Coyotes Rumor Roundup – June, 2013

June 30, 2013

In the interest of civic duty, I’ve added a link to the Arizona Secretary of State’s form for submitting an open meeting law violation complaint. Click here for the form. Why would you want that?

Maybe you are unhappy that Ken Jones apparently received confidential information that had only been discussed in Glendale executive sessions. Maybe you didn’t like the fact that Councilmembers Alvarez and Hugh openly divulged privileged information in the Friday Glendale City Council workshop session. Maybe you assume that the city attorney should have stopped both CM’s from divulging the information or that the mayor should have done the same in his position as chair.

No, you don’t have to be a resident of Glendale to initiate a complaint.

No, if the Beacon bids are posted tomorrow that doesn’t excuse the behavior or get anyone off the hook.

Just some thoughts.

Click here for an update on Craig Morgan’s story about Mike Smith’s contract with the Coyotes with background information.

Max Domi is a Coyote. He’s a center. You’ll like him, watch the below video.

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=0&id=250228&cmpid=embed-share-video

Looks like I’ll never make my bucket list run up Pike’s Peak, so let’s just go some footage with rally monster Sebastien Loeb’s, who just grabbed the record run. On my best day, my skill level didn’t touch Loeb’s… when he’s asleep. Maybe it’s just that he has cool gloves or something?

Come on, there’s more to life than hockey.

http://youtu.be/ouQ-KFv7jLk

June 29, 2013

No comment necessary.

Wait, what, there was a Glendale City Council workshop yesterday?

Bill Daly weighs in on the Weiers pissing contest via @cmorganfoxaz tweet:

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly on Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers’ characterization of July 2 as an artificial or forced deadline: “He can characterize it the way he wants, but it is what it is.  We either get certainty in Glendale by July 2, or we immediately pursue our other options outside of Glendale.  We have already gone past the date we were comfortable accommodating in the first place. I hope for the sake of the Coyotes fans in Glendale that they don’t lose the team because of a miscalculation made by members of the City Council.”

Sounds pretty clear to me.

Despite that, Mr. Weiers may yet come up short.

June 27, 2013

You didn’t think this would be easy, did you? If the new owner doesn’t bring back the “Hockey The Hard Way” slogan, they’re missing the boat. For one more season, then it’s “Hockey The We Only Talk About Hockey Not Politics Way”.

Deal?

Tomorrow, Friday, June 28 is a Glendale City Council workshop at 1:30 pm. Now’s the time to unburden that chair and cruise over to city hall with your Coyotes gear and be one of the cool kids. There’s plenty of parking and, if you get there early enough, I will personally provide tours of the mayor’s parking spot and all surrounding points of interest.

Glendale City Hall, 5850 W Glendale Ave Glendale, AZ 85301

Giddyup, boys and girls! Let’s do this thing!

A statement from RSE’s Anthony LeBlanc: “Today is an important milestone in this process, but it will not be the last one. We look forward to the City of Glendale setting a vote, then passing this very reasonable agreement.

“We feel the agreement posted today is in the best interests of the community and the Glendale taxpayers as it provides substantial revenue streams to the city that would otherwise not be available to the city. Also, this is the only agreement that can guarantee anything, which is 41 hockey games per season in the Glendale arena.

“Hopefully, this will lead toward the most important milestone of all and the ultimate reason we want to be a part of this franchise: so we can some day gather together and celebrate a Coyotes’ Stanley Cup victory.”

Gary Bettman’s remarks at the NHL Board of Governors meeting today, robbed from Craig Morgan’s tweets:

Q.  What sort of action do you anticipate in the next week over the Phoenix situation and with the Glendale City Council?

GARY BETTMAN:  “Well, we’re anticipating — hoping that the Glendale City Council passes the proposed deal with the Renaissance Group for the operation of the building and the club playing there going forward. That’s an essential ingredient to this moving forward.”

