There’s big buzz in the Phoenix area this week about the Phoenix Coyotes (the local NHL team for the uninformed) moving north to Ontario under the auspices of Blackberry bigwig and perennial hockey team shopper Jim Balsillie. Jerry Moyes, the current majority stakeholder in the Coyotes, has been facing financial challenges with both his Swift Trucking outfit and the Coyotes. It should come as no surprise to anybody that the cell phone biz is outpacing the trucking biz these days.
Mr. Moyes this week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and listened to a spectacular hubris driven $212 million plus bid from Mr. Balsillie, maybe enough to bail Moyes out of his financial predicament with the ‘Yotes. The City of Glendale, landlords for Jobing.com arena, would probably also be paid off for back rent and parking fees. That’s good, especially since Glendale has recently had to furlough some city employees. So what’s the problem?
The first problem is that a condition of the sale is that the Coyotes would be relocated to southern Ontario. The second problem is that Mr. Moyes may not even have the right to declare the hockey club bankrupt, at least that’s the argument the NHL is making. The third problem is that the City of Glendale has a fresh contract with the Coyotes that would potentially result in a $750 million penalty. The fourth problem is that the NHL was in town to discuss with Mr. Moyes another potential sale to Jerry Reinsdorf (owner of the Chicago Bulls and White Sox and sometime Paradise Valley resident) at the very moment Moyes was filing his petition.
It isn’t rocket surgery to put some guesses together about whether Moyes and Balsillie had discussed the bankruptcy filing beforehand. If the Jobing.com $750 million penalty was negated by a bankruptcy, and then the bankruptcy judge decided that accepting the highest bid was in the best interest of the team debtors, then a logical conclusion is that the Coyotes would be packing for the Great White North pretty quickly. Slick move, if ethically questionable, and one that was really in the face of the NHL.
The Pittsburgh Penguins (currently in the hunt for the Stanley Cup) went through the same sort of big buck offer from Balsillie back in 2006, with very similar machinations revolving around a new arena and a move to Ontario. The Nashville Predators had a similar experience in 2007. Now, it’s our turn.
NHL Commish Gary Bettman, rightly or wrongly, doesn’t seem to like Balsillie very much. We imagine that being recently end-arounded (with the bankruptcy filing) once again won’t add much amicability to the relationship. Bettman has stated on more that one occasion that the Coyotes will be staying in Phoenix, and has represented that position at the bankruptcy hearing yesterday. Glendale has basically promised that they will sue for $750 million if the Coyotes leave, although there is precedent that the maximum penalty for a broken lease could be more in the $500k range.
So now we wait for the next hearing for the next installment.
Filling seats and making money with hockey in the desert has always been a challenge. The minor league Phoenix Roadrunners just closed up shop this year. The last game we went to was pretty sparsely attended. It’s not much different at many Coyotes games, there are usually plenty of empty seats. If a popular team from out of town is playing, particularly the ever-annoying Red Wings, it’s not uncommon to have Coyotes fans out-cheered by the other fans. The ‘Yotes have the third worst attendance record in the NHL, despite having an excellent venue for hockey and the best arena staff I’ve ever had the privilege to encounter.
Despite flashes of competency and energy from the Coyotes, as a team they seem doomed to disappoint. A bunch of promising young additions to the team have so far failed to bear the fruit of a playoff bid. The refrain of “There’s always next year” begins to wear on the psyche of dedicated fans, especially considering ticket prices and the current state of the economy. That said, our family will be there next year hoping for the best and having a great time. We went to a Diamondbacks game a couple weeks ago, we wanted our French exchange student to have the experience, and there is NO comparison to watching a hockey game and a baseball game.
I don’t want to speculate on what it would take to make the Coyotes a consistently winning team. I do know that the fan base would grow significantly if they managed to get into the playoffs. Even the vaunted Boston Bruins weren’t sold out THIS YEAR (something like 80% attendance) until they showed some strength. Some say the attendance problem is because Glendale is too far out. Tell that to the Cardinals DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET. Besides, the Phoenix sprawl is rapidly engulfing Jobing.com arena.
So, let’s see Moyes and the NHL reach some kind of agreement that fulfills the contracts signed. Hey, a deal is a deal even in the hockey business, isn’t it?
Go to savethecoyotes.com for updated information and hit the Coyotes Forever Facebook page.
