Globe and Mail reports that NHL may be loaning money to Phoenix Coyotes

Seattle's proposal for the Kings included a new arena to be built only if the sale went through. Not sure how much interest there is in jumping though all the hoops again for the NHL.

 

I'd think that's probably the main variable determining whether or not les Nordiques retourneront, non?

 

It's a catch-22. How many places are going to pony up public (or even private) money to build an arena until they have a guarantee that a team is actually coming and they're not just being used as leverage to get a better deal someplace else? It could be a multi-million dollar white elephant.

Or how many teams are going to move to a market with the promise of "Oh, we'll build it when you get here" only to chance it getting caught up in political red tape for years while their stuck in some 1970s outdated rink?

 

Oui.

 

Vegas, baby.

 

We've had the convo before, still not sure how well Vegas works as a pro sports town. Primarily a tourist city, with lots of competing things to see and do and spend money on.

Plus the sports books would not be allowed to take bets on those games, so they certainly don't want a team there.

 

Phoenix's biggest fuckup was building the arena in Glendale rather than finding a way to make the original plan in Scottsdale work. Driving an hour plus from downtown on a Sunday for a football game is one thing. Doing it for a weeknight hockey game is a whole 'nother story. Beautiful arena. Horrible location.

 

The other thing about Vegas is, beyond the metro area, there's a whole lot of desert and not a lot of people.

 

Quebec City's already in the building process, I do believe. They are in a similar position to Winnipeg where a new rink was needed regardless, also knowing that if they did it right it would put them in prime position for relocation of another franchise.

 

Leafs will never let Markham happen, and Leafs and Sabres would team up to kill Hamilton. It's. Not. An. Option.

 

I've always thought that was a bullshit argument. If you can have three teams in a stones throw of each other in New York, and two sharing L.A., there is no reason on God's green Earth why the Maple Leafs are allowed to have a monopoly in Southern Ontario, and the league has said as much on multiple occasions. I'm sure they'd bitch and complain about it, but something will eventually be worked out.

My big curiosity right now, is one of the big arguments the league threw up during the Balsillie gong show with his clear intentions to move the team was that the price he was trying to buy the Coyotes for would be the price to keep them in Glendale. With the intention to move them, especially to southern Ontario, that value should almost double or triple. So if they do in fact decide to sell the Coyotes to move them, is there going to be an auction? or are the going to start the asking price at like $250 million?

 

That single-handedly doomed the franchise. That Scottsdale location was perfect, but the city council had to "preserve" the neighborhood of car dealerships, strip malls and shitty apartments. It would have been booming with an arena there. Instead they've got a business park.