Coyotes Owner Moyes Criticizes Reinsdorf's $148M Bid For Team

Moyes Questions Viability Of Reinsdorf's Bid For Coyotes

Coyotes Owner Jerry Moyes said that White Sox and Bulls Chair Jerry Reinsdorf's $148M bid for the team "appears to be a no-cash bid that would assume" $118.5M in "secured debt but would fail to pay creditors," according to Rebekah Sanders of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. Moyes "prefers a deal he helped cobble together from" RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie for $212.5M. Moyes "points out that the new Reinsdorf bid requires renegotiation of contracts with Glendale and the other vendors, an arm-twisting approach Moyes was unable to accomplish before turning to bankruptcy." Moyes in a statement said, "Simply put, the Reinsdorf bid wants to only assume the team's debt and then restructure all agreements, which is what I have been trying to do for the last year." Moyes "questioned why Glendale would make concessions for another owner but not him." Glendale officials "maintain they would tell a new owner what they told Moyes: The city can raise ticket charges to help the team make money, for example, but will not lower the city's revenue-generating fees" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 6/30).

LIGHTNING STRIKES: SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Kaplan & Mickle cite sources as saying that Lightning co-Owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie have hired L.A.-based investment bank Park Lane to "potentially find a third general partner" for the franchise, as the team "struggles with management division and financial losses." Park Lane is "exploring several options, including bringing in limited partners, securing a third general partner, or even finding a replacement for one of the current partners" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/29 issue). In St. Petersburg, Damian Cristodero wrote of Koules and Barrie, "Is the front office big enough for both of them?" Former Lightning GM and coach Jacques Demers: "At some point, if they don't see eye to eye and there's too many differences, you'll have to have only one owner. You can't have two egos, and you have two egos here" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 6/28).