A sale of the Phoenix Coyotes is expected to be announced tonight, as NHL officials, a potential new owner and Glendale reps work out a purchase and new lease at Jobing.com Arena.
Greg Jamison, the former CEO of the San Jose Sharks, is identified as leading a potential new ownership group for the troubled franchise, which has been owned by the NHL for the last three years. A proposed sale to Matthew Hulsizer fell throiugh, forcing the league to find another buyer.
The issue, should a sale be announced, will be whether the lease — which reportedly includes a $20 million annual payment from Glendale to the team for arena management — passes muster from the Goldwater Institute, the conservative watchdog group based in Arizona. The group opposed the original sale to Hulsizer because Glendale proposed paying him $19.7 million annually to run the arena, a subsidy the group called a direct gift to an individual banned under the state constitution. We’ll need to see whether the new sale contains the same sort of provision and whether it will be challenged in court.
RELATED STORIES: Bettman: No guarantee Coyotes will stay in Phoenix; Glendale to spend $25M on Coyotes in ’11-’12 — and maybe for next decade;Glendale ready to commit $25M to keep Coyotes in town for next season; Goldwater Institute: We still oppose Coyotes lease; Is Hulsizer’s Coyotes deal collapsing?; Glendale approves Coyotes lease;Could lawsuit sink Glendale arena deal?; Glendale proposal: pay Hulsizer $197M to run $170M team
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