Coyotes Arena Deal?

The National Hockey League is open to giving the city of Glendale more time to pay off the $25 million the city owes the league for running Jobing.com Arena. A five-year payoff plan for the city is tied to a Phoenix Coyotes arena deal the Glendale City Council is considering with a group trying to the buy the NHL-owned franchise. Glendale agreed to a pair of $25 million payments to the NHL after the league bought the Coyotes out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. The city still owes the NHL money from those agreements.


According to a source close to the deal, the NHL has agreed to allow the city to pay the $25 million still owed over five years, provided the Coyotes sale goes through. That would stop the city from having to do anything drastic financially and addresses worries raised by opponents of the latest arena deal. Glendale and Renaissance Sports and Entertainment, the group that wants to buy the Coyotes, are trying to work out an arena deal before a July 2 deadline. If that deadline is not met, the team could be sold to another group and moved out of the Phoenix market.


Glendale City Councilman Ian Hugh has said Glendale is considering the idea of mortgaging city buildings, including parking garages and City Hall, to help pay for the Coyotes deal and money owed to the NHL. The Arizona state government took some similar steps with its real estate during its financial distress during the recession. “The league has given the city an easy way out, by restructuring the debt in installment payments. That’s a much more sensible solution than the political ploy of ‘selling’ city hall,” the source said. Glendale spokeswoman Julie Frisoni said Glendale is still working through the details of a deal with Renaissance that would keep the hockey team from moving.