City of Glendale is...Oh I Don't Even Know Anymore

Mad Elaine: The Civil Code Warrior

Good ol' Lisa Halverstadt is at it again, updating us on the Coyotes situation and the anarchy taking place in the wholesome town of Glendale, Arizona.  Ah, Glendale, where the trees grow big and tall, and the children play freely in the streets without a care, and old people play the blues harp down at the general store.  Oh, and all of those crazy people live there too.  Sadly, that's totally important to the understanding of any Glendale/Coyotes story.

Anyway, a couple of Lisa's articles struck me funny today, so I thought I would pass them along.

First, a blog post she wrote early on Tuesday – which actually allows me to get on my soapbox again and point something out.  Reputable print newspapers that feature a free online version of their paper with the same content in the pay-to-subscribe print version such as The Arizona Republic (AZCentral), KCStar, or any other publication also have "blogs" on the same site where the same people who write "blog posts" also write news articles.  And "news people" decry the downfall of journalism due to blogging, Twitter, etc.  That's inconsistent.

Anyway, Lisa's post starts with a phrase that shouldn't exist, as far as the NHL led the public to believe (bold is mine):

Phoenix Coyotes staffers are hopeful as they prep for what could be their fourth season without a permanent owner.

Pardon me, but didn't the NHL set a loose ultimatum that essentially said the NHL would not own the team for a fourth season without assuring it's removal from the city?

Perhaps team president Mike Nealy paints a better picture of the situation.

“It’s still moving forward,” Nealy said. “It’s zigging and zagging a bit but Greg Jamison is still working toward the ultimate resolution with the public issues that are out there. At the end of the day, the league is still interested in keeping the team here.”

"Huh, oh yeah, I guess the league is still interested.  It's whatever, though.  I mean, Greg wants to buy the team and all, but, like, y'know, whatever."  This nonchalant attitude does not make a lot of sense, although, in fairness, everyone seems to be staying level-headed about the situation.  Oh, but what public issues does Mr. Nealy refer?

Well, remember when those Glendale citizens were trying to get signatures to put the Coyotes issue/tax hike to a vote.  Well, Glendale rejected the referendum, which apparently they can do, and they did, so here we go.  This led to an apparent court date in August so the city and these random people can have a forum to argue with each other over the same crap, which will inevitably lead to another court date because what the hell else do these people have to do.

From Halverstadt's most recent article on AZCentral:

Supporters of an effort to reverse Glendale's sales-tax increase must wait nearly a month to argue before a judge. 

Last week, the city rejected signatures submitted by the business group which aims to get an initiative on the November ballot. The group, Save Glendale Now, responded with a lawsuit. 

A Glendale spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that the city and the business group won't appear before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sally Duncan until Aug. 14.

Once in court, Glendale will argue the 100-word summary submitted with the group's 4,138 signatures was misleading because an initiative cannot reverse the Glendale City Council's vote to increase the city sales tax by 0.7 percent.

So, although Glendale invalidated the signatures, the uncertainty stems from this court date and the fact that no official deal has actually been made, probably due to no one knowing what the hell is going on.

Another issue: the current CBA expires on September 15th, which could mean a lockout with no new agreement in place.  The good thing for Glendale is the NHL has already begun negotiations.  The bad thing, these are less "negotiations" and more a list of the NHL's demands.  Another bad thing is that the NHL's attention right now is not on Glendale, and more on playing the upcoming season (i.e. gettin' paid, yo).

Here are a few ways it could go down.

A.) the NHL does not have a lockout, but Glendale/Jamison/the NHL have to worry about random court dates and possible votes on top of other Arizona law related nonsense.
B.) the NHL locks out for some amount of time, the NHL abandons talks with Jamison for whatever reason (probably due to uncertainty).
C.) the NHL locks out for some amount of time, and does its best to rid itself of financial liabilities.  Thus, the Coyotes fold, and we have a fun dispersal draft.
D.) the NHL does not lock out, the city of Glendale actually forms something resembling a stable city government, Jamison buys the Coyotes, and the Coyotes stay in Glendale.  They also re-sign Shane Doan, because, sure why not. (Of course, this option relies on a "stable city government" which also means "a lack of self-serving politicians," which, yeah, I'll leave the political commentary to someone else...).

So, in summation, to answer the question posed the other day by our good friend PucKChaser, OH HELL NO I WOULDN'T WANT TO BE GLENDALE THAT PLACE IS WHACKED!  Or, option #4, vacationing in Europe.

Where is Kansas City or Quebec City (or even non-interested, interested city Seattle) in all of this?  Well, who knows, maybe some places just like to watch the world burn.

Also, as an aside, Lisa Halverstadt looks like Scrooge's nephew Fred's wife (Clara, apparently, played by Janet Holywell) from the Muppets Christmas Carol.  So, yeah, there you go.  Small world.