By George Fallar 
My dad’s been gone for years now, and I spent more father’s days at the races in Loudon than I did at home, but happy Father’s Day, Dad. I should have appreciated the job you did raising three kids more, because it isn’t easy.
Happy Father’s Day to our kids that gave me the opportunity to take a shot at a really difficult job.
Let’s cover a few Coyotes things today and try to dispel some rumors and speculation based on what I know and some educated guesses.
Tuesday Is Not D-Day
There’s information flying around like the below tweet. They’re wrong.
Oy, indeed, Stan.
Stan touts himself on his Twitter account as an “Emmy Award-winning MSG broadcaster”. Emmy awards are not given for fact checking, so I guess Stan is happy simply repeating whatever misinformation he hears without bothering to spend 30 seconds on Google. Of course, had I done the same I wouldn’t have tweeted him “Soupy Sales won an Emmy”, because Soupy never did.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Why do we care if Stan tweets wrong information about the Coyotes? Because Stan has over 18,000 followers that are being fed bogus information by a source they probably trust and it will spread until it becomes a “fact”.
The Glendale City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 18 isn’t a “voting meeting”, it is a workshop. There can be NO finalization of anything. The agenda for the meeting is published here. You’ll note there is discussion scheduled in executive session, the only piece of business being discussed publicly is City Council Rules and Procedures.
June 25 Is D-Day
Another even more common misconception being tossed around is that June 25 is the date for Glendale to vote on an arena agreement to deal with their arena. The Hockey Night In Canada Hotstove crew, always an unbiased and realistic group, fomented this last night with their latest “fact laden” rants. They are, once again, provably incorrect.
On June 11 in a public meeting streamed over the Internet with minutes here, Glendale added a special voting meeting for June 28 at 9:00 am. It shouldn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out why the council might want another shot at a voting meeting before their fiscal year deadline that happen to coincide with NHL deadlines, even a hockey guy with a bad haircut could get the gist of it. The 28th is the last business day before the agreement with the NHL runs out and the last business day before the final $5M has to be deposited into an escrow account for the NHL to deal with.
The NHL Board of Governors has a meeting between the 25th and 28th, but assuming the BoG couldn’t run a vote on Friday or later over the phone if they had to approve a Coyotes deal is silly.
Is a few days a big deal when these guys run their faces? Of course it is, because it’s simply wrong. Yet mistakes like this are simply ignored by supporters as “no big deal” while other statements about mystery buyers and Seattle are exalted as gospel.
This is also completely incorrect, but probably closer to the truth than other rumors.
Joyce Clark
Joyce Clark is my friend.
A blog entry Joyce wrote three days ago regarding the financial structure of the deal between Renaissance Sports and Entertainment (RSE) and the NHL and how it could affect the long term viability of the Coyotes in Glendale elicited a rapid and strong reaction. I’ve had the chance over the past few days to speak with a bunch of people privately about it and have made my sentiments clear to them. I debated a long time whether to follow up in my next post or not.
I believe the numbers Joyce used reflect an earlier iteration of the agreement with the NHL, I also think they’re close enough for argument’s sake. I believe the interest rates may be off. A single team won’t make a killing from an expansion fee, it would be split as revenue between all NHL teams. That said, I understand her argument and understand the history behind her conclusion based on the participants involved.
There was positive reaction from the Canadian troll brigade and a corresponding negative reaction from Coyotes fans, most of whom are fully invested in their team staying in Glendale and are well educated in most of the facts from the past four years. We should also be well educated enough in these matters to realize Joyce has always had the best interests of the people she represented in mind all along.
That hasn’t changed.
Publicly doubting her integrity or characterizing her as a traitor to “our cause” is disingenuous, hurtful, and beneath us as the family that we’ve become through the years dealing with this fiasco. We are all afflicted with free will, I submit a more charitable solution would be to use your “block” functions and simply stop reading what Joyce writes if it’s that objectionable to your sensibilities.
Respect is an earned thing. Joyce Clark has earned respect from all of us and should to be given significant credit for the fact we have a team to argue about. Part of paying that back is allowing her the freedom to express her views without being subjected to a barrage of negativity from people disagreeing with her viewpoint.
Leave the vitriol to the trolls continually sniffing our scat for signs of weakness. If you see something you disagree with, you don’t have to “just let it go”, there’s plenty of ways to have civilized discussions with the people that have been fighting the good fight for years now.
To fall back on the guy we all admire, before you tweet something or go too far down a negative social media road, ask yourself:
“Would Doaner hit the send button?”.
Off the soapbox now.
Referendum Questions
I’ve had the opportunity to make great friends (assuming some remain after my rant above) because Ken Jones and Joe Cobb objected to the Coyotes strongly enough to make a referendum attempt and a couple people on Twitter (Darrold Larson and Ronda Pearson) had a great idea that maybe Coyotes fans could actually have an impact on our team staying if we just did some real work.
Thanks, Ken and Joe, for an interesting life experience.
It was less interesting the SECOND time we had to deal with Ken and his new partner Francine Romesburg.
There has been speculation that a supermajority council vote would obviate the referendum process. No, it won’t, unless the emergency clause has been invoked. Use of the emergency technique is unlikely in this case.
There has been speculation that the RFP process Beacon totally botched would eliminate the possibility of a referendum attempt. No, it won’t. Unlike in Quebec, citizens of Glendale are afforded the opportunity to object to the actions of the people elected to run their city.
So, there’s a real possibility somebody might take another stab at a referendum. If that happens, Glendale First! is still alive and will be ready to answer if necessary.
Five Year Out Clause
The agreement between Glendale and RSE is for fifteen years and there is an “out clause” included. Take it to the bank.
There’s understandably some nervousness surrounding the deal because of the sale equity amount in sale of the team. It’s a legitimate concern.
Yet, if there was enough support for the team in Glendale to turn the team around there would be no incentive to move the team. Shouldn’t it hinge on that anyway, assuming a real effort from the team owners? Our contention, and there is strong evidence in support, has always been that a properly run Coyotes team would flourish in Glendale. Is it possible that isn’t the case? Of course.
The fact of the matter is that the Coyotes are damaged goods. Years of mismanagement and neglect have take their toll on the team as have a series of failed deals. Extracting a long term commitment from a buyer at this point is likely impossible.
Seattle Is Plan B
Duh.
This is very old news to people that bother to do some work instead of simply idly copying random “information” from questionable sources. Considering the tours of Key Arena and many other factors, I’m surprised it’s been quiet for this long.
What the recent escalation of Seattle news SHOULD make clear to all involved is that the clock is winding down rapidly. People have been sitting on information for some time now and have now been given the go ahead, we have to assume by the NHL guys, to make it public.
I have to admit it’s a little satisfying to see the light bulb of realization slowly brightening over the heads of the blue shovel tribe.
Non-Hockey Bids
Important missing information now is the contents of the two arena management bids. They will be discussed tomorrow and then presented to the City Council. They may or may not choose to release that information in the next several days, if they do we’ll get it out as soon as we get it.
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