City has already received inquiries
The new mayor of Glendale is predicting the Phoenix Coyotes will continue to call the city home, despite the failure of a purchase deal.
A deadline passed Thursday night at midnight for would-be Coyotes owner Greg Jamison to finalize a deal to buy the team and keep them playing at Jobing.com Arena.
The agreement, approved by the previous city council, would have required the city to pay Jamison more than $300 million over the next 20 years to manage Jobing.com Arena and all of its events, including Coyotes games.
Mayor Jerry Weiers repeated on Friday comments that he had made throughout his campaign last year that the deal was bad for taxpayers. He says he would be interested in cutting another deal, with Jamison or some other buyer/investor, "if we can do it in a way that doesn't cost the taxpayers more money than what we get out of it."
He added, "The ideal situation is for a business to be able to come here, play their game, make a profit, and the city not have to spend money to do that."
Weiers revealed that there's already interest in the team: "I think there's a good opportunity to keep the Coyotes. There's a couple groups, which I'm not at liberty right now to say who they are, that came forward Thursday saying they'd like an opportunity to talk to the city of Glendale."
He adds that Jamison is also still interested in buying the team, but understands that the terms of any agreement would have to change: "I don't believe that the current council, with the four new members that were just sworn in along with myself, has the will to honor that same offer. I can't speak for them, but people expressed to me earlier that they will not honor that."
The Coyotes are currently owned by the National Hockey League until a new buyer can be found.
