Contemptable behavior appears to be contagious whenever Richard Rodier is anywhere in the vicinity. Reading through the Daly deposition has caused me to speculate further on our de-facto owner Jerry Moyes’ behavior lately. It seems like he’s being manipulated like an ugly puppet (and a pretty dumb one at that). Why else is Moyes risking financial and legal censure from the court by attempting to devalue his own team and breaking confidentiality agreements? At this point in time I don’t have a whole lot of faith in his business acumen so I can only assume he is being given counsel from an outside source. Given the current data, that would suggest Rodier as the most likely ‘voice from the left shoulder’. Playing with fire seems to be JM’s latest hobby, if he’s not very careful in the coming weeks this tendency could leave him seriously burned, taking a substantial fall and holding a bag of epic porportions.
10 ton elephants will be running through the Glendale streets. By not vacating the mobile asset auction date, BK court has finally pulled the rug back and revealed that there are (2) 10 ton elephants under there. Before the September 10th auction both will be parading through the streets trumpeting their values. In order to move forward with an auction to sell a movable Coyotes team, Judge Baum will have to fix a dollar amount to the relocation fee and to the City of G’s claim of harm. It is illegal in the US to charge territorial rights/indemnification fees as far as I know but BUF and TOR are going to have to be compensated if another team is brought into their NHL approved radius’. (see ANA deal for the workaround to this issue) Traditionally the Relocation fees have not been horribly high. There is precendence for a formula to determine these fees. (see NFL case with the Raiders) NEW location value minus OLD location value = relocation fee seems to be the standard formula. Which brings us to:
Elephant #1 - Because PSE would be taking a location that is the NHL’s territory but will be returning a territory this makes absolute sense. But it also means that the relo fee will also be quite high. Even by PSE’s own accounting Hamilton is far more valuable/profitable than PHO. In Susan Freeman’s own words PHO is a loser that isn’t worth a dime and Hamilton is King Solomon’s mine waiting to happen. So $400-600M minus 10cents = a big ol’ relo fee no matter which way you slice it. *according to the N.H.L. bylaws, in Section 36, Article 6, which discusses reasonable and appropriate conditions the league can impose, there is a “transfer fee” that reflects the “good will” developed by the league in the new location and an “indemnification fee” to compensate for the “good will” developed by neighboring teams.*
Elephant #2 - The Judge has said… the City of G will be harmed, irreparably and incomparably by moving the team. Any bidder for the mobile asset will have to ‘cure’ that harm… they will have to pony up a fee to mitigate the affect of the loss of the team in Glendale. Will it be the whole 700M penalty? I dont think so but I am also thinking that number is going to have to be quite high to even begin to mitigate the losses (there is still over 125M owed on the bond that paid for the arena to be built) and then one must consider how hard it will be to find a tenant to replace the Coyotes (even the Judge acknowledged that this isn’t like replacing the anchor store in a mall). Some folks think that the City will be paid its ‘cure’ money out of the general pot, leaving nothing for any unsecured creditors. I have no proof but I think the cure money would be in excess of the bid… we may unfortunately get the answer to that if a mobile bidder wins.
We don’t want to play with you! Despite all the rhetoric bounding gleefully around the net these days, it would seem to me that the unanamous rejection of Balsillie by the NHL’s BoG should carry substantial weight. Early on in these proceedings, the Judge admonished PSE for only wanting to apply the NHL rules when it suited them, I wonder how much those rules will play in the coming weeks hearings? (Will the Judge ‘ practice what he preached’ or not?)
Speaking of rules, IF Judge Baum decides not to allow the NHL’s rules and by-laws to preclude Jim Balsllie, the can of worms becomes a dire reality instead of a blog column title. The NHL will definitely tie this case up in court for eons to come. The full weight of the MLB and NBA will fall heavily as well. There will be injunctions and the like out the wazoo. So don’t count on the Coyotes going anywhere soon, especially the 2009 season but maybe well beyond that. IF Balsillie is allowed to pack up the Coyotes (after being denied ownership status) (without the league’s consent to the relocation) then all major league sports franchises can cite the Phoenix case as precedence and begin playing musical cities at will. Does anyone actually see these sports moguls allowing that to happen? I understand that BK is a whole nother animal in and of itself but precedence set is precedence available to use in other contexts. If you think you are tired of this saga now… talk to me again in 2012.
