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Joyce Clark Unfiltered

For "the rest of the story"

Apr 13

5

Glendale…will they or won’t they?

Posted by Joyce Clark on April 5, 2013
Posted in Jobing.com arena  | Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Late on Friday, April 4, 2013, Craig Morgan, who covers sports for Fox Sports Arizona among a growing list of other media, did an outstanding job of summarizing the recent Coyotes saga. To read his entire article, please go to http://www.foxsportsarizona.com/nhl/phoenix-coyotes/story/Coyotes-ownership-saga-hits-stretch-run?blockID=889001&feedID=3702.

board-gosbee

George Gosbee

Leblanc

Anthony LeBlanc

I have chosen some of the most salient snippets for further commentary. He said, “The group led by George Gosbee and Anthony LeBlanc has already submitted its purchase bid to the NHL, and Darin Pastor’s group submitted the paperwork for its proposal to the league on Friday. Greg Jamison’s group is still working on a proposal, but it is expected that they will submit it by the middle of next week, likely under pressure of an imposed NHL deadline.”

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Darrin Pastor

Jamison

Greg Jamison

The latest rumors say the LeBlanc/Gosbee deal is for 15 years, with no opt-out clause and an option to buy the arena. There is no word on the kind of deal submitted by the Pastor group. That’s odd after his flurry of recent publicity. I am especially gratified to see that Greg Jamison is still a player. I must admit that I hope he prevails. I have met him and talked to him in depth and it is still my belief that this man is a perfect fit for the Coyotes. Morgan offers that Matt Hulsizer may still be in the hunt as well. Maybe…maybe not. Mr. Hulsizer, a successful businessman, married into a family of wealth. They were willing to support him on his first attempt to buy the Coyotes…and why not? A hundred million dollars would have come from the City of Glendale. Yes, the family investment was still healthy but not as much was on the line as the city’s investment under Hulsizer. My guess is that there is no will to continue on the part of the family. I could be wrong for I have proven so in the past but somehow or another, I am willing to write him off.

Mr. Morgan then goes on to say, “What is likely to happen soon is that the NHL will choose an exclusive buyer, then approach Glendale to negotiate the lease agreement. The Glendale City Council hired Beacon Sports Capital in late March to solicit bids from management companies to run the arena, as well as to handle negotiations with any prospective owners.”

Bettman

Gary Bettman

This confirms my assessment in previous blogs that the League is in the driver’s seat this time. They will choose the buyer and Glendale will either come to terms with that buyer or not. The option of relocation of the team is certainly not dead yet.  This council may have thrown good money after bad in hiring Beacon Sports Capital. It appears that Beacon will have no role in the process when the NHL selects the owner. There will be no one to vet. If, however, Glendale cannot or will not come to terms with the newly selected owner, Beacon will then have a role as council will most likely Mayor Weiers’ Plan B with the use of 4 managers for the arena.

In additon, Morgan states, “What that lease agreement will look like is anyone’s guess. Glendale City Councilwoman Yvonne Knaack said recently that the annual fee to the city could “be anywhere from $6 (million) to $10 million on operating, and then maybe another $9 million on debt.” 

Councilmember Sherwood publicly recognized a figure of at least $10M to $12M annually for a lease management agreement.  Vice Mayor Knaack acknowledged a similar figure as well. She is also correct about the arena construction debt of approximately $9M a year. This is where it gets dicey. Will this council accept a deal that requires a substantial annual payment along with the annual construction debt? Combining the two, the figure will be somewhere in the $20M range annually. greed 1But that requires this council to cut expenses elsewhere to absorb the costs of the deal and to continue to build a contingency reserve fund. To date there has been absolutely no will to cut by the new council. In fact, they are considering adding 15 firefighter positions and a new $650K truck and 31 police positions to this budget. They simply cannot do both – manage the annual costs associated with the arena while creating new budgetary expenditures.

Norma Alvarez

Norma Alvarez

We have heard enough from Councilmember Alvarez to know that she wants to pay nothing for the arena and I suspect she thinks there is some group out there that will pay the city for the privilege of managing the arena. Not even her beloved Phoenix Monarch Group was willing to fall for that. If you remember, their base fee was $7M for a limited number of events…read tractor pulls. Nevertheless, she stubbornly holds to that position and has even managed to elicit support from Councilmembers Hugh and Chavira. Councilmembers Martinez and Sherwood recognize the importance of keeping an anchor tenant at the arena for the future of a vibrant Westgate that attracts new development in and around it.

