There was an evening of discussion for the Glendale City Council to determine whether or not Renaissance Sports and Entertainment would come to some kind of agreement with the city on a lease agreement on jobing.com arena in Westgate City Center.
The City Council put in a last-minute provision on having their own back out if the deal soured in five years time- the same provision RSE made in front of the City Council. Knowing that RSE would turn the two-sided out clause deal down, RSE came back with a "make whole" idea where, if team leaves after 5 yrs, RSE would reimburse the city up to US$6-million a season for the five years the team would have been active.
Wait... weren't we in this situation before...? The point surrendered in the meeting has been a big selling point for some of the council members about having an NHL franchise around.
Glendale city staffers, the City Manager, and City Attorney are all warning against the Coyotes deal. But all it was going to take was a simple 4-3 vote by the looks of things to lock in the Phoenix Coyotes current location for the near future.
From the appearance of things, the yes votes would be Sherwood, Knaack, Martinez and Chavira. The no votes will be Alvarez, Weiers and Hugh...
Hugh is concerned about budget cuts if the deal is approved and a staff member says it's possible.
Global Spectrum as a partner for RSE late in the game might be a bit of a game-changer... and any kind of transaction around the team and arena has to go through NHL vetting. But Global Spectrum could assist in bringing in more dates to be filled more than the 41 regular season dates the Coyotes are bringing to the table.
All this with the looming spectre of city workers not getting paid (or laid off) or any other first responder getting treated for his home visit before transporting people to local hospitals. There are talks about combining or eliminating resources should his perennial-loser of a deal goes through.
Services could be cut as a result...and the HQ knows how well that will go for a city hemorrhaging trying to pay for public services instead of allocating US$25-million to the league every year.
But voting happened in the 1:00 AM hour eastern time. It appears that the provision the city wanted in the deal having their own out clause equal to RSE's was pulled off the table- the deal breaker coming into tonight...
What this appears to be is another five-year holding pattern for the franchise... and when the Coyotes discussion occurs again in five years (or less if losses accumulate faster than US$10-million which the team traditionally has), the two cities who will be ready for the NHL (Seattle and Quebec City) will be ready for pro hockey - in whatever form available.
Unless expansion has taken those two places, Kansas City would be in play.
Hugh is evolving as a "no," Sherwood a "yes," Alvarez a "no," Martinez a "yes," Chavira (a fireman, by the way, as the swing vote) an evolving "yes," Knaack is an evolving "yes," and Weiers is a "no..."
Even as Weiers says: "I know how this vote's gonna go. I'm still very uncomfortable we're going to take all of the risk."
Chavira to LeBlanc: "If you fail, we fail, correct? I know you wouldn't get involved in this if you plan to fail."
The vote was 4-3 "yes" on resolution on roll call vote...
"Ayes" carry the resolution without roll call...
And there you go...
Mayor Weiers sat down a few months ago to discuss the on-again, off-again stuff in Glendale...
((HT: AZPBS))
More when we know more after sunrise...
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