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Things getting ugly in Glendale

1 by wizard pork sword
The City of Glendale has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. ET to discuss the possibility of terminating its current lease agreement with the Arizona Coyotes.

The Coyotes are not pleased. Nick Wood, of the law firm Snell & Wilmer, has issued the following statement on the behalf of the club:

“This is a blatant attempt to renege on a valid contract that was negotiated fairly and in good faith and in compliance with all laws and procedures. In the event the City Council initiates any action to revoke, repeal or otherwise rescind the agreement, the Coyotes will immediately take all actions available to them under the law against the City of Glendale.”

Coyotes co-owner, president and CEO Anthony LeBlanc added, “This action by the City of Glendale is completely ludicrous, especially in light of the fact that myself and Andrew Barroway visited with the City yesterday and the particulars of this were never raised. In fact, we to this moment have not been advised of this other than the notification on the City website. The City of Glendale is displaying a complete lack of good faith, business acumen or an understanding of a business partnership. We want to reassure our great fans that the Arizona Coyotes are committed to Glendale and playing at Gila River Arena.”

It is worth noting that the subject of the organization’s relationship with the City of Glendale was raised during Tuesday’s state of the union and LeBlanc mentioned the Barroway meeting with Mayor Jerry Weiers, Vice Mayor Ian Hugh, and city attorney Michael Bailey. LeBlanc categorized the meeting as “good” and said that they talked about how the franchise and city could work more closely together.

“The mayor, you know, on August 5th of 2013 when we closed the deal — actually I guess it was in July when we had the vote with the city of 2013, he came up to me afterwards, and he said, look, at the end of the day I wasn’t a supporter of the deal, but I want to do what I need to do to work with the Coyotes and make things work, and I take him as a man of his word, and he reiterated that yesterday,” LeBlanc said during the press conference.

This also comes after a TSN report in May that said senior elected city officials were exploring legal grounds to void the arena management contract. The Coyotes refuted that report.

Update: Glendale’s legal challenge would focus on Arizona statute 38-511, according to Fox Sports’ Craig Morgan. The full statute is here, but subsection A states:

The state, its political subdivisions or any department or agency of either may, within three years after its execution, cancel any contract, without penalty or further obligation, made by the state, its political subdivisions, or any of the departments or agencies of either if any person significantly involved in initiating, negotiating, securing, drafting or creating the contract on behalf of the state, its political subdivisions or any of the departments or agencies of either is, at any time while the contract or any extension of the contract is in effect, an employee or agent of any other party to the contract in any capacity or a consultant to any other party of the contract with respect to the subject matter of the contract.

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2015 ... agreement/

Send them north to Vegas.

Re: Things getting ugly in Glendale

5 by STL fan in IA
Putting a team in Glendale was just a bad idea from the beginning. The arena is way out of the way for most folks that live in the PHX area. The arena also gets very little other events (concets, circus, etc) as those touring events typically choose to go to the downtown arena where the NBA Suns play. That downtown arena was not configured whatsoever for hockey (it was built with only basketball in mind) so it didn't really make sense to put a hockey team there longterm...but building a brand new arena out in Glendale wasn't a viable option either IMO. It sucks as it's actually a very nice arena.

The ONLY reason that the city of Glendale narrowly voted back in 2013 to keep the Coyotes there was because it was projected that they would lose less having the Coyotes there than having no tenant for that arena at all. I would guess that the reason why they're now trying to get out of that lease is because they now must feel that it would be better to just cut the cord.

The Westgate complex with all of the bars, shops etc is also very nice but it's really only busy on the weekends.

To me, it's time to cut the cord there...but I don't know where they should go. Seattle would make sense but apparently Key Arena is not considered to be suitable for even on a temporary basis as a new Seattle arena gets built. KC has a very nice arena but I don't see the NHL having faith in a team being successful there longterm. The Las Vegas arena isn't finished yet (and I personally question if having a team in Vegas is a good idea) but perhaps the NHL will work something out to where the Yotes play a final lame duck year in Glendale and then move to Vegas for the 2016-17 season.

Re: Things getting ugly in Glendale

7 by Robb_K
LrdStnly wrote:Here they come, Quebec
I'd LOVE that. But, that would mean Detroit or Columbus would have to move back to The Western Conference. Detroit won't do that. Or, Quebec would have to remain in The West until Seattle and/or Las Vegas are ready, and have an horrendous travel schedule for those few years. Not a very pretty picture. That's what happened to The Jets in their first 2 years back.

Re: Things getting ugly in Glendale

10 by TradeMeRightNow
It seems like this saga will never go away until the team moves. Glendale is not the place this team will thrive and why anyone thought it was going to be a good move from downtown Phoenix is baffling.

Thinking out loud here, but this should be the type of thing every major sport franchise should think about when wanting to build a new facility. Location, location, location! It will make or break your franchise. Also when a city or owner, or whomever builds a facility it doesn't make sense to build for one sport (looking at NBA and NHL). If one doesn't work try to sell the facility for the other.

I feel bad for the residents of Glendale. They'll be stuck with a new arena that will be an empty albatross and a financial succubus for years.

Re: Things getting ugly in Glendale

24 by Robb_K
Keeping an agreement with The City of Glendale is a disaster waiting to happen. It's good for me, as it should hasten Arizona's relocation to a different US state or Canadian province. As Las Vegas and Quebec are the front runners for the 2 next expansion franchises, this leaves hope for Seattle mto stay in the mix, and continue trying to get an agreement for a new arena to be built.
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