During Wednesday night’s game four of the Stanley Cup Final this Columbus Blue Jackets fan’s attentions were split. On one screen was game four of what has been a really entertaining series and on the other was the Glendale Arizona city council meeting.
No fan base should ever have to go through this.
For those of you who are not in the know; two years ago a lease agreement was reached between IceArizona, the group that owns the Coyotes, and the city of Glendale. The lease took the form of an arena management contract that gave the team $15 million a season for management and arena upkeep. The deal also had an out clause that would allow the Coyotes to move if the team lost $50 million over five seasons. Tuesday night the bombshell dropped that the city would vote on whether to essentially void the contract (I’m not a lawyer so forgive me if some of the finer legal points aren’t made perfectly).
I’ll let part of Elliot Friedman’s piece from Sportsnet.ca go over the statue:
"According to several reports, council is trying to void the deal on an Arizona statute indicating it “may, within three years after its execution, cancel any contract, without penalty or further obligation … if any person significantly involved in initiating, negotiating, securing, drafting or creating the contract … is, at any time while the contract or any extension of the contract is in effect, an employee or agent of any other party to the contract in any capacity … with respect to the subject matter of the contract.”"
The city thinks they can do this as a lawyer who worked for the city as general council at the beginning of the negotiation process was later hired by the Arizona Coyotes as reported by the Arizona Republic. The law is meant to save cities from conflict of interest situations of which this looks like one of them. Now on to what I want to say.
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To all fans of the Arizona Coyotes, I am so sorry. No fan base should ever have to go through this. I am not naive enough to think that teams will never move, but no fan base should have to go through this on again off again situation where you never know if you can really invest in your team. The buzzards of hockey will swoop in and will count down the days til they think your team will leave and all you can do is wait.
Not to make lite of the situation but this puts me in mind of the families of people who are on death row (I don’t mean to offend anyone by the comparison but I think it’s apt). For those folks life becomes an endless wait for something terrible; an endless series of appeals that results in constant dread with no closure.
So as a Columbus Blue Jackets fan to fans of the Arizona Coyotes I say this: I’m sorry and I hope that this is over soon. Either you keep the team or they leave and you can invest your time, money, heart, and soul into a team that will be there for you, your friends, and your family to enjoy for years and generations to come.
Good luck.