And here we go: The Goldwater Institute has released a brief statement indicating that it is seeking a temporary restraining order on the Glendale city council voting on the proposed Phoenix Coyotes $224 million subsidy deal today, on the grounds that not all documents surrounding the deal have been made public, in violation of Arizona open meetings law.
This is something the council can get around by simply (or not so simply — Goldwater didn't say how many documents were involved) releasing the missing documents, but more than that, this looks to be the opening salvo of the long-awaited war between the conservative-libertarian organization and the city over whether it's legal to hand over tens of millions of dollars a year to help make buying the Coyotes and keeping them in Glendale a profitable enterprise. And speculation whether even the threat of a lawsuit could scotch the sale of the team to Greg Jamison and lead the NHL to move the Coyotes elsewhere.
Earlier this week Forbes reported that Jamison is still having trouble raising the $170 million the NHL wants for the team, as investors don't think that it can turn a profit at that price even with a $200-million-plus subsidy. (Read that sentence over again and think about it for a minute.) Of course, that could always be NHL sources trying to scare Glendale into thinking that a subsidy for Jamison is their last, best hope — as could be the unsourced Twitter traffic that Jamison will bail if a TRO is ordered and that the NHL is about to go all Roger Goodell on Glendale's ass.
Or, it could just be a sign that hockey in the desert is such a bad idea that even with massive public subsidies, nobody will want to plunk down $170 million to buy into it. Of course, the NHL could always cut its price to something that reflects what the Coyotes are worth, but maybe Jamison doesn't have change for a nickel. At a certain point, while no doubt the few Coyotes fans would be saddened by the loss of the team they grew up with (provided they're under age 16), this is one case where it might well make more sense for everyone involved to move the team, rather than keep throwing good public money after bad.
And if you want to hear me pontificate a bit more about this, I'll be on Corus Network's The Rutherford Show at 11:30 am Mountain time today across Alberta. For those not lucky enough to be in the Texas of Canada, you can stream it online here.
from Field of Schemes http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2012/06/4977_goldwater_seeks.html
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