Glendale Update

In a 5-2 vote the Glendale City Council decided to fork over $25 million to subsidize the Phoenix Coyotes for at least another year.  For eager Winnipeg hockey fans all eyes are now on the Atlanta Thrashers.

Winnipeg Jets Watch

Tomorrow the Glendale council is expected to vote to cover the losses of the Phoenix Coyotes for the next season, but if they choose for some reason against doing so the franchise is expected to be sold to the True North Group, packed up and then shipped here to Winnipeg.  I have mixed impressions of seeing the return of the NHL to Winnipeg, but I have to sympathize with the people of Glendale who'll presumably have to pay through their tax dollars for the continuing presence of a sports franchise that has never made a penny in profit since being relocated there from Winnipeg in 1996.  The Phoenix Coyotes have been a financial calamity and are the poster franchise for the failure of the NHL's expansion into the Sun Belt.

Glendale, Phoenix and Arizona in general have suffered dreadfully from the fallout of the collapse in construction and the bursting of the housing bubble.  The accumulation of wealth in these sectors during the 1990s likely drove the NHL to consider the area as suitable for expansion.  Now that the bubble has burst, the NHL remains committed to the idea that they can somehow turn Phoenix into a hockey city, despite attendance figures demonstrating the opposite being the case.