The Coyotes on Thursday said that they were "moving swiftly to counter Glendale's vote" this week to terminate the 15-year, $225M agreement to operate Gila River Arena, according to a front-page piece by Peter Corbett of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. Coyotes President & CEO Anthony LeBlanc on a conference call said that the team's attorneys "would be filing claims Thursday or Friday to seek a temporary restraining order and ask for injunctive relief from the court to halt the city's move to kill the deal." LeBlanc added that the Coyotes "already have lost business opportunities, including a major junior hockey tournament, and season-ticket holders and business partners are swamping the team with questions about what happens next." City officials said that they "want the team to continue playing in the arena, but they plan to send a letter to the Coyotes to officially confirm their decision." Glendale council member Bart Turner said that the city staff "will create a transition team to work out details involving the Coyotes and arena." Turner: "If the Coyotes want to be in the arena for the upcoming season, they need to get to the (negotiating) table." Corbett notes despite options in other cities, team officials said that they are "committed to staying in Glendale" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 6/12). LeBlanc called the city council's Wednesday-night vote "deplorable." He said, "I’m talking all day all night to sponsors, season ticket holders. They want to know if they can hold off on their payments.” TSN.ca's Rick Westhead noted LeBlanc on the conference call Thursday was "asked to comment on a media report" that claimed Coyotes Majority Owner & Chair Andrew Barroway "has not fulfilled his financial obligations since agreeing last October" to assume a 51% ownership stake in the team. LeBlanc: "We had a very complex arrangement when Andy purchased his 51 per cent share. Part of that was a vendor note…Andy puts tens and tens of millions of dollars in cash into the team as well as taking on his obligation of the debt" (TSN.ca, 6/11).
LINE IN THE SAND: THE HOCKEY NEWS' Adam Proteau noted NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Thursday "continued speaking out strongly" against Glendale's vote. Bettman said, "I’ve seen some speculation we should be taking over the team, and that isn’t going to happen. We’ve been in touch with the team and we’re fully supportive of all of the actions they either have or will be taking to vindicate their rights under this lease.” Bettman also "reaffirmed his support" for LeBlanc’s ownership group, IceArizona. Bettman: "What Glendale did is outrageous, irrational and cannot be condoned" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 6/11). In Phoenix, Dan Bickley writes, "No matter what you think of him, Bettman has long proven his commitment to this region." He has "reassured our stability to the point of condescension." The Coyotes are "simply not leaving Arizona, something he's told us publicly and insisted privately to key players." Bickley: "There's a lot on the line here. The NHL wants the Phoenix television market. His owners want expansion fees not relocation fees. There's also the weighty matter of legacy. ... The commissioner is a bulldog, a smack-talker, a scar-hardened executive with alligator skin. Do you really think he's going to lose this battle to Jerry Weiers?" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 6/12).
POSTPONING THE INEVITABLE? The NATIONAL POST's Scott Stinson writes that LeBlanc's "first and only reactions thus far have been to protect the deal that would keep the team in Arizona, and not immediately start calling Quebec City and Seattle, suggests that LeBlanc is aware of how the NHL wants to see this resolved" (NATIONAL POST, 6/12). THE HOCKEY NEWS' Ken Campbell wrote, "I’m absolutely flummoxed at why LeBlanc, and the NHL for that matter, seems so insistent on fighting for a hockey market that has bled millions of dollars and one now, where even the local government has made it clear it no longer wants you around." Both the NHL and LeBlanc "have fought the good fight and both can now leave the desert -- at least this part of the desert -- with a completely clear conscience." What makes the situation "such a head scratcher for many is that it seems inevitable to everyone" but LeBlanc that the Coyotes "will ultimately move out of Arizona anyway" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 6/11).
LOOKING INTO THE CRYSTAL BALL: SPORTSNET.ca's Elliotte Friedman wrote with the start of the '15-16 season less than four months away, there will "likely -- and I stress the word 'likely' -- be one more season in Glendale." There is no arena right now in Las Vegas, and while Seattle has an "older facility" in KeyArena, the NHL "won't want a stop-gap without knowledge of a long-term solution." K.C. with Sprint Center "has an arena, but not the hockey infrastructure." Bettman in a CBC interview during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final was asked about Quebec City, and he "brought up time zone inequality and how that would leave the Western Conference with four fewer teams than the East." Friedman speculated the league "would prefer to wait a year before going down this road" to a Western Conference-based team in Quebec (SPORTSNET.ca, 6/11). In Las Vegas, Alan Snel notes while the new Las Vegas arena will not open until April, MGM Resorts "could conceivably be asked to rent its MGM Grand Garden Arena to house a hockey team for the 2015-16 season as a one-season bridge to the new arena." The NHL has played preseason games there "as recently as October 2014." However, if the Coyotes were sold to William Foley, it "would be for a lot less than the $500 million expansion fee" Bettman has floated recently (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 6/12).
