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Coyotes & NHL Agree on Ongoing Operations
by Alanah McGinley on 05/25/09 at 03:07 PM ET
Comments (9)
From David Shoalts at the Globe & Mail:
The NHL and Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes have essentially agreed on how the team will be operated on a day-to-day basis as a result of court-ordered mediation.
Both sides will be able to tell U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Redfield T. Baum at a hearing on Wednesday that the once-contentious issue of who controls the team has been resolved. It is expected that the league will continue to finance the team’s operation until a buyer is found.
There is one source of conflict remaining – the timeline of the bankruptcy petition, sale of the team and its possible relocation. The Moyes camp wants it done quickly so that the winning bidder, be it Jim Balsillie and his $212.5-million (all currency U.S.) offer or anyone else, can move the team by the start of the season this fall and avoid another year of $40-million-plus losses in Phoenix. The NHL remains adamant that is much too soon for a move for various reasons, including their procedures for allowing a franchise to move and logistical problems with the schedule.
Update 9:03pm ET: On a related note from TSN—
Jim Balsillie has formally asked other NHL owners to let him into the club.
The Canadian billionaire filed an application with the league’s board of governors seeking a transfer of the Phoenix Coyotes ownership interest, one of his representatives confirmed Monday.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Phoenix Coyotes, NHL Talk, NHL Business of Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: jerry+moyes,
Comments
You also have to wonder how the independence of the team will be viewed if new ownership takes weeks or months to arrive. If they landed Bouwmeester, or some massive new sponsor, would the others cry foul? If they cut payroll to the floor, would they be hypocrites for declaring that those same choices were what landed the team in trouble in the first lace? Or if they spent to the cap, would the other owners complain that it was wrong for them to use League monies to do so? It’s quite a muddled soup.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 05/25/09 at 06:43 PM ET
If you ask me (and yeah, no one did!) I’m actually on the NHL’s side in this one. Selling a team, watching it move to a new location, getting it fully in operation and then scheduling it—all in roughly 90 days—is a tall order. If anything (anything at all) goes wrong, the NHL is the organization that looks incompetent. I think it’s understandable that they want to have a bit more time budgeted for such a drastic change within the league.
I expect that the NHL might have other motives for the delays (i.e. their dislike of Balsillie, etc) but I don’t blame them for wanting a reasonable time frame for getting this done. If Moyes wanted to avoid this tight time-crunch and save himself that so-called $40 million loss, he should have pursued this direction a few months earlier. Bankruptcy may be a distressful thing, but it’s not a hard thing to see coming.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 05/25/09 at 07:39 PM ET
SENSHobo, just look at the last years of the Montreal Expos through the current Washington Nationals (still reeling from the effects of the syndicate ownership) to see how bad it could get. Then again, we might see the Coyotes part-time in San Juan.
Posted by Stevis on 05/25/09 at 08:09 PM ET
No fan base=Fail. Simple. Move the team to a city that actually wants hockey. The Coyotes couldn’t even get the team to attend a save the team rally let alone their coach, Wayne Gretzky.
Phoenix is a transient city. Many residents are part timers. Snowbirds, and they are older retired types.Many residents are seniors that have moved to a place in the sun.
Not exactly your typical hockey fan.
Lets Go Red Wings!!!!!
Posted by Kate from Pa.-made in Detroit on 05/25/09 at 08:17 PM ET
If you ask me (and yeah, no one did!) I’m actually on the NHL’s side in this one. Selling a team, watching it move to a new location, getting it fully in operation and then scheduling it—all in roughly 90 days—is a tall order. If anything (anything at all) goes wrong, the NHL is the organization that looks incompetent.
That ship’s pretty much already sailed, Alannah.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 05/25/09 at 08:24 PM ET
Let’s see if I understand this. A governing body creates a situation where an entity that it governs fails and it jumps in and bails it out by giving it money that non-failing entities have produced. Gosh, it’s a good thing the government doesn’t do things like that or we would be the ones bailing out those failed entities. Oh, wait…never mind.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 05/25/09 at 10:40 PM ET
There’s no doubt that Phoenix will be playing this upcoming season in Phoenix but it’s going to be up to the NHL to figure out a way to renegotiate that lease with Glendale so they can pawn it off on the sucker of their choice.
It’s fascinating that this season on the way could turn into a lame duck season in Phoenix and I would really be interested to see what the financial losses would be if that were to occur.
Posted by HockeyJoe from Upstate New York on 05/25/09 at 10:48 PM ET
didn’t balsille say that he would wait for a year if the nhl felt it needed time to move teh franchise? im 99 percent sure he said something to the tune of that before.
Posted by Luongo-is-my-hero on 05/26/09 at 02:08 AM ET
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I don’t know that there can be logistical problems with a schedule that hasn’t been created yet.
In addition, it’s bad business for the NHL to be funding a team’s operations, then telling the rest of the league that the salary cap will be going down $2.5 million per team (as reported). Why should teams have less money to spend on players while the NHL props up a failing franchise?
Admit the Phoenix Phail and let them move on.
Posted by Ed M. from Baltimore on 05/25/09 at 05:41 PM ET