WildGopher
Registered User
- Jun 13, 2012
- 1,072
- 159
The Coyotes still have games to play and tickets to sell. Gotta keep those losses $$$ from growing.
So what are you going to hear? Nothing but, we are still working on a deal to keep the team in Glendale, from all the parties. Then after the last game is played... boom, The other shoe drops.
Someone is paying the teams expenses, and that someone is going to be very pissed if someone else comes out and says its over before the end of the season. Why is it seconds after it becomes known Jamison's deal is dead, we start hearing about other mystery buyers? To keep up the hopes and have people still buy tickets.
Same thing happened in Atlanta. There only ever was one buyer of the Thrashers... TNSE, yet there was something like 22 tire kickers looking at the team, up until the last day.
It's not to say it's impossible that some sugar daddy who doesn't care about losing money and loves hockey in Phoenix comes along in the next month, but I really doubt it.
I agree this is what's likely. But for those trying to read any clues into utterances from the NHL over the next couple months, it's time for some lessons in NHLese, a language you need to know as well as English or French if you're following this saga. First, as stated in an earlier post, Bill Daly yesterday sounded "Atlanta-esq" for the first time - in other words, he made an utterance about other "options" for the Phoenix franchise the way he started commenting about Atlanta in January 2011, months before the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg. That was a shift from the previous "we always try to keep a franchise where it is" rhetoric. The other place to watch for clues, as frustrating as it is to listen to him, is to try to discern when Bettman is just dissembling (his default mode) or when he's hinting at something bigger. Because once in a while his hints can draw a pretty big picture. For example, about a week before the big "surprise" that Glendale was going to pony up a second $25 million in the spring of 2011, Bettman hinted something that gave it away if you were listening closely. The Hulziser bid was coming apart with no other obvious suitor, so a journalist asked Bettman if there was any hope to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix for another year. Bettman gave that goofy look and softly said "if Glendale pays the $25 million again," or something to that effect. Sure enough, a week later, Glendale's council agenda comes out with the proposal to guarantee $25 million for another year. Whilee and others here have pointed out that we wouldn't have to guess at these events so much if journalists would just do their job and ask pointed questions and follow-ups, but until that starts happening, we'll keep reading tea leaves. The good thing is after almost four years of this, it's gotten a little easier to understand Bettmanese and Dalyese than back when the NHL could get away telling us straight out lies. Whether you've got a horse in this race and want a franchise in your town, or are just an observer of this sports business train wreck, it's going to be an interesting ride over the next few months.