The Coyotes announced Bunting’s ELC on Thursday afternoon, just hours after news broke that the Pacific Division club had come to an agreement with the City of Glendale to keep them safe at Gila River Arena for another two seasons.
Advertisement
“This revised agreement represents a positive outcome for both the city and the Coyotes”, Glendale Acting City Manager, Dick Bowers said in a release on Thursday. Also, the deal rips up an out-clause for the Coyotes that indicated the hockey team could leave after five years if losses exceeded $50 million or more by 2018. This decision will bring much-needed certainty to our fans and sponsors about our near-term future and an end to the uncertainty brought about through this legal action.
It also would trim the management fee the city pays annually to the Coyotes from $15 million to $6.5 million and shift all hockey-related revenue to the team instead of Glendale, which would generate approximately $6 million for the Coyotes. “Neither side benefits from a long, drawn out legal battle”.
It’s great that the two sides were able to come together and compromise, but there is something that will undoubtedly be the topic of conversation among Coyotes fans and our friends to the north in Canada; the two year length. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that the City of Glendale had to make its scheduled July 1 payment to the franchise, and there was also a temporary restraining order put on the deal’s cancellation. Maybe their fan-base can find solace in the hope that the City and the Coyotes will work out a long term deal or by the time the contract ends the team will have a new home in downtown Phoenix. “That’s important for business and it’s important to our citizens”.
The City had claimed that two of its former employees, Craig Tindall and Julie Frisoni, violated the terms of the lease agreement by becoming consultants for IceArizona and the Coyotes. That’s when the Coyotes were prepared to legally challenge the Glendale’s city council resolution, adopted on June 10, to break a 15-year, $225 million lease agreement.
“For us and all the other restaurants and retailers that are here, there is a lot of comfort there now that they can start doing improvements to their business and they can start hiring more people”, Kariotoglou said.
Advertisement
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) The Arizona Coyotes have signed forward Michael Bunting to a three-year, entry-level contract. Corporate suites are not selling, Arizona is not attractive to free-agents or players involved in possible trades, and the Coyotes are having difficulty to finding financial entities to partner. So, it’ll be good for the Coyotes to get out of the court rooms and turn their focus back to hockey operations.