Q.  What happens, however, if it doesn’t go through on July 2?

GARY BETTMAN: “I don’t want to be more specific than I’m going to be, but if the council doesn’t approve it so that this transaction can close, I don’t think the Coyotes will be playing there anymore.”

Q.  I had a question about the Phoenix thing.  It came out earlier this week that you guys had offered to let Glendale pay the $25 million they owe you on the installment plan if they approved the deal.  It was kind of a surprise because that meant the $20 million they had left in the escrow account a year ago is still sitting there, and I was quite curious, since both sides could have used the money for any number of things, why that was left sitting there and you had the right to collect it a year ago, and why didn’t you?

GARY BETTMAN: “Well, we’re nice guys. We believed that it was a sign of good faith as we tried to move through this process.  You presume as to what our cash flow needs are; you don’t know them. And it’s money that secured what we were owed. Our willingness to move forward on, as you called it, the installment plan is just another one of our efforts to try and make this work, and we’re hoping the Glendale City Council makes the decision that enables us to go forward next Tuesday.”

Q.  I know it was crystal clear, but I just want to check something out with you.  I think last week when we met in Chicago or Boston we talked about Phoenix, and the option of playing in Phoenix next season was still there.  Just to make sure, that’s impossible as we speak if there’s no deal?

GARY BETTMAN: “We didn’t. I think we weren’t definitive in that regard at all.  Since I wasn’t clear enough, why don’t you/”

BILL DALY:  I think what we said was we would have to consider all our other alternatives.  We weren’t ruling anything out.  But I think it’s also fair to assume, and I think there was a lot of discussion in Chicago about it, is there are relocation options here.  Those are the alternatives we’re going to consider.”

Q.  If the deal doesn’t go through next week, is relocation immediate?

GARY BETTMAN: “Well, the fact of the matter is we haven’t ironed out or put into effect a ‘Plan B.’  As Bill just said, we have lots of options.  I find it difficult to conceive of why, if the council turns this down, we would want to keep the team in Glendale any longer. So we will then, if they turn it down, have to deal with the possibilities and the options that will be available to us, and they are numerous.”

Q.  And they do involve placing the team in another city in time for the ’13 ’14 season?

GARY BETTMAN:  “Oh, yeah, if that was your question, there is enough time.”

I’m feeling pretty redundant here. You should read Craig Morgan’s “More Wrangling Postpones Posting Of Arena Deal Points” piece now and check it now and then for updates.

Okay done? Now go read Craig’s piece on the key deal points between RSE and Glendale. “Glendale Unveils Details Of Arena Lease Proposal“.

Expect an update from the NHL at the Board of Governors meeting.

Glendale posted a bunch of documents on their site, sounds like they made the NHL Board of Governors deadline and are continuing down the road to a vote on July 2 despite the efforts of the mayor to submarine the whole thing.

• Draft of the Lease Agreement from Renaissance 6/26/13
• Memo to Mr. Bowers from Renaissance 6/26/13
• Letter from Mr. Bowers to the Mayor/Council on 6/25/13
• Agreement update from the City 6/27/13

Scott Bordow says “Hey Glendale: Please finish deal for Coyotes” and we agree. So do some other people that know a thing or two about Arizona. https://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain/statuses/350264987010342914

So it seems like Glendale mayor Weiers is working political moves to submarine the RSE deal with Glendale by any means, including trying to delay a vote. One problem not being addressed is, if there is no vote on July 2, who will run the arena? Will the doors be locked and the A/C turned off until one of the remaining two Beacon bids is approved?

Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods has weighed in, the following is via a series of tweets posted by Fox Sports Arizona’s Craig Morgan (@cmorganfoxaz):

“There’s no ideal situation here. Everybody is at risk. Glendale took the risk when they decided to build a huge arena and complex, but the idea that they’d be able to be successful without an anchor tenant for 41 nights is not too practical.”

