General Ongoing Coyotes saga thread

[cKy]

The fact this thread was bumped on a Monday amuses me.

[nik-]

Can we scrap all the excuses now though?

Won't support a bad team in a soft market
Won't commit because there are no owners

Instead we'll lay off city staff because of a budget shortfall largely helped by refusing to see the writing on the wall regarding a pro sports team.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I'm sure the people of Glendale are completely psyched that their taxes are about to go up (possibly way up) so that they could keep their hockey team that never fills past 2/3 of the building...and that was when the team was good and competitive. Can't wait for 3,000 a night when they're a bottom feeder.

[jayswin]

Hey BouwandArrow, I thought the fans were just waiting for stability?

[nik-]

Also there's this gem.

Glendale borrowed $180 million to build Jobing.com, and the city has promised another $275 million to keep the National Hockey League team from leaving, including $225 million to the Coyotes’ ownership group to manage the arena for the next 15 years.

Average annual revenues, however, fall just short of the average $10.6 million a year in debt service for the arena and adjacent development.

Jobbing.com Arena, the Detroit of sports facilities.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/g...nclick_check=1

[Resolute 14]

Last in the NHL in attendance, but still up 15% over the first 19 games of 2011-12. Phoenix's recovery - if it even happens - will not be accomplished overnight.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by troutman

At the mid-point in the season, how are things going under new ownership?

Glendale fiscal forecast grim
http://www.azcentral.com/community/g...cast-grim.html

Glendale has earned national headlines for its financial woes, which began with ill-timed investments in hockey and baseball venues. Already deep in debt, the council agreed to pay $50 million to the National Hockey League to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in town and in July signed a $225 million deal to have the team’s owners manage Jobing.com Arena.
Duensing’s forecast shows that the Coyotes deal will cost the city an estimated $8.1 million next year, after revenue associated with the deal.

Councilman Ian Hugh, who voted against the July agreement, said the Coyotes deal pushed the already-struggling city over the edge. There is no easy fix, he said.

Last in average attendance with 13,152
http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance/_/sort/homeTotal

Two events other than NHL in January:
http://jobingarena.com/events.aspx?CalDate=2014-Jan-01

Attorney General probe of Glendale deals begins in earnest
http://www.azcentral.com/community/g...y-general.html

That calendar can't be correct. There are only 6 non hockey events scheduled all year!

[troutman]

http://www.azcentral.com/community/g...-fix-prog.html

Q: What about long-term options?

A: The council could extend the city’s 0.7 percentage point sales-tax hike, which was billed as a temporary, five-year increase and is set to expire in 2017. It also could raise property taxes to the maximum allowed under state law and look for new revenue sources. Renegotiating current contracts and debt agreements, such as the arena-management deal or the spring-training agreement, could bring in more money over the long term.

[troutman]

http://arizonasports.com/43/1686162/...ise-turnaround

In the spirit of progress report, however, Arizona Sports 620's Doug and Wolf asked Coyotes' CEO Anthony LeBlanc if he was happy with the way the franchise's volte-face was materializing so far.

"I don't know if ‘happy' is the right word," he replied. "I think we're moving in the right direction."

While the Coyotes' fanbase is rejuvenated by its beloved hockey team's new lease on life in the Valley, its spruced up roster and tied-down coach and general manager, its expansion has been slow, perhaps due to the current success and relevance of other Valley sports teams, like the Arizona Cardinals, Arizona State Sun Devils and Phoenix Suns.

"Things are looking good for certain games," he began, "and then other games we don't have as many people in the building as I think we should, especially with the exciting brand of hockey that we're playing. "Our next home game on December 27 against San Jose is going to be a sellout. So, the fact that we're finally starting to sell out against some of these rivals in California -- that's a good sign. People are finally starting to get into the spirit of the rivalry with our divisional rivals. We just need to get more people in the building for those non-rival games."

Though not decidedly "happy" with the turnaround, LeBlanc did have plenty more positives to point out about the organization's recent progress, in addition to the fans' adoption of rivalries.

"From a paid attendance perspective, we're up somewhere in the neighborhood of 15% year over year; sponsorships we can't even compare to the previous years -- things are going so well for us," he said.

[troutman]

Phoenix Coyotes CEO Anthony LeBlanc eyes better attendance, community involvement


http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyo...nclick_check=1

Question: More than two months into the season, what have you made of the team’s attendance?