When all is said and done, nothing has changed really. Local and mobile bids will be taken on September 10th and the Judge will decide best bidder by the end of day on the 11th. Now its just a matter of which local bidder can prove his offer best (not simply most) and knock Balsillie, well… silly. At the end of the day, a bid that does no harm and gets people paid (even if its not up front in one chunk) has got to win right?
Don’t lose hope faithful, we still have two slightly tarnished white knights left in the game. Get ready to rumble! GAME ON ARIZONA! Bring it!
There was only 1 motion filed to be taken under consideration by Judge Baum. The date of the proposed local bidder’s auction. 2 hours later we still basically didn’t have an answer (the Senate should hire that NHL guy to fillibuster!) Both the NHL and the City asked the judge for extra time so that Glendale Hockey and Ice Edge Holdings could finish their negotiations with the creditors and the City of G. There were a few noises made by Moyes group but no real objections to the postponement. (well Moyes attorneys had no objections as long as the second auction was still held… apparently they want the local and the mobile auctions dual tracked)
The issue of dual tracking the auctions was not received well. Well, except by the Moyes and PSE teams who seem to think that it gives Balsillie an edge. Glendale Hockey was not pleased (they do not want to keep going through all of this crap and then still be compared to a mobile bidder) who can blame them… this would be apples to oranges at best. I understood the local bid policy to be (if you won the approval of the NHL and the court and you fufilled the promises *money or restructured debts* then you own the team) unless the debtor has some heavy duty objection that changes the judge’s mind. But right now both the local and mobile auctions are scheduled for Sept 10th… the Judge said he needed a little more time to decide on this issue and may render a decision on Wednesday.
The highlight points between all the rhetoric:
The NHL wants the relocation part of the sale to be suspended indefinitely, so does the City of G and Glendale Hockey definitely does since it would erase the spector of that local vs mobile bid comparison thing. The NHL and the City of G think that the relocation option is the reason Moyes and Co keep trying to sabatoge the local bidders.
The City of G went to war about the confidential information that was leaked by Jerry Moyes. The City of G says it has caused immeasurable harm and may cause them to lose their best bidder, Glendale Hockey, LLC) The City of G filed a motion to hold Moyes in contempt of court for violating the confidentiality orders in this case. (this will be continued on Wednesday at 9AM)
PSE went back on the attack about getting information before the mobile/ relocation sale - they want the relocation application approved and they want the relocation fee decided. Bad news is, they haven’t even filed a motion for this stuff, yet they expect the Judge to rule on it…. haven’t they been listening to the court all this time? Judge Baum doesn’t rule from the bench and he doesn’t rule on stuff that isn’t filed.
The NHL stated that Balsillie has been rejected as an owner because of his character and that they are not going to process the relo application because there is no bidder since Balsillie cannot own a team. That is also a big part of why they want the mobile/relo auction date completely vacated. The other really sweet thing is that the NHL also said that the Coyotes are NOT moving for the 09-10 season. period, point blank and as simple as that.
The attorney for Ice Edge Holdings, LLC was there. He thanked the Judge for the extention, promised to do everything in their power to get their bid done by the 10th and then he got the heck out of the crossfire.
Wednesday is gonna be momentous I hope. Moyes is up for contempt ( The Judge has summoned the Moyes and one of their law firms to address why they should not be held in contempt), at the very least there should be a punishment (hopefully something like removing Moyes from the sale process until a final bid(s) has been presented to the court) and some type of financial repercussion (it would serve them right to have to pay out some of his coveted cash). Either way, I look forward to the explanation for this.
Now we have to wait until September 10th for the auction. Hopefully Ice Edge Holding will have their poop in a group and give Glendale Hockey a run for their money (if only to dispell all the rumors of collusion. But also to give us some innovative ideas about running a hockey team) The traditional *gov’t and taxes* support business models are under assault, it may take ownership like IEH in the future.
