Yesterday came and went without the purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes to proposed buyer Greg Jamison. The news of such a possibly was made public when ESPN’s Scott Burnside reported Thursday that Jamison didn’t have the proper funding in place.
While this news is a dagger to the hearts of many Coyotes fans, its only the latest and for many, non phasing twist in the Coyotes’ ownership saga. Having gone further than any prospective buyer had gone before, Greg Jamison breathed fresh air for the hopefully fan base. A fan base that for the last three years fans have seen buyers come and go, while witnessing the purchases of the St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, Dallas Stars and the Buffalo Sabers. But for fans, Mr. Jamison felt different.
Greg Jamison Comes to Town
Seeing what he had done with the market in San Jose, Greg Jamison seemed god sent for desperate hockey fans in Arizona. Often keeping quiet and passing on chances to talk to the media, the reports began trickling in dating back to July 2011 that listed
Jamison as an interested party. It was only in April of 2012 that the former San Jose Sharks CEO made his first public announcement of his intent to purchase the struggling Phoenix team.
Finding roadblock after roadblock, Jamison would finally catch a break and get an arena lease agreement passed in November of last year, setting in motion his final moves to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes. A month later in December, Jamison’s company, Hockey Partners, LLC would sign the lease agreement with Glendale. The lease agreement would go into effect the moment Jamison’s purchase was passed by the NHL Board of Governors and the NHL received their money. Only that moment never came.
What Lies Ahead
While the NHL stated they will continue their efforts along side Jamison to complete the transaction as did Jamison in his statement to the media Thursday evening, new Glendale mayor Jerry Weiers told the Arizona
Republic that two new groups had popped up and began inquiring about the team. Weiers would go on to stay that while the 31st was the deadline for the previous lease agreement, he would work with Jamison to get another agreement on the table that he felt was better suited for Glendale.
Tired and frustrated, the Phoenix Coyotes and their fans will continue on this season with a cloud of uncertainty hanging over their heads. Something fans from Quebec and other parts of Canada have taken a keen to. The news of the deadline’s passing lit up twitter and other social sites with fans from up north happy to hear the upsetting news. While its no doubt places like Seattle and Quebec are markets ready to be tapped or re-tapped, nothing but scepulation has come out about the possibly of either of the two locations getting a
franchise.
Based out of Arizona, Ed Chavez joined The Hockey Writers to cover the Phoenix Coyotes before moving onto THW’s sister site, Sunbelt Hockey Journal where he covers hockey happenings in the desert. Follow Ed on twitter, @edmchvz
