The Coyotes Have A New Majority Owner, Are They On The Clock In Glendale?

((HT: AZCentral))

Depending on who you talk to these days, either the Phoenix Arizona Coyotes are either half-way to their $50-million loss figure for the escape clause to kick in or everything is fine, the team is losing money, and they're staying anyway.

Either way, this seems to be the league approach to keeping a team there when the league could be served better someplace else


Coyotes president Anthony Leblanc values his team around $300-million and he is selling 51-percent to Philadelphia hedge fund guru Andrew Barroway for something in the neighborhood of $152.5-million.

The Ice Edge guys had an escape clause built into their new deal with the city of Glendale that specified if the team was hemorrhaging money they could leave. Glendale agreed last year to pay the Coyotes $15 million annually to manage the arena- and that isn't helping, either. Revenue from parking and concerts paid to the city in return has so far fallen short of projections. If Barroway's name is familiar to you, it should be. He has had interest in both the Islanders and the Devils before getting this deal.

Reason being- and the HQ has witnessed this first hand- the Glendale City Center is a mixed-use development that has fallen well short of occupancy in the business and residential aspects of the project. It takes far too long to get there from the Phoenix downtown area under normal circumstances and, Gawd forbid, you work in Phoenix and thought you would live in Glendale.

It's just not a feasible suburban location for something to work...

Ice Edge's financing issues came to the fore again just before the season started when it was disclosed that they were sending Max Domi back to juniors so they wouldn't have to pay his entry level salary instead of keeping him up with the parent club so the team could have another scoring threat.

Oh, well...

Here's The Bettman discussing everything Arizona

Apparently, having Barroway involved gives the Coyotes a better interest rate with the NHL credit lines and gets them to wipe out a debt with a previous investment group and, also, may give the team an extra $9-million- which might bring Domi back to the parent club sooner rather than later.

But the HQ still believes that the Coyotes would be better served in the pacific northwest and the Florida Panthers would be better served in Quebec City.

But, that's just us thinking about relocation instead of the poo-pooed expansion talk from the Commissioner earlier this week.

IceArizona Takes Over Coyotes

And the Commissioner couldn't be any happier over the idea that he can hand over the keys to the Phoenix ArizonaPhoenix Coyotes from his own pockets once and for all...

For three years or so, anyway...

The guys from RenaissanceIceArizona took over the team and held their initial press conference detailing just how much they love Glendale and want to commit to keeping hockey in jobing.com arena- until they lose enough money so they can move somewhere like Seattle...

"Today is about starting over," Ice part-owner Anthony LeBlanc said.

AZCentral's Sarah McLellan caught up with the commish...
The City of Glendale, put over a barrel again, released this statement: "The city of Glendale is very pleased with the announcement from the National Hockey League (NHL) that IceArizona Acquisition Co., LLC has finalized its purchase of the team. The city is looking forward to working with IceArizona to continue the long-term presence and success of the Coyotes in Glendale. "As we move forward, the city and team will focus on building momentum for this season by welcoming new and returning fans to Glendale's Sports and Entertainment District and supporting the many shops and restaurants that make up this important economic engine for the city. "We want to thank the dedicated fans for their ongoing support of the team and the city of Glendale. As the anchor tenant for Jobing.com Arena, the Coyotes play more than 40 home games in our city that annually attract more than 500,000 fans and we are looking forward to many successful years ahead."
The HQ gives it 3 years- tops before the $50-million loss elevator clause kicks in...