We’re all invested heart, soul and dreams in the Coyotes. They are Arizona’s team. We need to continue to do everything we can to keep them and we just got another 30 days to work with! I know many of you are thinking that you don’t want to support a lame duck team, don’t want to give your money to Balsillie or Moyes. But remember, the 09-10 season is ours, every dime from ticket sales and merchandise sales goes to pay for this season not into anyone’s pocket. Your money pays the boys salaries and the staff and the concessions. But its your support that can help keep our team right here in Arizona. If you buy tickets, get your friends, families and coworkers into the arena (its bodies that go through the scanners, not tickets sold or given away that count now). We’ve got to get that count up. If you sit back and wait for the outcome to be decided by outside means, you won’t be watching live NHL hockey in Arizona for the 2010 - 2011 season, do you really want to watch Shane Doan finally lift the cup… on TV… in Hamilton? And you certainly won’t be participating in the All Star week and 2011 draft . It is up to us… every one of us… GAME ON ARIZONA! Bring it!
There is more court tomorrow at 9AM… see you there?
You know hockey season is just around the corner when, you start seeing the usual suspects in the stores, clubs and restaurants. For Phoenix fans its when the ice camp begins in Scottsdale.
Athelete’s Resources has been holding a camp at All-tel Ice Den in Scottsdale the past couple of summers. Its a great chance to go see some really talented players that aren’t in the NHL as well as some of your favorite NHLers putting the finishing touches on their conditioning before official training camp.
In the past we have seen Doaner, Khabibulin, Dusty Collins, Mueller, Morris and Sjostrom to name just a few. There was a David Spina sighting already. *thnx for the heads up NashFan* Its a great way to get out of the heat and spend some enjoyable time watching talented skaters, interesting drills and of course reconnect with the other uber fans who also go enjoy the first unofficial camp of the season.
The schedule of the camp is posted on the Athelete’s resource main page here , also some good photos and info. Hopefully I’ll see some of you there this week.
It has been a long hot summer in a lot of ways. With temperatures soaring into the triple digits every day, so too are tempers, rumors and accusations have been flying high in this case as well. I figure a brief flashback of articles and such from this past week will get us all in the mood for court today.
PSE has lost a lot of traction. With the NHL BofG denying Jim Balsillie the priviledge of ownership based on his actions since 2006, it seems as if the NHL is going on the attack. A case can be made if you look at how he has attempted to bull his way into NHL ownership (lots of questionable decision making from pulling out of the Pens deal through this 3rd attempt), sift through the lawsuits over RIM technology patents, check out the investigations from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commssion over the backdating of stock options at RIM. The NHL has had a history of dealing with shady characters, they usually claim that they didn’t know the folks were dirty, not just shady. This time they can claim they have learned from their mistakes and refuse to let history repeat itself with Balsillie.
Both local bidders, SOF AND the NHL are asking for extention of the 8/5 auction (actually they seem to be asking to revert back to the original NHL local auction schedule). Glendale Hockey and Ice Edge Holdings LLCs are still in the process of negotiating with creditors (like SOF). IF Ballsillie is not a qualified owner (because of the NHL rejection), there is no reason to keep to the expedited schedule. The bills are being paid, the season is well on its way, the bidders are very close to finalizing their offers, why not give them the neccessary time? The Judge may not see it their way and that may result in neither local bidder being ‘qualified’ by the Judge.
Apparently Jim Ballsillie’s star isn’t as sparkly as it used to be. The media has been taking a few more potshots at the Bald Billionaire of Blackberry. Funny how the false patina of pretend nationalism wears thin so quickly. PSE and JB are not finding the 3rd time, the charm.
The Coalition has been extra busy trying to get some signatures on a petition to the court. There will be a single letter with the petition attached. As creditors of the team (due to buying tickets, we figure we oughta let the court know how we feel about the situation). If Judge Baum has already decided that relocation is the only viable solution… nothing anyone says or does will make a difference. If however, the Judge feels that a local solution can make creditors whole but is not quite convinced that there is a strong core of fan revenue that can be expanded to make this work… maybe he takes the petition into consideration. So many people will sit back and wait for the outcome of situations. This is not the time for wait n see. If we take no action (petitions, letters, purchasing tickets, etc) and the Judge declares that relocation is the only answer due to the lack of a core revenue producing fanbase, we would deserve to lose this team. I’d rather have done everything within my ‘admittedly limited’ power than to be left crying in front of the arena over ‘could have beens’ and ‘if only we hads’.