Knaack

Yvonne Knaack

Weiers

Jerry Weiers

That leaves two question marks, Vice Mayor Knaack and Mayor Weiers. Vice Mayor Knaack is on the horns of a dilemma. I suspect in her “heart of hearts” she knows that keeping the team as an anchor tenant would be the right choice. But her strongest backers, the fire union, will put tremendous pressure on her if they see their 15 additional firefighter positions and new truck evaporate in this year’s budget. Mayor Weiers, on the other hand, derided the deal the previous council had with Greg Jamison. He should be reminded that Anthony LeBlanc has said publicly that any deal with the city must be similar to the previous deal on the table with Jamison. Weiers is also looking for a deal on the cheap. It will be time for these two people to decide what is more important. Is it more important to send the team packing and leave the legacy of an uncertain future for the arena and Westgate because it’s what their supporters in their previous election now expect of them? Or is it more important to accept that for the sake of Glendale, of Westgate and of West Glendale’s future development potential that sometimes one has to make the difficult and unpopular decision? We will see…soon enough. We all hope that they realize the importance of keeping an anchor tenant at the arena.

I am pleased that this long, painful Coyotes ownership saga is coming to an end. I wish all theCoyotes logo potential owners well although I continue to root for Greg Jamison.  The Coyotes team has been beleaguered and beaten for too long. They, more than anyone or anything else, have earned certainty about their futures.

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Mar 13

19

An addendum to “Saving grace”

Posted by Joyce Clark on March 19, 2013
Posted in Blogs • City of Glendale • Glendale elected officials • Glendale finances • Jobing.com arena  | Tagged With: , , , , , | 2 Comments

savingsIn my posting the other day, “Saving grace,” I talked about the $17M allocated and reserved in Glendale’s Fiscal Year 2013-14 Budget for Jobing.com Arena’s lease management agreement. I suggested that saving that $17M would be prudent by placing it in the city’s Unappropriated Contingency Fund. It should not be spent at this time. Then should there be a lease management agreement the first year’s funding would be available or if not used in that manner, it would fatten the city’s bottom line, an attractive strategy for lowering interest rates on the city’s bond indebtedness.

Well, apparently everyone – from city staff to the council – is already placing dibs on that money as evidenced by the March 19, 2013 City Council workshop.  Ms. Sherrybargaining 3 Schurhammer, Executive Director of Finance, offered many ways to spend it. Some of the expenditures include:

  1. Paying for the special, outside audit mandated by the new council.
  2. Paying for the consultant (read Beacon Sports and its special ties to the Reinsdorfs) to write and manage the RFP for the arena.
  3. Miscellaneous city department overages or unexpected expenses.
  4. Repaying loans made from the water and sewer funds.
  5. Paying for fund transfers to and from the Risk Management Trust Fund and the Workers’ Compensation Trust Fund.

Add to that staff wish list Mayor Weiers’ recent comment about raising employees’ salaries. Also add Councilmember Chavira’s plaintive call for a Special Council Workshop to consider the issue of Public Safety employees’ compensation and Councilmember Alvarez’ desire to restore or increase funding for youth and the poor.

If everyone’s desires are fulfilled, you can say good-bye to that $17M at the end of budget workshop discussions. Then where will the funding come from if (are you listening, God?) there ever is a successful contract for the arena and its management.

tax increaseI also heard the first tentative feelers being thrown out there publicly about Glendale’s property tax rates and the fact that revenues from that source continue to drop. Don’t be surprised if there is discussion (and possibly) adoption of higher property tax rates in Glendale.

 

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Mar 13

13

And the clock continues to tick

Posted by Joyce Clark on March 13, 2013
Posted in Blogs  | Tagged With: , , | 12 Comments

Sherwood

Councilmember Gary Sherwood

Coyotes logoToday is March 12, 2013, and the Coyotes ownership situation is silent…deathly so. What we know or think we know is that Mayor Weiers announced over a month ago that he had received calls expressing “interest” from mystery buyers. If there really were mystery buyers we have to assume that he passed those contacts on to the appropriate person, in this case, the Interim City Manager. We know from the public statements of Councilmember Gary Sherwood that Greg Jamison is making another run for ownership. We also know from media reports that Grant Woods is likely assisting Ice Edge in a possible bid and that Anthony LeBlanc, reputed to have broken away from the original Jamison investment group, said any new ownership deal has got to look very similar to the deal Greg Jamison was working previously. Councilmember Sherwood publicly stated that Glendale was hiring Beacon Sports Capital to negotiate for the city. Since then we have heard that Beacon is writing the RFP for the deal and that it is not expected to be completed until the end of March. It will have to go to council in executive session for approval and then will be released. That means a public RFP won’t hit the streets until April…and the clock continues to tick.

