It seems the drama surrounding the Arizona Coyotes and city of Glendale will never cease.
After coming to an agreement on a short, two-year lease that will see the Coyotes continue to play their games at the Gila River Arena, the team and city are once again in a dispute regarding the management of the team’s arena.
The city is responsible for finding a new arena manager, a task currently held by the Coyotes’ ownership group, IceArizona.
According to a report from The Arizona Republic, the city is hoping to have a new manager by January. IceArizona would be considered should the group respond with the proper proposal to the city. One of the reasoning, according to the article, is that the city is not happy with the number of non-hockey events that were booked for the arena.
Because of the fast tracking towards finding a new manager for the Gila River Arena, negotiations for an extension on the current two-year lease deal seem to be squashed before they even began. Coyotes President Anthony LeBlanc claims that the decision to speed up the process changes the “dynamics” of a potential agreement.
In addition to the arena manager news, an audit on the Coyotes was released that suggests that the Coyotes may have lost more than the $34.8 million the organization reported back in March. In fact, the city may have been fleeced on its share of certain revenue.
With constant issues getting in the way of a peaceful relationship between the organization and city, one has to expect Arizona to begin the process of looking for a new home in the not-to-distant future. Whether it’s in Scottsdale, Phoenix or elsewhere will be in the front of fans’ minds once again.