The Goldwater Institute has been partially thwarted. Apparently the Court has decided that they are too nosy and that ALL the documents don’t need to be public yet. Thank goodness for clear sighted judges.
Out clauses - no need to get our knickers in a twist over the reports of the Glendale Hockey LLCs out clause demands. C’mon! This club has been a disaster for years. No smart investor is going to committ to forever losing money here in Arizona. Reinsdorf just reinforces the fact that he is one smart cookie with this one. He’s not demanding ‘immediate concessions’ from the City of G. Instead Papa J is compromising, proposing to give the team a good faith 5 year shot, after that, GH,LLC wants the City of G to pony up a bit of a subsidy or allow the team to be sold and/or moved. Every local offer is going to have some type of ‘out’. Its the nature of the beast. 5 years is a decent timetable to begin making money. With the regular NHL ownership clause of 7 years this seems pretty reasonable (not for the city but its better than a relo in 2010). 5 years of trying to make a go… if not, then subsidy starts and everyone starts looking for a way out.
Apparently, the real trick here, will be to keep a close eye on the books and the effort… and the words, reasonable attempt. Reasonable attempt must be clearly defined so that it has metrics that can be measured. If GH, LLC makes good faith efforts, pursues all avenues of revenue growth and utilization according to the agreement and still cant make it into the black… they have 2 years (left of the 7 yr NHL ownership-can’t-move clause) to get an arena built somewhere else and relocate OR get a new buyer/partner. Like I said, this seems fair to all parties for a starting point of a hopefully long and fruitful partnership. I doubt Jerry Reinsdorf is going to let a failure in PHO stain his reputation. A 15M subsidy from the CoG for 2 yrs =30M and is so NOT worth a damn thing to Reinsdorf in the scheme of things, this is just insurance from my point of view.
So the other day I cross posted the little interview that the Coalition President did with Ice Edge Holdings’ CFO. I think we all have fears about these guys. We all probably feel like even one home game played outside Glendale is too many. We all probably have waking nightmares that this bid is just a prelude to a slow withdrawal to the far north. IDK if that is true or not, but given the horrid nature of our ownership in the past, getting better ownership even includes taking a risk on these guys. Srsly? Try ANY owner who would be willing to put the TEAM first, any ownership willing to put money into a truly competitive roster and I am pretty much willing to take a chance. Even though Ice Edge Holdings doesn’t appear to be the perfect solution… compared to what we have…? I’d back Bluebeard if he was willing to try to keep my team in Phoenix and successful.
I am becoming seriously annoyed with Jerry Moyes. The confusing letter to the STHs from Dewey Ranch Hockey LLC (which basically appears to be a claim submission form to become an unsecured creditor but isn’t explained that way) and not paying the players their bonuses (something that he alone has the power to petition the court to allow Remember the Sabres BK? ), gives the impression that Mr. Moyes is trying to create even more unsecured creditors to plague the proceedings. Not classy. Just another set of black marks against our former ownership (as if we needed any more tallies in that colum). Enough Jerry… Stop the madness! Try letting go gracefully, its time to get this farce over with.
So all this leads up to the emergency session for tomorrow… 1:30 PM for those of you who wanna join me in the overflow room on the 6th floor. It is probably going to be a zoo again. Cross your fingers and buckle up, its not just going to be a bumpy ride this time… its gonna get messy. Check your Twitter for theYotes Diva, HKYFN, Kasher2112 and Yotesgurl updates, your Facebook for Schroeder’s updates and of course back here for my after court report.
The Coyotes Coalition President, Heather McWhorter, was contacted by Ice Edge Holdings LLC to get a feel for the fanbase of Phoenix and to answer concerns for the Coyotes fans. Here is a cross posting of that phone call.
Before we all freak out at the thought of one of the potential Coyotes ownership groups slowly relocating our team to Canada five games a year at a time, I’d like to encourage you all to take a step back and look at this idea of theirs from a different perspective.
