The future of the Phoenix Coyotes remains in doubt

This has been going on for years now, and the more I look into it the more Phoenix feels like a square hole with which the NHL is trying to pound the round peg of the Coyotes into. This team has not done well on the ice recently nor in the books. They have lost a lot of money, and some of that may be due to weak ownership in the past, but it does not look like hockey in the desert was a great idea now or then.

The NHL does have a buyer who has agreed in principal to buy the Coyotes and keep them in Phoenix, but a bond issue to raise 197 million dollars to finance the deal has met much local opposition and a probable lawsuit from the Goldwater Institute. Apparently this institute is may sue over a document used to justify the 197 million in bonds being prepared by someone who may have committed fraud in another hockey related matter.

On top of that the Goldwater Institute is a conservative group that likely has a problem using public funds to sell the team to a private investor. However the main point of contention is if the parking fees for jobbing.com arena will equal enough to finance the 100 million dollar debt. This is a complicated deal and I am hardly a real estate attorney. There might also be a breach of the state constitution, which the institute is very concerned about.

At some point the NHL will give up on this deal, and that time is likely coming soon as this mess has dragged on for a long time. At some point the man who plans to but the Coyotes will find a sweeter deal in another NHL city, at least two other NHL teams are currently for sale, and at some point a Canadian city will give someone a good enough deal to move the Coyotes back to where they came from.