Quote:
Originally Posted by cznTiburon
Which sort of makes you wonder that if there was, why is there such a hold up? If there was a great plan you would expect the NHL to jump at it rather than losing money.. maybe not quite as viable as others would believe, or is it just that the NHL is too stubborn to admit that they probably should have given up on phoenix a year or 2 ago
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There are enough lawyers floating around here that I won't even attempt to pretend I know anything of the law, but my understanding is that when Glendale agreed to build the arena for the Coyotes, they required them to sign a pretty iron-clad 30 year lease, with significant penalties for breaching it early.
As a result, a lot of the posturing we've seen from the League that people interpret as stubbornness is just the League ensuring that they've adequately covered their ass so they don't get sued by the city for the Coyotes breaching their contract.
If the rumors about the Thrashers are true, we see the contrast there. The Thrashers are owned by the owner of the Philips Arena and don't have any contracts or obligations that would make franchise re-location a lot more difficult. As a result, if they do decide to sell and move the team, the League will do a lot less to stand in their way.
Although this has dragged on for 2 years, there has always been a "potential" interest for an ownership solution to keep the team in the Jobing.com Arena. The viability of those potential owners is certainly debatable, but the interest has been there.