I’ll be the first to admit that when the news broke of the IceEdge plans for our Coyotes, red flags went up. The crazy summer I’ve endured thus far has taught me nothing if not to look out for signs of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. As I know most of you did as well, I immediately assumed the worst. I thought this group of potential owners had no intention of helping us, all they want to do is slowly take our team away from us. I was ready to go to battle…
I had the opportunity to speak with Todd Jordan this week. Mr. Jordan is the Chief Financial Officer for IceEdge Holdings, LLC.He patiently and thoroughly answered my questions as I fired them away at him. My first impression of Mr. Jordan was a good one; he reached out the arm of contact to me. Why? Should IceEdge gain control of the Phoenix Coyotes, they want to form a “partnership” with the fans in Arizona. They fully realize that in order for this franchise to be successful long term, we will all have to work together.They also realize that sometimes the most valuable input comes from the fans. They themselves are fans. Mr. Jordan, the American of the group; grew up in Conneticut. Having to endure the loss of the Hartford Whalers, he is certainly no stranger to the pain of losing a team to relocation.
I’d like to share with you what IceEdge feels are the critical elements of their plan for the Coyotes:
Keeping the team in Phoenix: As we all know, our team is in a bad financial position. We can stand around and point the finger of blame all day long but it won’t help the situation. We may have to do something drastic in order to turn the situation around and achieve the long term goal of keeping our team in Arizona. Thus makes the next element necessary to the IceEdge plan…
Playing non-core games in Canada to drive excess revenue until the team’s financial position is in better shape: Due to recent media reports, my first concern was for the loss of playoff games and I expressed this to Mr. Jordan. I was relieved to hear that taking playoff games away from us was not part of their plan. I was also relieved to hear that this would not be a permanent arrangement.This is just an arrangement intended to drive up revenue to help the team get back on its feet. It certainly isn’t an ideal plan for the players, for the fans, for the city who will lose the revenue from those five games. However, as far as options go for making this team financially better off now, this might not be such a terrible idea. In fact it might just be brilliant.There might be some things we can do however, to make this temporary situation less painful. If our team must play games elsewhere, can we not call them “home games” played in a sister city? They are not home games, home is Glendale, AZ. Can we as a fan base come up with suggestions of an acceptable name we could call these games?Perhaps one with a desert theme such as the Coyotes Sand Storm Through Canada? I’d love to hear everyone’s feedback and ideas on this…
Put a winning team on the ice - higher payroll: As we all know, the key to filling up the arena and attracting the casual fan is to put a competitive team on the ice and get everyone’s attention. We have the basic elements in place. But to truly ice a competitive team we need to add a few more “finishing touches”. Having a higher payroll will help us to attract the players we need to complete the equation. Let’s face the facts; there is a lot of work to be done here in Phoenix. We’ve got a scorned fan base to repair, financial issues to remedy and local sports fans that still need to be reached. And frankly folks, if we don’t start filling up seats now, the financial situation will only worsen, making eventual relocation inevitable regardless of who purchases the team. We need something to supplement the team’s income now while we work toward those goals.
Work with the city of Glendale as a partner to drive more visitation and help the Coyotes cut costs.
Implementation of core business principles to an organization that has displayed very little
Utilizing the Gretzky brand more effectively
I ask that you all look over these elements, think about them and feel free to send me your feedback, thought, ideas etc. The final decision is of course in Judge Baum’s very capable hands. Let’s prepare ourselves so that when a final decision is made on team ownership we can get to work on what we need to do.
The deciding factor of whether our team stays or goes once a local bidder takes control will be dependent upon us. WE can insure that whomever takes over the ownership of the team will have no choice but to keep the Coyotes in Glendale. How? Fill the arena up with fans! That will remove any reason to take away our team. We have a nice new arena and there is no shortage of corporate sponsorship opportunities in Arizona. Attendance is our biggest issue; and its quite fixable. So get out there, talk to people, educate the desert on the joy of hockey.
Spread the love folks, let’s keep our team!
I welcome your feedback and concerns. I will do my best to get all your questions answered!
TheYotesDivaRT @mirtle: RT @SportsBizNews YotesNews: Reinsdorf bid unanimously approved Balsillie bid unanimously denied. Other group deemed incomplete.
For those that don’t use Twitter the sentence above translates to: Our Yotes Diva passes on a message from James Mirtle (SBNation) that the SportsBizNews is reporting on the results of the NHL’s Board of Governor’s meeting. Apparently the BoG has approved the Glendale Hockey LLC’s bid/plan AND denied the PSE bid/plan… unanimously. The Ice Edge Holdings LLC proposal was deemed incomplete. Big surprise for anyone?
