Hey Legend, I agree here, it's true that if a someone really wanted to make a go of it in Glendale it would be hard but maybe not impossible to make it work.
For the bolded part, i think it's a misconception that Jamison turned the sharks franchise around, I believe they were already mildly succesful and Jamison just kept it going. The other thing is, when he left the franchise he was taking it in a direction the Sharks org were not comfortable with and he might have been outed from his post. I posted the article on that story here somewhere.
I do have a question, it's recently been reported that the AZ Cardinals are not happy with the parking arrangements made by Glendale and that they still have not respected the agreement. The lawsuit seems to be still alive. What do you think happens if a lawsuit for $67 million is underway? or do you not think those 2 issues, a sale of the Coyotes,an AMF and the lawsuit can be related?
I don't think they are related at all. The Cards threat (notice of claim; no lawsuit has been filed as of yet) is related to the Tanger Outlet mall being approved for a portion of Westgate that gobbles up several thousand uncovered parking spots that are reserved for use on Cardinals game days by Cardinals ticket holders. Whether the Coyotes play here in 2012-2013 or play in Canada or Seattle - has nothing to do with the Cardinals issue - there's no connection there. The claim the Cards are making seems to be the City, by approving development of the outlet mall, deprives them of the surface parking the city agreed to provide, and they are in disagreement with the city on how deadlines for notification of how the city will replace those lost spots are met (and seems Cards are not happy some of the spots are not within Westgate property). The $67 million number bandied about, is actually the Cardinals claim that Glendale needs to provide them with parking garages! at a cost of $66.7 million, to replace the surface parking spots.
Not having seen the agreement in dispute; but in general skeptical of the savvy of those with the city drafting these kinds of agreements, I would be flabbergasted if there was a clause in that agreement that said 'if we deprive you of any of these parking spots at Westgate, we'll owe you $66.7 million worth of parking garages at Westgate." But we'll see... I'm old enough that nothing surprises me anymore.
On the other hand... it seems there was a plan in the past that would include additional parking garages in the future... iirc, Ellman set aside some $25 million or so towards that end, and last year or therabouts, that money was divvied up between Ellman & the City.
The plan for Westgate was for more build out and additional parking garages, as development gobbled up land that was vacant or in use as surface parking. So it may indeed be that as Westgate grows, some surface parking will need to be converted to parking garages. Again, whether the NHL team stays or leaves, if further development commences in the future.
I would not think 10-14 days a year of use would require $66.7 million of garages be built, but in time, some garages will need to be built. Whether they'll cost that much, or whether the Cards will be forced to build them and sue Glendale to recover the costs... I dunno. But while it might be a distraction for some, it's a separate issue from the hockey team. Be interesting to see if the Goldwater Institute would interfere with Glendale spending $66.7 million on parking garages that would only be needed for 10-12 dates a year for the next 20 years. If not, it might make spending $300 million for 43-52 dates a year for 20 years seem, on a 'per day' basis, roughly equivalent. I mean, if GWI has a problem with the $300 million over 20 years for 900+ dates (not even including other events the Arena manager would book) - they ought to have a problem with paying $66.7 million for 200-220 dates.
Of course, it's also possible GWI loves football and hates hockey.
I wonder what GWI would think is a reasonable parking garage management fee per year for a $66.7 million parking garage?
You could probably find these quotes scattered across the many volumes of Coyotes threads throughout HF Boards.
part 2. Up to the league.
