I received this as a share from a friend who has friends in low low places. Not saying its complete or that its true cause I can’t confirm its origins. But it made me blog… which I thought nothing could do.. not even Doaner’s Hattie. Read it and take it for what its worth… an unsubstantiated, passed on item with MamaZ’s pissy world view attached to it.
HERE is what I originally received:
Dear [Redacted],
[Redacted]
For your information which you are free to pass to anyone you wish, I would like to explain the current situation.
The NHL owns the team and are asking a price that is far in excess of what it is worth – about $40 million too high. The NHL has already profited for the past two years and the City of Glendale has paid a $25 million fee per year for them to “manage our city-owned arena”. That price is much higher than their expenses and the extra, I assume, is going towards paying team costs.
The inflated price of the team has made it very, very difficult for interested parties to raise the funds from investors. After all, owning a professional sports team does not produce a good return on investment – regardless of the sport.
[Redacted]
There is a very real possibility that the NHL may favor one buyer but that buyer’s demands on the City of Glendale are ones that cannot be met by us – either legally or financially or both.
[Redacted]
We may not like it but I think it is time everyone understands just what is going on.
[Redacted]
The City of Glendale is not in control of this situation. Mr. Gary Bettman and the NHL Board of Governors are in control. They will choose who they want to own the team and we will decide if we can do business with their choice.
Those are the facts and I am happy to share them with you. And you think you are frustrated????
Elaine Scruggs
Mayor, Glendale AZ
My first reaction…
Son of a #&&$@( what the flaming ^W*&%@&%$T& this sucks dirty filthy %^!#%&!#* I hope every one of these &^$!((*&% rots in !#^#$*&^#(* and their @!_@$*_##!!!) fall off into a vat of acid.
ALL ITEMS IN BOLD ARE STRICTLY ME BEING A TOTAL BITCH, I GUESS MY DOAN-OVER IS OVER AND TOOK ALL THOSE SHINY HAPPY FEELINGS WITH IT…
Dear [Redacted], (read this as… dumb asses who still care about this team)
[Redacted] (read this as a statement that gives some strange and convoluted explanation of why this info is being *shared* with only a certain few)
For your information which you are free to pass to anyone you wish, I would like to explain the current situation.
The NHL owns the team and are asking a price that is far in excess of what it is worth – about $40 million too high. The NHL has already profited for the past two years (did they make any ‘real’ money and if so how much, cuz everyone keeps tellin me we still bleedin cash like a victim from one of the SAW movies) and the City of Glendale has paid a $25 million fee per year for them to “manage our city-owned arena”. That price is much higher than their expenses and the extra, I assume, is going towards paying team costs. (then how come we didn’t get an outside 3rd party like so many wanted to if the fees are now admitted to being so much higher… shall we admit that the NHL had us bent over and were threatening to ream us if we didn’t comply?)
The inflated price of the team has made it very, very difficult for interested parties to raise the funds from investors. After all, owning a professional sports team does not produce a good return on investment – regardless of the sport. (you own a team from love of the sport, not usually love of profit but if the right money is spent in the right places the two are not mutually exclusive. Anyone friends with an owner type who ‘gets’ that? Give him my number.)
[Redacted](read this as naming names and putting people on the spot for their roles in this debacle but not having enough balls or legal standing to get away with actually putting this info in this letter)
There is a very real possibility that the NHL may favor one buyer but that buyer’s demands on the City of Glendale are ones that cannot be met by us – either legally or financially or both. (read this as Uncle Jerry smells blood and can parlay his relationship with Uncle Gary into a profit easier than squeezing a profit out of Glendale, bloody legally challengeable penny by bloody legally challengeable penny. While the Jamison group are not on the family reunion invite list and have to settle for scraping for a place at the buyers table even though they will work with CoG to make it work for everyone. Well…. they would have but now they are not only conspicuously silent, there is an empty echo of crickets instead of the sound of expectant silence coming from their camp.)
[Redacted] (read this as a statement of just who the asshats are that are creating Machiavellian terms and conditions that can’t be met… probably on purpose.)
We may not like it but I think it is time everyone understands just what is going on. (read this as… I am tired of being called a bitch and the council is tired of people thinking we’re stupid and a bunch of hicks with no business sense, so here is as much of the truth as I can legally tell you)
[Redacted] (see statement above… just with more details)
The City of Glendale is not in control of this situation. Mr. Gary Bettman and the NHL Board of Governors are in control. They will choose who they want to own the team and we will decide if we can do business with their choice. (read this as… our hands are tied… with chains, we’re bent over so far that things best left unseen by the public eye are exposed and we can’t budge another damn inch, if we bend over any further we’ll be holding our ankles and that just ain’t gonna happen no matter how much we want to keep this thrice damned team in place.)
Those are the facts and I am happy to share them with you. And you think you are frustrated???? (read this as, I’m finally able to speak my piece, I know you won’t like it but I am giving yer asses the real 411. Prepare to lose your damn team cuz I’m outtie)
(sincerely)Elaine Scruggs
Mayor, Glendale AZ
The rest of my thoughts:
Ahhh and so the exodus begins… 2012 will probably be our last year as Coyotes. We will be moved. Come on… like you aren’t thinking the same damn thing and praying just as hard that we are wrong? For all intents and purposes it appears that the long fight is winding down… and we will be moved.
Perhaps to QC or some other city within the 50km boundary of Toronto, who will have TORs blessing now that the teachers union no longer owns the team and the new ownership wants that relo fee money, that invading my territory payment and another team that could boost their TV rights money. KC and Seattle have been rumbling but no ‘real’ plan has been espoused from either place.
Rumor and several people who love to rub salt in wounds have reported that QC is updating their arena to meet the minimum NHL standard as I type this and will be finished sometime around the 2012 season. At that point the NHL can say… so sorry, tried everything we could, then wave good bye to us all and sell the team to someone and move them. QC could live with the renovated arena one or two years , rake in the dough from those long suffering Canadian fans and then begin building a new arena with all the lovely loot they make when the Yotes make it to the second round of playoffs for the first time ever. *Cuz you just know that will happen to us because the hockey gods seem to have it in for us.
The next year after the ownership spends hella amount of money, the former Yotes will go to the finals and the next year… Doan’s last year, the Yotes will win the cup and we won’t get to see it… sighhhhhh
Yep Elaine or even fauxElaine… pretty sure frustrated isn’t what I am and beyond pisstivity will be what I’ll be at that time.
What do you think of this letter and our situation? Time to face the music or just another reason to reach deeper into our bag of heart and hope? Can someone help me adjust my rose colored glasses… sometimes they slip.
Hockey in Phoenix sometimes goes waaay beyond the hard way.