The Save The Coyotes Coalition

We all go through the seven stages of grief when something horrible happens to us. Shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, depression, reflection and loneliness, the upward turn reconstruction and working through and finally acceptance and hope. Any of these steps sound familiar to Coyotes fans out there?

I’ll be honest, like you, I’ve fallen victim to these seven steps over the last few days. I was shocked and didn’t believe the bankruptcy filing when it first occurred (and it sounds like the NHL and the Coyotes franchise were as well). Then I felt the “pain” of the potential departure. Obviously there was anger and the attempt to place blame. There were reflections on the past White Outs, the joy that good hockey brought to the Valley and thoughts of the loneliness their departure would bring. Then came the turn for the better. After hearing Gary Bettman’s comments about wanting to keep the team in Glendale things began to look up and the ability to work through the entire situation became apparent.

Right now, I have reached the acceptance and hope stage. I accept the fact that the team is in the balance and that there is hope for it’s future in the Valley. I also realize that originally everyone was searched for someone to blame. Some blamed the fans, others the owners, some blamed Glendale and still others blamed the NHL. The problem is not just one party is accountable for what has happened to this franchise.

Everyone involved deserves a little blame. The fans can take a little of the blame for not selling out Jobing.com Arena on a semi-regular basis. Richard Burke, Steve Ellman and Jerry Moyes deserve a little blame for business decisions they made along the way. Glendale needs to front some of the burden for the lease agreement that has caused some of the Coyotes financial issues. The NHL also deserves to take some blame. The league’s work stoppage, along with its poor television deal and financial structuring has hurt the team. Not to mention their handling of the last six months, which has helped the team, its fans and its owners find themselves in their current situation.

The problem is, everyone we want to point fingers at also helped to make hockey in the desert possible.

The fans are the easy ones to point the finger at by saying “they didn’t support the team well enough” but without the almost 15,000 die hard fans that showed up every night at Jobing.com arena the team would be worse off. Those 15,000 fans showed up for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2002 in a league where 80% of the other teams have.

I was one of the first to lead the charge against the owners. Upon further review though, they deserve as much credit as blame. Without Richard Burke the team would have found another city to flee Winnipeg in favor of. Without Ellman, and his development vision, the team might still be playing in an arena with 1,400 obstructed view seats. Without Moyes the team probably would be owned by Paul Allen and known as the Portland Rosebuds or something ridiculous. Not to mention the $300 million of his own money he put into the team to make keeping hockey in Glendale possible. They all played important roles in keeping this team in Phoenix for this long.

Although the city of Glendale has created a bad situation for the Coyotes by offering free parking at the arena, costing the team millions, it also has helped the team. Glendale put up $185 million to build the facility in the first place and some of its representatives have put themselves in political hot water for trying to rework the lease to benefit the team.

Even the NHL has helped this team despite it’s pitfalls. The league and the commissioner floated the Coyotes a loan to keep them in operation and has attempted to help secure new ownership to keep them in Glendale. They’ve even angered their Canadian fan base by saying they don’t want the Coyotes to move to southern Ontario (talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face).

All-in-all blame, nor praise, will keep this team in our city. The only thing that will is an outcry of fan support and a very rich individual to pay off the team’s debtors. So, no matter where you are in the seven steps of grief realize, pointing fingers won’t fix things but supporting the home team will.