The Phoenix Coyotes drama never ends

Here is a recap on the NHL soap opera that has been taking place in Phoenix:

• It started back in December 2008, when the media became aware that the Phoenix Coyotes were losing money huge sums of money and were being directly funded by the NHL. As we now know, secretly the NHL had taken over operations of the Coyotes.
• In May 2009, the Coyotes owner, Jerry Moyes, put the team into bankruptcy literally hours before Gary Bettman was to present a potential offer to purchase the team. Moyes intended to sell the team to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie who intended to purchase the team out of bankruptcy and move it to Hamilton.
• From May until September 2009, hearings were held in Phoenix bankruptcy court to determine the fate of the Coyotes. Two potential bidders for the team surfaced, Jerry Reinsdorf and Ice Edge Holdings (who did not put in a bid for the team at the bankruptcy hearing). Ultimately the NHL put in the only rival bid to Balsillie for the team, while they fought Moyes' plan to sell the team and move it to Hamilton against the NHL rules. The Phoenix court finally ruled that the team could not be sold to Balsillie, as the judge held that bankruptcy could not be used to subvert the league's rules.
• The NHL's bid was also insufficient for the bankruptcy judge, but Moyes and the NHL settled with the NHL buying the team and assuming all debts.  The NHL then proceeded to work with the two potential bidders of Reinsdorf and Ice Edge to work out a deal with Glendale.

Since that time the NHL has been spinning wheels in an attempt to sell the team. At one point Ice Edge signed a letter of intent to buy the team from the NHL but  they were rejected by the City of Glendale. Meanwhile Reinsdorf had won the approval of Glendale.  Now Ice Edge is back in the picture.

You may be asking yourself, what was so bad about the Jim Balsillie offer?  Well for one thing the NHL owners didn't want Balsillie as a owner because he refuses to play by the rules.Sports leagues do not like rogue owners.  The second problem was that the NHL does not want a second team in the GTA.  There may be a secret agreement with the Maple Leafs in the works here because almost everyone agrees that a second GTA team would be a success.

Most people feel that these deals keep failing because no one really wants to own a hockey team in Phoenix or the asking price is too high.  However, it seems the real obstacle is the horrible lease that exists with Glendale to play in Jobing.com Arena.  Back in 2001, the Coyotes owner was developer Steve Ellman who agreed to a 30-year lease only because he needed Glendale to fund the arena which was part of the much larger Westgate City Center development that Ellman owned and developed.  Westgate was built around Jobing.com Arena, which is its primary attraction. However, once the arena was completed, he unloaded the team (and arena lease) to Jerry Moyes.

There is only one solution to the Phoenix Coyotes problem - break the lease and move the team.  It may take some time but it will eventually happen.