…on Glendale mayor Jerry Weiers: “I don’t know where the Mayor will ultimately come down on this. The Mayor and others have tried to get the best possible deal for Glendale and they’ve managed to get to the table a deal that is substantially better than what they had before. “I can’t blame him. I actually give him credit for being a tough negotiator. Having said that, there comes a time when you have to declare victory and move forward because the alterative is a huge loss for the Valley.”

“I have lived here my whole life so I have some perspective. I think that arena will be closed in the next 5 years without the Coyotes as an anchor tenant. I really don’t understand why some people don’t get it. You’ve got a big problem with a potentially empty arena.”

“You can’t go back to the beginning. We’re not starting from scratch here. Glendale has a huge commitment that they’ve made out there and the ramifications of it folding are going to be around for decades. There’s no reason to let that happen.”

…on fears RSE is not committed to the Valley, long-term: “Renaissance is on the line for a $130M package. They’re going to be doing everything possible to make it a success. They’re putting tens of millions of dollars into the deal and signing on the dotted line for much more. It’s more equity than anyone else has put into a deal like this.”

…on the relative small amount of equity in this deal: “The thing critics need to understand is that people aren’t lining up to go get a big money-maker here in their back pocket. I think Glendale is lucky that Renaissance is willing to take this risk and do the hard work to make it a success.”

…on whether the Coyotes can succeed in Glendale: “You’ve got a tremendous hockey team that has done well on the ice without stable ownership. The deal on the table proposes that under the worst recent attendance figures, the city would spend exactly what they have budgeted to run the arena. With increases in attendance, they will be better off.”

“I can’t imagine Glendale would put this black mark on Arizona and the Phoenix area for being a city that lost one of its major sports teams. If the Coyotes leave, hockey won’t come back.”

June 26, 2013

Glendale spokesperson Julie Frisoni, asked about when the July 2 meeting will be officially scheduled, says “not less than 72 hours before the scheduled meeting”, which is the rule of the city charter. 72 hours is also the deadline for posting documents for agenda items that will be discussed and/or voted on in said meetings.

It’s late, I’m too tired to do the math on when 72 hours before 7pm July 2 is. You’re on your own and remember we don’t use the metric system here.

So now we’re hearing there’s a deal struck between RSE and the City of Glendale and there will be a vote on July 2. Glendale should have the deal posted today in time for the NHL to be assured there is significant progress and so they can chat about it at their Board of Governors meeting.

I’m sure our friend Craig will have more deets later on Fox Sports Arizona. Until then, watch this when you have five minutes.

Craig Morgan tells it like it is, click here to read his story.

Glendale councilmember Norma Alvarez knocks one out of the park, somehow channeling a guy that exudes class (Charles Barkley) by characterizing her colleagues to the gathered press as “knuckleheads”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKTb5Nfyh1o

Bette Davis, a well known Coyotes fan, once said:

“Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

I have no idea what she meant, but it sounds like Craig Morgan does. Keep your eyes peeled for solid (as usual) information from him, he’s been dropping hints since last night. It’s like a Coyotes cliffhanger, it’s the final episodes of Breaking Bad, it’s all that and MORE.

Probably not, just building the drama.

June 25, 2013

Despite the anti-Coyotes crew protesting businesses in Westgate will survive just fine without the Coyotes, Saddle Ranch weighed in today with a letter to the contrary. Click here to read the original of the following text:

“To Whom It may Concern:

Saddle Ranch Chop House has operated at Westgate City Center for nearly five years and we have experienced first-hand the impact the Coyotes have had on the area. Losing the Coyotes would be dire for our business, for the Westgate City Center and for the city of Glendale. The loss of the Coyotes would dramatically cut down on revenue to Saddle Ranch and the other Westgate tenants. Not only could this cause many businesses to close their doors, increasing unemployment, etc., but also it would drastically reduce the tax revenue paid by all businesses to the city. We implore you to do all you can to ensure that the Coyotes stay in Glendale permanently.