Answer: I’m probably a little disappointed in where we are with attendance. There are those marquee games like the Chicago game, which was obviously a very big night for us from the perspective that we broke the regular-season franchise record for gate revenue for a single game. But (two weeks ago), we had the Islanders and Carolina in town and there was roughly 10,000, 11,000 people in the building, and that’s simply not good enough. So we know those are the nights we have a lot of work to do. … Our next home game on the 27th against San Jose, that’s going to be a sellout, as well. That’s encouraging. I’m not saying San Jose is not a marquee game, but in the past it hasn’t sold as well as it’s selling this year. So that’s encouraging, but overall it would be unfair for me to say that I’m thrilled with where things are. There are some positives, but there’s a lot more work. We need stronger support.

[troutman]

Q&A with Coyotes co-owners George Gosbee and Anthony LeBlanc


http://msn.foxsports.com/arizona/sto...leblanc-123113

FSAZ: Anthony, given the rampant speculation regarding your attendance comments, can you clarify what you meant?

LeBlanc: "First off, I should apologize if my comments were not taken in the manner in which they were intended. Those comments were an onus on us to do a better job. At the end of the day we have very high expectations for ourselves as an ownership group.

"But having said that, we are approaching 20 percent higher attendance than the last time we played games in the fall, which was the 2011-2012 season. We just want them to be up higher, and we're working very hard to do just that."

FSAZ: There have been rumors that you are giving away an inordinate amount of complimentary tickets?

LeBlanc: "Have there been games where we have comped a fair amount of tickets? Absolutely. We went into this expecting comps for some games, but we also had the expectation that the comps would average out exactly where we agreed to with the City of Glendale, and that is still what we anticipate. I can't tell you the exact number because that is confidential information, but our average number of comp tickets is substantially below the average being bandied about."

Gosbee: "I'm not sure where this giving away huge numbers of tickets rumor has started, but it's less than in any seasons past. That's the way things used to be done around here a while ago, but to be honest, there's no incentive now. You used to have to reach the 14,000 per game benchmark for the league's revenue sharing, but that's not the case any more.

The league changed that.

[Jordan!]

So, I had Tim Hortons at the job. And it was fantastic! No timbits though

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Bouw N Arrow

So, I had Tim Hortons at the job. And it was fantastic! No timbits though

Did the City of Glendale pay for that?

[Coach]

Isn't that 8.1 Million loss quite a bit less than it was before? Weren't they losing 20+ million the last few years?

[Jordan!]

Originally Posted by Muta

Did the City of Glendale pay for that?

Nope, but they got the sales taxes

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by Bouw N Arrow

So, I had Tim Hortons at the job. And it was fantastic! No timbits though

I was surprised to see that! Just opened.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Isn't that 8.1 Million loss quite a bit less than it was before? Weren't they losing 20+ million the last few years?

That's what the City is losing. I'm sure the owners are losing much more than that, but it seems they are prepared to do so as part of a 3 year plan.

[landshark]

Thanks very much Troutman for this series of updates. I still find the story interesting, but not enough to seek it out myself...

On attendance... Numbers never seem to line up with what the eyballs see. There were LOTS of games in PHO in the last few years where the stated attendance seemed like a lie when you looked up at the empty seats in the stands.

But that Dec 27 game against the sharks was a different story... it really was a sold out crowd. It was noticeably different - there were no empty seats in the lower level and the crowd was really into the game (darned good game). I came away thinking that maybe, just maybe they can make a go of it... maybe...

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by landshark

Thanks very much Troutman for this series of updates. I still find the story interesting, but not enough to seek it out myself...

On attendance... Numbers never seem to line up with what the eyballs see. There were LOTS of games in PHO in the last few years where the stated attendance seemed like a lie when you looked up at the empty seats in the stands.

But that Dec 27 game against the sharks was a different story... it really was a sold out crowd. It was noticeably different - there were no empty seats in the lower level and the crowd was really into the game (darned good game). I came away thinking that maybe, just maybe they can make a go of it... maybe...

Not asking to be a ****, but more out of interest because I know San Jose has a pretty loyal following. How many Sharks fans would you say were there?

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Bouw N Arrow

So, I had Tim Hortons at the job. And it was fantastic! No timbits though

I had Hooters Buffalo Chicken Fingers when I went to a game there a few years ago. Probably the best "arena" food I've ever had.