In the end, it looks like we’ll have been right all along.
As we reported here yesterday, the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes to Chicago-based billionaire — and close personal friend of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman — Jerry Reinsdorf, is off the table. Reinsdorf’s people obviously checked the books and came to the stark realization that a hockey club located in the Arizona desert could not be financially successful under any circumstances.
As well, we reported that Ice Edge Holdings, a group of businessmen who were heavily leveraged, had been approached by the NHL and asked if they would return to the table. Glendale City Council, the folks in charge of jobing.com Arena, told the Arizona Republic (newspaper) that it expected a new lease proposal from Ice Edge as early as today.
As we told the audience on Marty Gold’s Great Canadian Talk Show on 92.9 KICK-FM last week, the NHL needs an answer by June 1 or it’s likely the league will turn to David Thomson and Mark Chipman, co-owners of True North Sports and Entertainment here in Winnipeg, in hopes that they will purchase the team and move it to MTS Centre.
Sources at True North have told www.rivercitysportsblog.com that the NHL has a purchase agreement with True North if Ice Edge can’t purchase the team and guarantee that it will remain in Phoenix for at least the next 24 years (the current length of the lease). Reinsdorf wanted the right to move the team at any time if it became apparent that the team could never turn a profit on operations.
So here’s the situation today:
1) The NHL still owns the team, having purchased it out of bankpruptcy from previous owner Jerry Moyes who lost more than $300 million in six years of ownership.
2) The franchise, which has never turned a profit since moving from Winnipeg in 1996, is expected to lose as much as $30 million on 2009-2010 operations.
3) The league wants to sell the team for $140 million, although Reinsdorf was only going to pay $103 million.
4) Ice Edge Holdings has first right of refusal.
5) True North is now second in line.
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