Sincerely,

Ashley McDonough; Director of Communications Saddle Ranch Chop House”

Now the Phoenix Business Journal has published a Mike Sunnucks piece that’s supportive of the Glendale leaseback program, ironically attributing the idea of a leaseback program to Councilmember Ian Hugh:

Glendale City Councilman Ian Hugh has brought up the idea of mortgaging city buildings, including parking garages and City Hall, to help pay for the Coyotes deal and money owed to the NHL. The Arizona state government took some similar steps with its real estate during its financial distress during the recession.

Why ironic? Because the competing AZ Rep piece puts Hugh squarely in the “this deal sucks” camp:

“Is there a sign out front saying ‘Sale pending?’ ” Glendale Councilman Ian Hugh said.

“It’s a sad thing to have a city hall that’s paid for and we have to use it as collateral to pay the money that we’ve given the NHL, because that’s where it’s going,” Hugh said.

As predicted, the political tool of a negatively charged press pieces ramped up today. This will continue until July 2 and perhaps 30 days beyond. Denials abound, it’s so predictable it wouldn’t even be worth acknowledging except some of us aren’t built to accept barbs without responding.

Friday’s barb from the Glendale local weekly focused on a wild theory postulated by a new hire from a finance firm in California via email to the Glendale City Council and staff. More on that later today, probably.

Today’s “spin up the trolls” comes from a more familiar source, talking about the leaseback proposal being discussed at tonight’s City Council meeting and pointing the finger at the hockey team via tweeted summaries. The intent of the leaseback program is to repay internal city accounts for money used to satisfy a city commitment to pay the NHL $25M per year. That money is already gone.

The NHL has already drawn out $25M from the escrow account(s) set up for that purpose. A payment plan, contingent on the Coyotes remaining in Glendale, for the second $25M is being offered to the city, a fact omitted from the local paper piece on the subject, which would free up $20M in cash for the city immediately. Why that significant concession from the NHL wasn’t mentioned in the article can only be guessed at.

The escrow account sits with $20M currently funded with the balance ($5M) scheduled to be funded within the next five days.

By the way, the State of Arizona recently used a very similar technique to replenish their coffers depleted by a severe dip in the economy.

June 24, 2013

The City of Glendale has added a special workshop tomorrow at 1:30pm to discuss and, most likely, finalize their agreement with Renassiance Sports and Entertainment in consideration of managing the city owned arena. The workshop will be a brief call to order and a dismissal to the closed door executive session.

The details of the agreement will then likely be made public.

While the agenda for the regular evening City Council meeting doesn’t reflect an agenda item to discuss the Coyotes and the arena, they can publish an amended agenda up to 48 hours prior to the 7pm Tuesday meeting. If there is NOT an agenda item, technically the arena deal can’t be discussed during the meeting.

There was a press conference at the arena today to announce the long term signing of Head Coach Dave Tippett. There is no doubt in Phoenix and little doubt elsewhere that Coach is an integral part of the Coyotes success and a major catalyst to the chemistry that makes the team click. Click here for the video on the Coyotes site. Click here for Sarah’s story.

Rumors of interlopers in the room remain unsubstantiated.

Clint Bolick, smelling fresh opportunities for some free air time for Goldwater, is puffing out his chest again and getting air time with his vague threats of saving the world from the Coyotes.

Whatevs, Clint. Let’s start looking more closely at those 990 forms and the donations from board members and that donated money being loaned back to the board member’s company at unspecified interest rate. Oh it was a “good” interest rate according to Darcy.

June 23, 2013

One year ago today a bunch of Coyotes fans got together at McFadden’s in Westgate to figure out how to keep the team intact in Glendale. In the face of politics and litigation, it became apparent that there was a place for fans to jump in and join the fray. Two Coyotes fans (neither of whom was me) started chatting on Twitter about taking action and organizing. So a bunch of us did, and the first iteration of Glendale First! was born.

Glendale’s finest was there in Westgate that day to make sure death threats didn’t escalate.

In the year since, we’ve all gotten an education in local politics, press manipulation and international intrigue. We’ve had heartbreaking disappointments and more deadlines than you could imagine.