We know that Beacon Sports has a close relationship to Michael Reinsdorf and that relationship may offer insider access to the RFP for a possible Reinsdorf/Kaites bid.

We know that Bill Daley of the National Hockey League has said that if the deal cannot be completed in this round, I presume by the end of the season, the NHL will consider relocation of the team…and the clock continues to tick.

TimeWhat is worrisome is the seeming lack of any sense of urgency by the seven councilmembers or upper management of the city to complete a deal before the NHL pulls the plug. The end of the season for the Coyotes, if they do not have any play-off games, is the end of April. After the RFP is issued in April it will likely stay open for 45 days. Then the council needs to bless a possible owner, the NHL has to approve the possible owner and then, only then, is the final deal crafted. The attorneys bless their hearts; will take quite some time and many billable hours to finalize this new deal. Bear in mind the city will not have the services of former City Attorney Craig Tindall. In past years he had negotiated (some say obstructed) several possible deals for the city. Without his expertise, it could take considerably longer…and the clock continues to tick.

Chavira 3 resized

Councilmember Sam Chavira

Something which may or may not relate to the Coyotes deal is the attendance of Senator John McCain and Grant Woods at the Saturday hockey game where they were seen chatting with Mayor Weiers. Could one of the topics of conversation have been the Coyotes deal? Following that game Mayor Weiers, accompanied by Councilmembers Sherwood and Chavira, flew to Washington, D.C. The trip appeared to have as its goal Luke Air Force Base and an effort to lobby for the F-35. However, a March 12th Phoenix Business Journal article reports that the F-35 has never been considered for a possible sequestration cut. Now, if they were there to lobby for keeping the Glendale Airport’s tower open that would make far more sense as it is on the chopping block. But this was not declared to be part of their lobbying agenda. If nothing else it sure makes for a great photo op for newly elected officials. There are so many questions floating about. I’ll leave it to you to decide if this was the kind of politics where one hand washes the other. You must decide for yourself. Was this trip with  access to the Department of Defense a means of acknowledging access to Beacon and the RFP before issuance or just an opportunity for a local mayor to have a photo op? I don’t know. This is all pure speculation of course but it’s interesting to try to figure out if and how the dots may connect.

I guess we have to assume that there is much scurrying behind the scenes and we may see that a Kaites/Reinsdorf group or a Jamison Group emerges as the front runners  However, if a deal similar to the previous Jamison deal, requiring a $13M or $14M annual management fee, is offered to the city, as Anthony LeBlanc stated is needed, will this current council accept it? Will we see an offer coming forward at the moment the RFP hits the streets? And the clock continues to tick.

Weiers

Mayor Weiers

We know Councilmember Alvarez has publicly stated that NO deal is a good deal. Will she reconsider a five year deal? Or does she have the clout to bring Councilmembers Ian Hugh and Sam Chavira with her and find just one more vote in rejection of any deal? If so, could it be the Mayor? We saw those same four join forces to oust the City Attorney Craig Tindall…and the clock continues to tick.

Weiers ran for election saying that any Coyotes deal must not be done on the backs of Glendale taxpayers. Is the real plan to let the time run out on putting any deal together? Only time will tell.

 

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Feb 13

20

So many questions…so few answers

Posted by Joyce Clark on February 20, 2013
Posted in City of Glendale  | Tagged With: , , | 8 Comments

As of this date the public does not know the status of the Jobing.com Arena management RFP that Council directed be used. Has it been issued? What are the specific criteria within the RFP?  Inquestion 2 addition to the issuance of an RFP Council directed a simultaneous track to pursue negotiations with potential buyers. Has there been any confirmation of a consultant hired to negotiate with any and all potential buyers of the team? What is the cost of this new consultant? Who determined the direction given to this consultant?  What was the specific instruction? Where are Mayor Weiers’ “mystery buyers”? Has the City Manager talked with them? Word on the street is there really aren’t any. Do they really exist? What is the City’s time frame for resolution of the Coyotes ownership situation? Is there a time frame?

In addition to the cloudiness surrounding the status of multiple tracks for management of the arena, word has it that Mayor Weiers has not abandoned his scheme to issue four separate contracts for question 1the management of Jobing.com arena.  If true, someone should advise the Mayor that his scheme is the surest way to lose the Coyotes team. Perhaps he knows that already and it is his way of publicly professing support while killing them and Westgate off gently. So, Mayor, ‘fess up. Do you really, really want the team to stay and Westgate to thrive? If so, please explain just how this idea of four separate management contracts will attract any buyer of the team.