Don’t assume that these results mean that GH, LLC is a shoe in now, nor that PSE is out of the picture and it is certainly not the end of Ice Edge’s hopes. Technically speaking, all 3 entities still have a shot but GH,LLC has already received the NHL stamp of approval and if the Judge deems their bid acceptable, the process would move much more quickly and they will not have to be reconsidered again. The Judge can still put the kabosh on any of the 3 but I would imagine that he might consider NHL approval a plus, if not an influence on his decision.
Whoo hoo! The GreatScott has finally put his name on the dotted line. Scotty Upshall returns to the roster with his 1 year contract. (oh come on, you knew it would only be a 1 year, given our current state of chaos). Now Team Transplant is officially reunited and will be ready to rock n roll for 09. Can’t wait to see what the crazy line of Lombardi, Upshall and Prucha can do with a whole season of major TOI.
EDIT*** Sorry I had to blog and run this afternoon… but here’s the rest of the day at a glance…
Josh ‘tater’ Tordjman also resigned with the Coyotes today, making C13 and others very happy fans.
Is it distressing to anyone else to see the Yotes schedule so bare? (lack of TV coverage notes)
Don’t panic… so you got a letter from Dewey Ranch Hockey LLC in your mailbox. You open it up and its court paperwork, bankruptcy paperwork! WTH? (yeah that was my reaction too) Hang on to it, according to my conversation w/ Doug Moss this morning, the Yotes staff is putting together a letter to explain what it is and how it affects us. Its no big deal, it just pertains to your pre-BK deposits on your tickets… they aren’t keeping our money if the Coyotes go sideways on us or anything like that. As soon as the document is ready I will post more.
At 5 AM this morning, GMDM says the rumors on Alex T are still a bit premature. No deal finalized yet. C’mon Tangy! just sign already… you know you want to. Some of your friends are already here… we got milk n cookies! We got great golf while you wait for camp to start and you can even bunk out here at Chez Onyx if you want. There’s jerseys w/ your name on them waiting to be purchased. You’ll be loved! For cripes sake this isn’t rocket science… let’s get this done and confirmed NHL!
In better news according to the Don - “Our Rookies report September 5th, practice in Glendale for a few days then play two Rookies games in LA Sept. 9th (6:00pm) and 10th (2:00pm)” which is great news…anyone up for a road trip?
Main Camp opens in Glendale September 12th. No word yet on who is invited to camp. Whoever gets the invites better come prepared to battle. Lots of talent waiting to hit the main ice. Jonas? Brett? Ports? I know they say that they aren’t looking to ice more rookies but no one said anything about not icing ‘different’ Baby Yotes… There’s hope so get your butts ready to TAKE a spot. I will try to get some scoop on who has the best chance of making the invite list but with all things Coyotes in flux… well my normal contacts are kinda sketchy right now.
Despite all the brouhaha, the Yotes are still here and still in business. You can join the Booster club and get cool email updates. The Coyotes Coalition has info and opinions and links as usual and if you join you’ll also get their email updates (it doesn’t cost a thing to join the Coalition and being informed is a great reward for signing up).
Keep your heads up! August 5th is right around the corner. Hopefully this mess will be a distant nightmare soon.
It was bound to happen, I step away from my diligent web watch and all hell breaks loose on the bid information front. Thank goodness some of our great friends at HFBoards were kind enough to publish some of the bid docs…pertaining to the Glendale Hockey LLC bid (aka the Reinsdorf bid). We thank them profusely and look forward to also gettin our hands on that really interesting ‘bid’ from Ice Edge. Special thanks also goes to Brahm Resnik who has been Tweeting his fingers to the bone as he gets the goods.
So here are the links, so far, but the really, really good parts are in the 4th pdf. Remember as you are reading that, rejection of the current contract does not preclude Glendale Hockey from striking up new contracts with those parties. So before you gear up the outrage or start designing your war paint and chanting Hanta Yo, it’s a good day to die, it could very well be that Glendale Hockey may have intentions to rework and resign some of these agreements. ( I especially hope Strader and Heeter are amongst that group, as well as poor Dave Scatchard who was rendered basically unable to play hockey for the foreseeable future while on our team… I sincerely hope the contract buyout eventually gets assumed by the new ownership).