The Coyotes are still here, Shane Doan is still here, Don Maloney is still here, Dave Tippett is still here, Mike Nealy and his key guys are still here and a growing core of fans is still here. And… right now it looks really good for a long term future even if we have to hit the mean streets of Glendale in the height of summer one more time to make sure.

Overall, the experience has been a life consuming challenge for a lot of people, but the biggest upside from our point of view is the friends we’ve made in the past 365 days.

Thanks, you guys (unisex term of course), you know who you are.

June 21, 2013

Dave Vest gets the scoop from our long term coach, click here.

Here’s the news from outside the Glendale City Council executive session today. Looks like we’re on schedule for a City Council vote during the July 2 session.

https://twitter.com/cmorganfoxaz/status/348159591072284672

https://twitter.com/cmorganfoxaz/status/348160040110288896

This doesn’t even belong in a “Rumor Roundup”, because it’s a fact, Jack.

The Coyotes announced head Coach Dave Tippett has signed a new long term contract, locking in an important piece of the Coyotes success.

One pieces of Coach’s history widely ignored in the press running down his hockey history today while reporting this contract news is his epic mustache while playing with the Whalers. He didn’t go “full Lanny” with it, probably because he likes to eat food without leaving chunks, but still it’s a pretty great stache.

Congrats, Coach, we love you man!

June 20, 2013

Lost in the shuffle of a much celebrated (in Quebec and now Seattle) overall negative vibe in a Dan Bickley blog post today, was an explanation from Anthony LeBlanc of the dreaded “out clause”.

While not a fan of it myself, I’ve been convinced by people wiser than myself that it’s inevitable given the fragile and damaged nature of the Coyotes franchise.

Put yourself in the shoes of being in charge of an investment worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Consider that investment has been savaged by years of mismanagement and negative vibes (yes VIBES) for many years. Wouldn’t a prudent period of time, say five years, to see how the turnaround was likely to go? Of course it would. Anyway, Mr. LeBlanc said this:

“We’re not doing this to relocate the team,” LeBlanc said. “If we end up exercising an out clause, it’s going to mean that we lost a whole lot of money. And the way things are trending, we really believe this franchise will be in the middle of the pack in the NHL in terms of revenue generated.”

By the way, if you read the post, “the source on the phone” was obviously Anthony LeBlanc.

Despite gleeful tweeting implying that because a meeting notice for Friday’s Glendale City Council meeting hadn’t been published yesterday (seriously, check the #Coyotes hashtag for mentions), apparently Glendale understands what 24 hours means and has posted their notice. Click here for the agenda.

Zac Larraza dropped this update on a Coyotes fan Facebook page last night:

This team needs to stay in Phoenix. They have inspired so many kids to play hockey. Most of these players are heroes to kids all across the valley and they look up to them.

If you walk in to any of the rinks across in not just the Phoenix area but all of AZ, you see the impact this team has on the youth in our state. I wouldn’t be where I am today without this team moving to Arizona all those years ago.

If you don’t know him, Zac (@zacLarraza16) is a local guy (he’s no longer a “kid” except to old guys like myself) from Scottsdale that was drafted by the Coyotes in the 2011 NHL entry draft (click here for official Coyotes info). He’s playing for the University of Denver now, the NCAA being something like “Major juniors” in Canada except with a degree (in case you don’t make it in hockey).

Gary Sherwood was spotted (by our network of spies and the NSA) having breakfast this morning with fellow Glendale Councilmember Manny Martinez. We don’t know what they ordered, but we assume they were talking about how to deal with the arena their city owns.

June 19, 2013

So the Glendale City Council meeting touted/vaunted by the people that think they’re up to speed on all things Glendale and Coyotes as the key event that would “tell it all” has come and gone. “Decision time” is past and so far no moving trucks have show up at Jobing.com arena. Imagine that, eh?

Of course that doesn’t mean the Coyotes are out of the woods and of course it doesn’t mean that the “Plan B” sword over the heads of the Coyotes is gone. Clearly there is a deadline approaching.