And where, oh where, has the NHL gone? All we heard after the deadline for the Greg Jamison deal had passed was the NHL oft repeated and perfunctory comment saying they continue to work with confusion 4the City to secure a buyer for the team. All we saw was the granting of another extension by the City to the NHL to manage the arena until the end of the season. Now that the lockout is over it seems that they are consumed with realignment of the league. I suppose after that there will be another pressing issue to consider. The most pressing issue to be resolved is the sale of the Coyotes to a buyer committed to keeping the team in Glendale long-term. It’s been 3+ years. It’s way past the time for the NHL to focus itself on this issue and this issue alone. It would be refreshing to hear from Mr. Bettman that he is committed to selling the team by the end of this season. NHL, do you hear us? Don’t you think it’s time to reveal your plan for the Coyotes?

So many questions but so few answers… It’s time for the City of Glendale and the League to provide some as the real stakeholders, the team, the fans and the citizens of Glendale remain in limbo.

Enjoy my version of the team’s Wheel of Fortune. I suppose if you could interactively spin it, it’s result mirrors all of the speculation out there.

Coyotes Wheel Of Misfortune

Coyotes Wheel Of Misfortune

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Feb 13

16

A four ring circus in Glendale?

Posted by Joyce Clark on February 16, 2013
Posted in City of Glendale  | Tagged With: , , , , , | 6 Comments

circus 1 A

I suspect by now everyone has learned of Mayor Weiers’ idea of splittingcircus 1 B the lease management agreement for Jobing.com Arena into 4 separate management agreements. One would be for “entertainment”. I assume it means non-hockey events. The second would be hockey. The third would be “education”. Your guess is as good as mine as to exactly what that means. The fourth would be “cleaning”.

circus 1 CSo now the arena would have 4 managers…er, czars. Lots of generals and very few, if any, soldiers. Picture this. Hockey plays on a defined schedule. The entertainment czar has a dispute with the hockey czar or education czar because there is a conflict as to who gets what night. Or there’s acircus 1 D conflict between the entertainment czar and the cleaning czar because the floors are sticky from soda residue or the restrooms are not spiffy. Does the NHL reschedule the Detroit Red Wings or others until the 3 other czars have reached resolution of the disputed issue?

What to do? Call in a mediator? My goodness it could take weeks, possibly even months to settle disputes. In the meantime, the place gets dingier and nights go unused by anyone. Is this any way to run a business? And of course, the larger question is – to what purpose?

circus 2This situation calls for a czar over all the czars and the creation of yet another layer as a manager to manage the four managers would then be needed. So now Glendale would have 5 contracts to award rather than just one. Spreading the largess in a greater…well…arena, so to speak. Remember what Anthony LeBlanc said to the media not too long ago? He said the deal to be attractive to a potential buyer would have to be very similar to the deal that has been on the table. Sounds to me as if he’s referring to the Jamison deal.

Why 4 separate management contracts? The speculation abounds. One theory is that it is a means of courting more councilmember support for a deal. The award of an education contract may satisfy Councilmember Chavira who is big on education. So big he ran on improving education not realizing the City of Glendale is separate from Glendale school districts and has no control over them. Remember his campaign pledge to work to “fully fund Head Start,” a federal program? Having educational opportunities at Jobing.com arena might assuage that embarrassment and do the trick. Although Glendale taxpayers are probably not in the mood to fund yet another city fiscal responsibility not specified in the City Charter.

Then there’s the entertainment contract award. Remember the Phoenix Monarch Group (PMG)? Councilwoman Alvarez brokered a meeting between them and the former Mayor Scruggs and Former Councilmember Lieberman. Opening the door for them to bid may cause Alvarez to move away from her staunchly negative position on any deal for the arena.

There may be a certain appeal to the idea of offering 4 arena management contracts for the Mayor. For during his election campaign just a short 3 months ago his position was that the only way the team could stay was if it didn’t cost the taxpayers of Glendale. He’s made it quite clear that he thinks the Jamison deal was bad for Glendale taxpayers and the only good deal is one that doesn’t hurt them. He’s put himself in a position making it difficult for him to support Mr. LeBlanc’s assertion that any new deal that works would have to be very similar to the Jamison deal. Or by way of another theory, perhaps it’s his way of signaling to all that he is, indeed, in charge. After all, he needs to place his imprint on some issue to demonstrate that he is king…er…president…er…chief. Well, at the very least that he is the boss.

This entire scheme appears to be unorthodox… in fact, quite bizarre…but who knows? Stranger things have happened in Glendale.

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