Fire That Cannon Takes Aim At The Phoenix Coyotes Part 2
By Jack Briggs
Continuing in getting to know our friends in Columbus, here is part 2 in our talk with Fire That Cannon, a fan site for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
"Q- Is there an undercurrent as to what is really going to happen, or does it depend on who actually has the money to buy the Coyotes?"
The feeling is that the Coyotes belong here. Winnipeg got a team to replace the one who left, and there are hockey fans here. We need an owner. When Matthew Hulsizer (Chicago businessman and owner of Peak 6 investments who tried to buy them in 2011) was courting the City of Glendale, we thought we had our guy. Hockey fan, great businessman, plenty of money. We of course thought the same with Ice Edge when they were the belle of the ball in 2010.
Now we have a true hockey guy in Greg Jamison. They man who turned around the San Jose Sharks and made the HP Pavilion profitable. The guy who can do it here if he gets the team. We know from many reports he has the money, it is getting a lease arrangement with the City of Glendale.
They Coyotes have never had an owner who is a hockey guy. They’ve had businessmen who owned it for the glory and for what it afforded them i.e. getting the City of Glendale to build you an arena on land you bought to erect Westgate Plaza. And until General Manager Don Maloney, we didn’t have a General Manager who decided to build the team from the draft as a primary method with supplementation from the free agent market. They used to sign aged stars past their prime as a way to sell immediate tickets but were soon shipped out of town when the Coyotes were out of the playoffs at the trade deadline.
"Q- This is kinda weird, but it is acknowledged that the city of Glendale is subsidizing the Coyotes. Since Glendale spends the money, but the name is Phoenix on the team, is there a thought that it should be the Glendale Coyotes."
Greg Jamison has made some noise (never publicly, but through surrogates) that he wants to change the name to the Arizona Coyotes. Similar to the Arizona Cardinals. Glendale, like most municipalities, are nearly insolvent. Glendale tried to build itself up through sports and entertainment. They overextended in building a spring training facility for the Chicago White Sox and LA Dodgers. They, the City of Glendale, built it. They didn’t convince the baseball teams to build their stadiums via tax incentives and promoting our great weather. They built the stadiums. The good owners of NHL teams have been subsidizing the Coyotes the last three years. Prior to that, the owners of the team would write off the losses and pump their own cash into the team to keep it viable. Mr. Jamison has a lease arrangement in principle with the City of Glendale to take over payments of Jobing.com arena (where Coyotes play) and manage it for concerts and events for about 200 million dollars over the next twenty-four years. Arizona State University MBA professors ran the numbers and found it was better and cheaper for Glendale to pay Mr. Jamison to take the arena and keep the Coyotes here vs. paying on it with no Coyotes to draw in spectators who will buy food and drink at Westgate and the arena.