City of Glendale gives Coyotes greatest stimulus package ever

While the banks and mortgage companies are foreclosing on many of the residents in the Valley of the Sun, the City of Glendale is feeling a bit more generous with its tenants.

Glendale and it’s Mayor Elaine Scruggs –look Cardinals, we spelled it right– are generous to the tune of $4 million dollars. The lucky group not having to pay their rent? The Phoenix Coyotes.

The city apparently has let the Coyotes play for virtually nothing for the last seven months while the team searches for new investors to help keep the franchise afloat.

We’ve all heard of public funding for arenas and stadiums and the uproar it causes (see…well every arena/stadium in the Valley), but an arena built with taxpayer money giving free rent to its professional sports tenant?

Oh, did we mention that the City of Glendale not only neglected to inform its citizens, but also forgot to mention it to the City Council members?

This seems like a situation that could get ugly and fast seeing as the city is facing a large deficit of it’s own. Part of which is caused by lower than expected revenue that the arena is generating. The Coyotes pay a $2.85 parking fee per ticket sold to the city and revenue from the fee was projected to be $17.8 million. Just like on the ice, the Coyotes have fallen short of their goals, only earning the city roughly $7.8 million in parking.

Makes one wonder who will be sent out of town faster, the Glendale politicians responsible for this or the Phoenix Coyotes franchise.

Glendale bailing out Coyotes [AzCentral.com]

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