You will note in doc 4 some very glaring contract exclusions, lots of discussion at both HFboards and theNHLarena if you want to join in.
As for Ice Edge LLC’s Letter of Intent or Strong Interest (depending on who is hotly debating their filing at the time)… whoa boy, they weren’t kidding when they talked about out of the box thinking. TGO with an expanded role AND a long term coaching contract? Glendale has a sister city in Canada? who knew! But apparently Ice Edge wants the Yotes to play 5 or so games in that unknown sister city (Halifax and Saskatoon have both been approached and are supposedly receptive to the idea ). The tinfoil hats are coming out in droves with these ideas. Many are absolutely livid at giving WG any more $$ or time than he already has been allowed. But even more are incensed about trying to play some of our home games in another venue. (I would imagine the City of G isn’t going to be wild about the idea either) I can certainly see both sides of the weird home schedule. Neither sister city is a threat to the Yotes as their arenas meet minimum NHL standards, so playing a few games (in which premium prices could be charged and a truckload of revenue could be had) without setting up any kind of precedence for a move to those locations… but if this can be arranged on short notice, a door could be opened as far as fast relcations at a later date to another city… like Hamilton? I would think this is a Pandora situation that the league would prefer to avoid at all costs but who knows. Anothe theory is that Ice Edge is just another ploy or stepping stone to moving the team. (With a former RIM guy, a couple of other Canadians and the sister city thing, who can blame the Xfiles crowd for jumping on that theory?) Last really interesting point about Ice Edge is that Breslow has apparently coalesced his interest in purchasing the team with these guys.
There is a lot to speculate on these newest revelations but it is very late… or is it very early by now? Either way I need to get to bed, because tomorrow is sure to bring lots of links and discussion and I shouldn’t be depending on Mnt. Dew and coffee to see me through them. Happy reading!
Its finally all over the news but I got it first hand sorta, from Brahm Resnik on his Twitter account! Yay! for technology.
Glendale Hockey LLC put basically confirmed their 148M dollar bid, no surprises there so far.
Ice Edge Holdings LLC is where the surprise came from with their 150M partial cash bid. East Coast investor Daryl Jones filed $150M “letter of intent” - cash/debt offer w/contingencies according to BRez.
In other news… all you Winnie fans can take a deep breath of release because DWin got a one year deal.
First of all let me remind you all, DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE! Yes, today is the due date for confirmed bids BUT the local bidder auction will still be held even if all potential bidders don’t get their final paperwork to the court today. The Judge himself said the timeline was so short that he would still take a look at a bidder who submitted an offer on the day of the auction provided that bidder had a substantial down payment in hand and proof that the rest of the bid monies were viable and ready to pay out.
We will not hear much except rhetoric, hype and speculation from a whole lot of sources over the coming days. The Judge is at a conference, so he won’t be ruling or delivering any final verdict on the bidder’s offers until after he gets back and takes a looksee. Also Moyes’ team can file objections to the bids too. All of which will take some time and possibly some court room procedures.
Although it is all of our greatest hopes that we will see an end to this situation soon, don’t lose hope and take everything you read and hear with a grain of salt (well you might get the whole box out for some of the financial claims information). I really want to get all pissy about this but I am trying my hardest not to. But who the hell is fact checking the claims? Every article we read has a different amount of loss and the different sources for those losses are so vague as to be nonsensical. When an ownership has so many different fingers in so many interest conflicted pies (Superjet, WestGate Office Space, Swift) and when the ownership entity has as twisted a vestiture as Dewey Ranch Hockey and Westgate City Center have had, I don’t know how to believe that financial lines haven’t been blurred or even crossed, placing the team in this jeopardy. I have theories of course, who doesn’t in this mess? But I will refrain at this point until all the depositions and bids are in and we see some freakin facts in this case.
Lets hope that we see a few bids submitted today and that when Judge Baum gets back, he approves 1 of them so that our beloved Dawgs get to remain in their home. This would indeed be the best case scenario but we have until the 8/5 actual auction date to wait this thing out.
Stay positive my friends and buckle up, it going to really get bumpy from here on out.
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