More than two months after my last article on the messy situation in Glendale (The Phoenix Coyotes: Things Get Messier In Glendale), the future of the Phoenix Coyotes remains in limbo in the Arizonian desert. Greg Jamison, the former CEO of the San Jose Sharks who has been interested in buying the Coyotes since August 2011, has yet to officially purchase the team from the NHL despite mentioning that he is ready to sign the arena management fee (AMF) agreement with the City of Glendale to make it official.
The saga has been dragging on and on in the past 18 months without any actual development in regard to the ownership of the hockey team. Back in September 2012, prior to the NHL lockout, there were reports that Jamison had secured enough money to buy the Coyotes and satisfied the NHL’s rumored asking price of $170 million. Then two months later, at the end of November, the Glendale City Council approved a revised 20-year lease deal that would give Jamison $308 million, or approximately $15 million per year, to manage Jobing.com arena conditional on his purchase of the team from the NHL.
The problem is that two months later and only NINE DAYS BEFORE THE EXPIRY OF THE PROPOSED LEASE DEAL on January 31st, 2013, Greg Jamison has yet to buy the team and disclose his investment group and the reason why he does not want to name his investors. Heck, Jamison did not even bother to attend the Coyotes’ home opener on Sunday, game which they lost 6-4 against the Chicago Blackhawks. Still, before Jamison can formally sign the lease with Glendale, he must officially buy the team from the NHL, which he has not done yet.
The good news is that the home opener drew a nice crowd of 17,132 hockey fans, a vast majority of them being Blackhawks fans. The real test will be Wednesday night when the Coyotes host the lowly and Nash-less Columbus Blue Jackets at the Job. The crowd will be a good indicator of what to expect for the rest of the season in Phoenix for week-night games. Tickets for this game are still widely available and you can attend this game for a ridiculous $4.00 or you can watch the game on the low concourse for $16.00 if your budget is bigger.
Even if Greg Jamison manages to purchase the team in the upcoming days/weeks/months, it will be hard for his management group to ever turn a profit in Glendale with such low after-market ticket prices. As for tickets sold at the team’s box office, the club ranks 29th among NHL teams regarding the average ticket price at $36.15 only in ahead of the Dallas Stars. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Winnipeg Jets lead the league with an average of $123.77 and $98.27 respectively.
What is even more puzzling is that the AMF paid to Greg Jamison is not even on the City Council Meeting’s agenda planned later Tuesday in Glendale, which proves that the newly-elected Mayor Jerry Weiers does not intend to address the situation before the lease expires on January 31st, 2013. What will happen next is still blurry as no one really knows what is going to happen to the NHL-owned team after the shortened NHL season.
Probable scenarios for the Coyotes:
1) Current lease offering expires and the Coyotes are relocated at the end of the season.
2) Greg Jamison finally closes the deal after purchasing the team from the NHL.
3) Glendale’s City Council amends the current AMF and extends it to a later date, allowing Jamison to “gather the required funds”.
4) The NHL, Greg Jamison and Glendale keep quiet and we don’t have any updates on the situation until the end of the season while the league is paying the players and the staff month by month.
Finally, with the ongoing construction of a new arena in Quebec City and the sale of the Sacramento Kings of the NBA to a Seattle-based group led by Chris Hansen, the NHL now has at least two short-term options if it were to relocate the struggling franchise.
Things will certainly be interested in the desert in the next two weeks!
So I write so much crap Coyotes fans… instead of complaining about what I write, you should go to home games. A mere 8,355 fans showed up for the #Coyotes’ 5-1 win yesterday.
OK, so write crap if you feel our attendance justifies it. Keep telling yourself whatever you want if it makes you feel better about lying.
A late start Wednesday game against Columbus is not exactly a big draw anywhere. Once Jamison buys the team and people like you stop writing about the imminent demise of the Coyotes, the fans will come. Our population dwarfs most NHL cities and a large portion of that are hockey fans who have relocated from other cities. Attendance will be near capacity on Saturday against the Kings.
Richard Nickerson Excuses, excuses.
Not to mention, most of the fans are getting Tix for practically free. I think I read they have a ticket deal which includes four tix, four drinks, fours hot dogs and parking for $99! Those attendance numbers are skewed because of this….
Practically free and a $100 aren’t the same. Looks like you’re in denial
you sincerely believe Jamison will buy the team?
Don’t really know at this point. There is a chance. I’ve been hearing for 4 years that the Coyotes are going away and I just keep going to the games and enjoying awesome NHL Hockey. You however just continue to whine and lie because you don’t have an NHL team to go see. Keep the lies comin’ . . .
If you want to comment with the absolute crap you write, then fine. However who the hell “hired” you to write this? Any professional journalist would be fired on the spot for the false facts you have all throughout this article. You say “go support the team” then go write something like this to turn people away….. The team is already battling and has no owner, and idiotic articles like this make it worse. How you chant for thousands of jobs to be lost is beyond immoral. “Most of the fans were Blackhawks fans” Someone obviously didn’t attend the game, and before you cry about it, I WAS THERE. Quit the BS.
thats a pile of crap and you know it, Little Winnipeg gets 15,000 for every game weeknight or not.
John Alexander the only mistakes are Hawks fans totals and the stub hub issue. Everything else is bang on, If you want misinformation, read Dave Zorn’s rebuttal.Here is just one example; Zorn said Poulin claimed GJ has to release investors names..nowhere dd he say that. Pure homer garbage mean to make you guys feel better, but really just b.s.
The “author” of this “article” must have been under the influence of wearing blinders. What a bunch of lies and garbage.
Right on George, I was at the game and the showing from Coyote fans was impressive. They will raise ticket prices once the ownership is stabilized. It has taken years to just begin to repair the damage done by Moyes & Co.
For the record.. I was at the game and it was about 80% coyotes fans.. Were you there?
How is this guy a writer? 3/4 of this crap isn’t even accurate.
the only things that are not accurate is the Chicago fan totals and the stubhub resale issue..other then that, it is all fact based opinion. GJ wasn’t there opening night, and GJ has not bought the team and has chosen not to reveal his investors. He doesn’t have to, but the new mayor is obviously and reasonably apprehensive over this fact. Zorns rebuttal is full of holes as well, such as Poulin not mentioning other revenue streams. All the other teams mentioned have the same streams and still have much higher ticket prices. It is fair to say to survive the Coyotes have to raise prices a whole lot.
$4 tickets? $16 lower level tickets? Not hardly. Nowhere near the “majority” were Hawks fans. Yes they had a pretty good showing, but maybe 10%. 15% at the absolute max, but I doubt it. So I’m taking it Fred didn’t obtain an actual journalism degree that requires ethics and honest reporting. Probably got his degree online.
Fabrications come cheap, but are expected from Freddy. One must wonder, for example, where he procured his “information” about the home opener where “a vast majority of them being Blackhawks fans”.
As Fred knows, I assume, there are other significant errors in his diatribe. But, we expect that from Freddy, don’t we?
Fred Poulin is indicative of the lackluster quality of THW. No fact checking, lazily tossed out opinion pieces that border on barely comprehensible. There’s better hockey analysis at Bleacher Report (and maybe an editor too).