((HT: Arizona Republic/Bickley))
Canada seethes. Glendale sighs. The Coyotes have their reprieve. Our indifference lends a farcical twist to the proceedings. And now the real fun begins.
To keep hockey in Arizona:
The NHL commissioner must prove he is as passionate about us as he was in defeating a rogue billionaire attempting to break in the NHL's back door. But I worry about Gary Bettman's sincerity.
He claimed there are four groups interested in buying the Coyotes, something a shrewd bankruptcy judge refuted as "hearsay." Yet none of the interested parties have stepped forward and spoken publicly. None of them have said an encouraging word to us, the potential customers. Isn't that strange?
When arguing that hockey was still viable in Arizona, Bettman also cited the work of an advocacy group, Save the Coyotes. Problem is, that group was a small pocket of diehards who gathered in a parking lot like the breakfast crowd at Denny's, and the paltry attendance made the apathy problem seem worse than it really is.
Don't get me wrong. Those fans are loving, ambitious and more than the Coyotes deserve. Yet by referencing this small group as a beacon of hope, Bettman revealed himself as dishonest or completely out of touch. Neither bodes well for the future.
Alas, these weeks of nasty discovery have revealed much about this dysfunctional team, like how outgoing owner Jerry Moyes purchased 1,000 tickets to every home game in effort to reach the necessary quota for revenue sharing (14,000 minimum average tickets per game). It was Bettman who penalized the Coyotes for cooking the books, disallowing 40 percent of the team's revenue-sharing money and increasing team losses by $6.4 million.
It also embarrassed the league deeply when free ticket offers showed up on the back of vodka bottles. So, I doubt the commissioner is all that enthusiastic about us - the fan base - at the moment.
But that's his problem, and not ours.
From here, the Coyotes will go to auction. Their market appeal will largely depend on the city of Glendale, and court documents have already indicated that city manager Ed Beasley has signed off on up to $15 million of new concessions.
Some might wonder where Beasley gets the audacity, or the authority. But boldness has served this city well in the past, and along the way, the city manager also made it clear he won't fund a losing operation. And he did something the Canadian press has yet to do, and that's pin a big part of the problem on a Canadian icon.
Through a city-commissioned report that suggested Wayne Gretzky take a $6 million pay cut, Beasley made his position clear. The problem is not the sport or the location. It's this flawed product they're putting on the ice, and this overpaid coach who is sucking the trough dry. He's right on both counts.
In a market that supposedly doesn't care about hockey, many of us were riveted to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. Playoff hockey is 10 times better than what is offered up during the regular season, and it's where deep relationships with the sport are formed.
Yet the Coyotes haven't been to the playoffs since 2002. The franchise hasn't won a series - i.e., made a playoff run - since 1987. Logic, and our history, indicate the market could grow 10 times in Phoenix almost overnight, if the team ever got its act together.
But the clock is ticking. When new ownership groups emerge, you can bet there will be money rooted in Las Vegas, a possible escape route. There will be Canadian money, too, and another group ready to take the team across the border. This will be Bettman's litmus test, proving how much he really cares about us.
If winning is the solution to the Arizona problem, he'll make sure the Coyotes are sharp and ready to skate come September. And he'll let Don Maloney buy some really good players right now, on the NHL's dime. We'll pay you back, commish. Promise.
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