It’s interesting to watch the reaction on the Coyotes Twitter hashtag. There is one camp pushing the “more questions than excitement” characterization, another camp pushing “council offers little info or reaction” theme and yet another pushing the “Gary Sherwood extremely optimistic” thing. I feel a blog post brewing that will try to detail why each impression is active.

The council is expected to hold another executive session discussion this Friday, presumably to review changes to the RSE bid and perhaps one of both of the “Beacon bids”.

Click here to read Craig Morgan’s summary of yesterday’s events. While you’re reading that post, consider what the heck is going on in Vermette’s brain?

Sarah McLellan hits us with a piece on the state of the Tippett universe (click here). Anyone looking for Coyotes news related to the team or their play would be wise to follow Sarah, she knows more about hockey than most of us and is extremely knowledgeable about the team. Her Twitter handle is @azc_mclellan.

June 17, 2013

The Glendale Star is reporting the arena management deal between RSE and Glendale is for fifteen years but does not have an “escape clause” in it. I’d be cautious about accepting that as a fact.

The Coyotes imminent move to Seattle rumors (if the deal in Glendale falls through) heat up like mad over the weekend. Because of that (not really but go with it), the construction workers in Quebec are so distraught and pouty they decided to put down their gear and go on strike. So, that $400M arena the government is buying for a non-existent NHL team is sitting there as an idle construction site for now.

Read an article about it by clicking here.

June 16, 2014

Bruins tie up the series with the Blackhawks with a win in Chicago, despite looking like the Maple Leafs or even the Oilers in the first period.

Jeremy Roenick rumored to be involved in potential Coyotes relocation to Seattle. Denis Leary comments (NSFW).
http://youtu.be/UrgpZ0fUixs

June 14, 2013

Caitlin McGlade is today reporting on AZCentral.com that the four bidders submitted by Beacon to Glendale have been whittled down to two finalists. The two finalists are, in my opinion, the right ones: Phoenix Arena Development Limited Partnership (PAD) and SMG. The two losers, who should have been dropped out before coming to the city if Beacon was earning their money, are R Entertainment and PMG (morphed into “PMG Management and Entertainment, LLC”).

For those not familiar with PMG, feel free to peruse the annals of this esteemed blog for dissertations on them, their relationships with Glendale City Council, and many other things. Caitlin did her due diligence and contacted Art Jimenez for a comment regarding his firm getting bounced from contention for the arena management deal. Art was, not unexpectedly, disappointed and even objected to his perceived mistreatment at the hands of Glendale (below from Caitlin’s piece today):

Art Jimenez, who is a managing partner with the Phoenix Monarch Group, started PMG Management and Entertainment, LLC, for the sole purpose of bidding to run the arena. He told the Arizona Republic on Thursday that he and local partners collaborated with experienced arena managers from around the country on the bid, although he declined details.

Jimenez said he would continue to lobby council members to consider his bid. “We were wrongfully not given the opportunity to present this,” he said.

That’s laughable, really. Just the makeup of the new LLC (which we haven’t looked at yet) may still include people with personal or business ties to two sitting Glendale Councilmembers. While that might not recuse the CMs from voting, the complete lack of experience and financial wherewithal to run a world class arena obviates PMG anyway. Get real, Art.

A quick search of AZ Corporation Commission records didn’t reveal a new company with the “PMG Management and Entertainment” name, by the way.

Greg Jamison was not at Glendale City Hall at all this week.

Objections to the structure of the RSE deal with the NHL are increasing in intensity with traditional hit piece timing.

June 13, 2013

We got the list of bidders “vetted” by Beacon for the Glendale arena management proposals. Sure, it’s a little strange that the Arizona Republic got the same information yesterday and we only received it today, but that’s okay.

