Coyotes President & CEO Anthony LeBlanc said that the city of Glendale will receive a 17% increase "in the revenue it receives" from the team and Gila River Arena operations this year, according to Chris Johnston of SPORTSNET.ca. LeBlanc said that when the arena-management agreement was signed with Glendale in '13, the "goal was to eventually return" approximately $9M to the city annually. He added that a "more lucrative naming-rights deal has helped the Coyotes take a step in the right direction." He said, "Last year we came in somewhere between $6- and $7-(million), this year it’s going to be between $7- and $8-(million)." Meanwhile, LeBlanc "strongly disputes recent reports that the team may have violated its management agreement." He said Majority Owner & Chair Andrew Barroway will meet Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers this week "just so everyone knows that everything's good." Johnston noted there is "constant speculation the money-losing Coyotes will eventually be relocated, especially since ownership holds an out clause in its deal with the city" for '18. But LeBlanc "continues to believe it can work in Glendale and intends to prove the doubters wrong." His stated goal is "seeing the team break even by his third year of ownership" -- the upcoming '15-16 season. He added that a "significant increase in corporate sponsorships and the improved arena naming rights deal have helped stem some of the losses." LeBlanc: "Our view of the operating losses, when you subtract those two items, our losses for the first year were sub $20-million. ... Those are substantially less than the losses we reported in Year 1" (SPORTSNET.ca, 6/2).
