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March 22, 2010
Would-be Coyotes buyers lack cash
Ice Edge Holdings' bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes just gets better and better: Now not only are they demanding $6-11 million a year in lease breaks in order to do the deal, but they're apparently having trouble coming up with $140-160 million for the purchase price. This despite that fact that at today's interest rates, $11 million a year alone would be more than enough to pay off the entirety of a $140 million loan. Maybe Ice Edge has a really bad credit score.
In any case, the Coyotes sale now appears to be in even more disarray than it was last year, if that's possible, with Chicago White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf possibly re-entering the bidding — though it's worth noting that Reinsdorf wanted lease breaks to subsidize his purchase, too. Hockey Night in Canada's Pierre LeBrun asserted on Saturday: "If they don't figure this out by mid-May, maybe we're talking relocation."
Move threats are a dime a dozen, needless to say, especially coming from a source whose audience might be more than a little interested in restoring an additional NHL franchise to Canada. If it does happen, though, you can bet even more people will be comparing Ice Edge to an abusive boyfriend.
Neil;
It's true that IEH have never seemed "genuine". They keep making themselves look like frat boys on spring break in Lauderdale when they speak publicly. While that alone doesn't make them non-entities, it was never a good sign.
That said, though, I think this is as much an indication of the viability of the franchise (and not only this one) as the ownership group. Reinsdorf wanted concessions and tax levies that would have totalled $25M p/a to take the team off the league's hands as well... and he may yet get them (though we live in hope that sanity will prevail). As ever, if an owner 'needs' a subsidy of $33 per spectator (more than the ticket price in many cases) over the course of the season to be viable...
The NHL keeps dealing with non entities as prospective owners. That isn't necessarily all down to pathetic due diligence - the truth is, the NHL has no choice. No "A" list owner wants to touch them, unless they can buy in to one of the 8 or 10 markets that actually will pay for hockey. Increasingly in recent years, even prospective "B" list owners want nothing to do with the league (and regardless of one's feelings about Jerry Moyes, you can't really blame them when you see the way the league has dealt with him). Thus the NHL ends up with a carousel of scam artists, hucksters, fraudsters, and the ham'n'eggers like IEH - many of whom use the same strategies - and same banks - to perpetrate their frauds on the league and the taxpaying public.
Neil,
Was in Vegas over the weekend. Has the NHL, or anyone, ever thought of relocating the Coyotes to Sin City? Hockey isn't on the books, and the Coyotes would in theory be moving only a couple of miles to the northwest. Vegas already has a minor league hockey team and the citizens would probably embrace the NHL/Coyotes (unlike Phoenix), especially if they get their spanking new arena.
The damndest irony: the Weasels are playing excellent hockey right now, leading the Western Conference. Scott Burnside at ESPN has been speculating on the spectacle of the Stanley Cup in Glendale... it's a legitimate possibility.
I raise this point because I'm not certain it matters if the Wile E.'s manage to win a championship, they're still in deep, deep yogurt. Put differently, can even a championship season by a plucky bad-news-bears kind of team win over that fan base?
Posted by Anderson on March 23, 2010 05:04 PM