed Snider of the Flyers and Mike Ilitch of the Red Wings were also very powerful, but both died within the last year. Peter Karmanos was very powerful as a pro-ownership hardliner but wants to sell the Hurricanes and resigned from the executive committee. MLSE is of course very powerful, now more than ever under Bell-Rogers ownership. Surprisingly, James Dolan only really cares about the Knicks and doesn't exercise much influence in the league, probably for the best.

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Earlier when I mentioned the NHL wants a team in Glendale....I meant AZ in general. There are far better markets for the NHL like Milwaukee Quebec City...etc...but the NHL is convinced the sport will grow nationally if they invest in AZ, Carolina, Vegas, and the non-traditional markets. I see the point, but it's an expensive and very long-term strategy that will likely take a lot of money to see through. In the end, I think it's too expensive to work, but what do I know.

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Oh hello, this team never paid its taxes, it isn't paying its rent, and it's getting evicted at the end of the year. The owner of the Rockets can't afford or doesn't want an NHL team as a secondary tenant and the league is still throwing a bitchfit about Quebec City. So that's fun.

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i guess you Can take JERRY out of the COYOTIES, but you can"t take THE JERRY out of actualy PAYING RENT?????


lol

JERRY! My GAI! Still considering TIFF Financing district around West Gate??? Some, FRANK, think Jeryr can do no Wrong, porblem Is, real Hawkey fans live in Scottsdale, WRONG SIDE, Lots of trans plants......Glendale is more for JUAN? He No El-Like-O...can't see PUCK!

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I'm so glad the NHL expanded with Vegas and Seattle while you have dead ass organizations like the Arizona, Carolina, and Florida chugging along with no one caring.

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Carolina is doing fine as long as the team is good. But it's the only major league pro team in town and had a good agreement to be a tenant at PNC Arena which helps out NC State.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

If I remember correctly, NC State wanted a pro-level arena for themselves, but they couldn't pay for it themselves, so the state went out of the way to lure the Whalers down. The plan before that had been to move to Columbus, and before that, Auburn Hills. The Hurricanes basically exist only to make NC State basketball feel better about itself.

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That history sounds about right. The region has grown a lot in the meantime, and NC State is still not quite a peer to UNC and Duke but is definitely better regarded. And the current management has done generally a good job growing the fandom among both transplants and younger natives. In the eastern half of the state it is clearly a larger draw than the Charlotte-based pro teams.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

We talk a lot about "blue-collar fans" in sports discourse, but something I've noticed about the Hurricanes is that no one would ever accuse them of having any. It's all just PMCs and their shitty kids who moved from Buffalo or Pittsburgh to Cary. There seems to be no working-class contingent as there would be for the Flyers, Islanders, Bruins, and yes, Blackhawks (though Hawks fans aren't as white trash as Sam Fels makes them out to be). They're the ideal of Gary Bettman's "growing the game": a geographically sparse swath of wealthy consumers rather than a fiercely regional but socioeconomically varied market. "Kids are learning to play hockey in North Carolina now!" Yeah, and their parents all make six figures, cool.

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So you are a reverse elitist then? Only the right Grabowskis can be hockey fans?

I don't go more often because the parking costs and lack of public transportation make it a little too expensive for a casual fan like me. And the upper deck of PNC feels more remote than the one at the United Center.

Also, the cool kids are moving to Apex or Garner now.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

No, but I have some reservations about the expenses associated with the game, from playing it to watching it, rising so much that it turns the game into modern-day polo but with more sexual abuse.

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The raiders fired john grudy for no reason. Nobody cares about racial stereotypes

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

As the former Pres of our local High School club....I can tell you with great certainty the high costs are directly related to ice time. There are limited rinks and the sport has grown quite a bit. 80% of the club fees were entirely dedicated to ice fees. It is very expensive.

Thank God, my younger son chose band.

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Team is moving to Salt Lake City. It's finally over.

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