We hear from a well placed city source that these four were the ONLY proposals. You can take that to the bank, considering one of the inclusions is completely unsuited for the task. The four are:

1. Phoenix Arena Development Limited Partnership
2. SMG, in collaboration with Arizona Cardinals, Rojo Event Management and Select Artists Associates
3. R Entertainment
4. Phoenix Monarch Group

I’ll run down the groups if I have time soon, assuming somebody else doesn’t do it first.

So far there’s no numbers released, and these four are not the “finalists”. If you refer to the schedule (click here), those four will be winnowed down to the “finalists” for further consideration. If Phoenix Monarch Group isn’t thrown out, an uproar will begin immediately.

One must wonder how Beacon will justify their fee if they just handed over the only four bids they received.

It’s likely the NHL will have been informed of the parameters of these deals if they’ve been released to the City Council, so now we can get down to the business of wrapping this up.

Anyone construing any of this as bad news for the Coyotes will probably have bastardized French as their primary language or like coffee a LOT.

June 12, 2013

Gary and Bill spin it up in their presser today, Coyotes stuff starts around 8:28 on the video at the bottom link. Chew up that TSN bandwidth!

http://video.tsn.ca/?dl=main/latest/1/0/945843/clip/593

June 10, 2013

Craig Morgan, click here, offers some explanation of what deadlines do and don’t mean in the Coyotes saga. Bill Daly also managed to clarify that Seattle is definitely much farther up the list than other locations, specifically Quebec City, for relocation if a deal can’t be reached in Glendale.

To sum it up, it’s a bit of a crap shoot and it doesn’t sound like the parties involved are completely sharing important information.

So the Beacon boys (pretty sure there’s no girls in their crew) should be in town with their four bids for managing the arena Glendale owns. We’re all wondering what those numbers are, aren’t we?

The AZ Rep is beginning a workup of the Open Meetings laws and how they feel the recent NHL/RSE visit to town is in violation of same. One of the people mentioned as objecting is CM Alvarez. That’s ironic because of the private meeting she has held at her house with other CMs in attendance as well as paid (by the Tohono O’odham Nation) lobbyists. Situational outrage is de rigueur for some.

Glendale Fraternal Order of Police? Not big fans of Goldwater Institute judging by the image they posted on their Facebook page this morning.

June 9, 2013

Original Six showdown! The Blackhawks are slated to take on the big bad Bruins, this is going to be great. My thinking is the B’s will beat on the Hawks stars every time they touch the puck and just throw everything they can at Craaaaaaaaawforrrrrd. Bruins in 6.

The LA Kings are out of the playoffs, so there won’t be a repeat Stanley Cup winner. If you include their legion of bandwagon fans, I don’t think I’m exaggerating in characterizing that fan base as the most obnoxious Cup winners to come along in a long time. Hopefully this lesson in karma and humility will help them adjust their attitudes the next time they get a shot at the big show. Dumping their current captain in favor of Anze Kopitar would go a long way toward helping them reform, in my humble opinion.

June 7, 2013

Craig Morgan dropped a post today about what’s going on in Glendale between the city and Renaissance regarding the Coyotes. Click here to read it.

• Glendale’s interim city manager Dick Bowers will be asking the NHL about the $20M (soon to be $25M) sitting in escrow. There’s been constant speculation about this money and why the NHL hasn’t withdrawn the money that’s rightfully theirs, so it will be good to clear that up finally.
• A mid June (ONE WEEK) deadline is mentioned at which time the NHL wants a clear direction to a resolution. The Glendale City Council could MAYBE get a vote done by June 18th if they made enough progress during next Tuesday’s meeting, which will undoubtedly be another super secret cone of silence you don’t need to know this stuff buddy executive session.
• Quebec is mentioned as a last resort for relocation, with Kansas City as a more likely landing spot for the Coyotes if Glendale and Renaissance can’t come to an agreement.

By the way, let’s get some other relocation speculation out there for troll food. One would expect if Quebec is a relocation spot that Quebecor would be the owner of the team. What if the much more likely location was Kansas City or Houston?

