The NHL represents a series of 29 owners. At the end of the day the priority is for the league to operate in the best interest of the group.
Lehman Brothers: "At the end of the day the priority for our company is to operate in the best interest of our stakeholders. It does not matter if that helped cause a global recession."
National Hockey League: "At the end of the day the priority is for the league to operate in the best interest of the group. It does not matter if that leads to a city declaring municipal bankruptcy."
The Municipality had a choice. They could have not paid the losses via the arena management fee, and started dealing with that reality. Instead they chose to spend the money in hopes of finalizing a deal. Choices were made and subsequent consequences are going to be felt.
Consequences will be felt by the residents of the city of Glendale. They will not be felt by Beasley, they will not be felt by Scruggs, they will not be felt by Bettman, they will not be felt by Daly: all the people making the decisions here.
I'm sorry, I just can't see the NHL being the bad guy. Their agenda has always been crystal clear in my eyes. Sell the team locally as long as the other owners don't lose money on the transaction.
And knowing what you do, provide me a credible outline for how that was ever going to occur beyond the NHL finding an idiot that would overpay for the team and did not screw over taxpayers (in other words, the NHL finds Moyes 2.0).
Killion: Why should [the NHL] take a bath on a local sale when they can recoup the lot through relo?. They could easily have facilitated a sale long ago locally if they were inclined to do so.
That's been my general point on this for two years. The only way the Coyotes staying in Phoenix makes sense is if:
1.) the NHL lowered their price - they're not going to do this, a.) they don't want to accept a loss, b.) it'd lower franchise values
2. they find an idiot to buy the team that doesn't understand money going out would not equal money coming in - every potential buyer we've seen was only in it as long as they were using Someone Else's Money, which means they didn't think it was a good investment
that leaves 3.) they screw over the taxpayers and they pay for it!
This was easy to see two years ago! But no, in the meantime the city of Glendale got bankrupted for no damn reason as we went to option #3.