Anthony Leblanc, of Ice Arizona (the group who first bought the team and then sold 51% of it a strangely silent and absent Andrew Barrowway) has been vocal in both his opposition to the actions of the Glendale City Council and his determination to keep the team in Arizona.
Two things he said were interesting to me and have convinced me the team must be moved out of Glendale.
The first was what Rick Westhead of TSN had him quoted as saying “I’m talking all day all night to sponsors, season ticket holders, they want to know if they can hold off on their payments.…
So that's pretty much terrible but 100% expected, since the Coyotes were just literally kicked out of their arena and (even though everyone seems to assume it will happen) would need a judge to rule in their favor to get them back as tenants of the arena in Glendale.
Even if a judge gets them in there and they go back and it's established they'll play their games there next season, I don't see how they can sell tickets in a town they are suing for $200 million.
Should they win their lawsuit, how can you ask the people you just sued into bankruptcy to buy tickets to your games? Even if a judge rules everything in the Coyote's favor, what is the point of playing where you aren't wanted?
The City Council doesn't want the Coyotes to leave, they want them to revamp their agreement, which isn't going to happen unless the NHL/Coyotes lose in court, which also seems unlikely.
Unless one of the parties folds - again, unlikely - I can't see how this could possibly work out well enough to keep the Coyotes in Glendale, so I don't really understand what Leblanc and company have to gain by digging in their heels.
They currently play in a city that doesn't want them, which is roughly an hour outside of downtown Phoenix, and has a population of 229,000. It's not a good situation anyways, so why not take the chance and bail? Move the team to another part of Arizona, or explore other options.
The other interesting thing Leblanc said was "Everyone talks about our out-clause, well we have an out right now, and we're going the other way."
On a certain level this does make sense: If they could leave and don't, then win their fight with Glendale, they will finally have long-term security in the market - or at least the appearance of such. The problem with that line of thinking is that it doesn't take into account the cost of doing so.
Whether or not the Council can exploit a loophole and get the deal cancelled, and whether or not the team really does win a $200 million lawsuit against the city, the fact is the Council clearly has the support of most of the citizens - the mayor won his election in April, and despite vocal protests from some fans, I think it's relatively clear that most people in Glendale don't watch or care about hockey - they care about paying a bunch of billionaires $15 million per year they don't have and can't afford.
Whether or not that's a good deal is beside the point - the optics are terrible.
So the Coyotes must move.
"Good Faith" or not, cheap move or political grandstanding - whatever you want to call it - the Coyotes shouldn't stick around like a drunk at a party who's long past his welcome.
Ideally they should go to another spot in Arizona - but if that isn't possible, there is one solution no one is talking about - Saskatoon. They have a small, but NHL ready arena, similar to the Jets, the team could stay in the Western conference and the NHL would still be able to extract a billion dollars between the clearly coming Quebec and Las Vegas expansion teams.
People think it's too small, but it would be a profitable team because they'd sell out every game and corporate sponsorship from the mining industry would also be huge. It is (roughly) halfway between Winnipeg and Calgary and there's over a million people in the province of Saskatchewan. If they can average 30,000 fans at Canadian Football League games, I think they can support an NHL team.
I'm not saying this is ideal, but more teams in Canada means more money for everyone and a better game with a larger salary cap. At a certain point, if this is the end result of twenty years of headaches, why bother?
I hope the team stays in Arizona, but this is now the hockey version of the guy you had to talk your wife into letting you invite over getting out of control - it's not only him who looks bad, it's everyone who ever stuck up for him.
For this to happen during the Stanley Cup Final is, perhaps, the greatest indignity and embarrassment the NHL has ever had. Just for the fact the Glendale City Council didn't wait until next Thursday to have their vote shows they're too small town for a major sports franchise.
It's frustrating. It's boring. It's a sideshow. (I had a sweet hockey-related blog ready to go too, but can't exactly ignore the one time the team you're blogging about is in the news, now can you?)
So whether in Saskatchewan, somewhere else in Arizona or literally anywhere else, the NHL must get out of Glendale. This is becoming an embarrassment.
It is a joke.