You could maybe expect RSE to still buy the team and do the relocation. I couldn’t hazard a guess how those finances would work if it’s true RSE needs $13M-$15M to make their numbers work unless another city has agreed to pony up those dollars.

Will Sidney and crew be swept out of the playoffs, or will they scramble to the surface for one more breath before the Bruins push their head back underwater? Tune in tonight!

“Silence Is Golden”

Canadian troll jingoistic, circular logic has been exhaustively studied for over four years now, and the results are in. We won’t bore you with the entire report compiled by a consortium of Ivy League social sciences departments. Instead, we’ve boiled it all down into a six minute video clip we hope you’ll find both entertaining and enlightening.

http://youtu.be/kQFKtI6gn9Y

Coyotes saga Twitter quote of the week, referring to (I’m pretty sure) every pearl of wisdom ever uttered publicly or privately:

June 6, 2013

As people familiar with Irish lore and beer would say:

“No news is good news”

Double overtime, right? There’s nothing better than the Stanley Cup Playoffs and, if the Kings manage to squeak past the Hawks, they will have their hands full with the equally big and hard hitting Bruins.

June 5, 2013

Sheesh, the Kings are tough at home and they don’t even need the help of a few extra seconds on the clock when they’re in trouble. They won last night for something like the 100th time in a row at home. One more and they tie the series up with the Hawks, making home ice advantage really important. Maybe.

June 4, 2013

Did you see the Bruins destroy the Penguins last night? They lit up TWO goalies. It wasn’t entirely their fault, of course, it never is. The Penguins D was distracted and the B’s took advantage of their weaknesses in the Penguins house. Now they go to Boston, looks ouchy for Sidney and crew.

So who cares? We care because the list of people likely to be chatting with Smitty’s agent now includes the Penguins for sure.

Apparently, Beacon only has four bidders for the arena management contract in Glendale. That number is significantly less than predicted by some people. Who are the bidders? I don’t know, although I’d be willing to bet Global Spectrum is one of them. AEG was rumored to be interested as well. If those two firms are bidding, I’d hate to be the other two firms because they’re outgunned. Of course if Renaissance is one of the groups, that leaves one group thrown to the wolves.

It would be like Sidney Crosby shoving Zdeno Chara WITHOUT a ref in between them, like THAT would ever happen.

Craig is dispelling the Glendale Star contention that Renaissance is one of the firms submitting bids to Glendale through Beacon. The NHL has, all along, made it clear they considered Beacon irrelevant to their process. That has been backed up more than once by Glendale Councilmember Gary Sherwood that the Beacon RFP was designed for “non-hockey” bids all along.

The Glendale Star has this text in their description of the process:

Renaissance Sports and Entertainment, the group in the process of trying to purchase the National Hockey League’s Phoenix Coyotes, is believed to be one of the four groups.

It is EXTREMELY likely the four bids in Beacon’s hands do not include one from RSE.

June 3, 2013

We’re into June and the playoffs are in full swing. The Coyotes are still out of the playoffs and without an owner or a place to play and July 1 is coming up fast. If we hear something in the next few days about Coach Tippett, we’ll all breathe a little easier.

Beacon hasn’t officially released the bids they’ve received for managing Glendale’s arena, not like they haven’t already had a one week extension and of course there’s no time pressure and naturally a delaying tactic benefits the Coyotes just as it has all along through this fiasco. Right?

Earlier delays probably cost us a deal closing last summer and nearly cost us our Captain. It’s likely a combination of uncertainty from the lockout delay and a lack of foresight by the NHL cost us a closing in January. So what’s one more?

Anybody want to bet that details of SOME bids haven’t already been passed around over at City Hall? Anyone care to bet that SOME bids weren’t adjusted once the NHL and RSE came to town and spilled their details? Bueller?

The Quebec Nordiques do not exist and some of the biggest QC supporters are protecting their Twitter accounts.

AZ Rep touting Houston and KC rather than Quebec City to some Canadian AZ Rep fans.

https://twitter.com/PaulGiblinAriz/status/340527676601270272