Last Thursday, Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs said the Goldwater Institute had “taken the unprecedented step” of warning bond-rating agencies that the city's agreement on a new lease for the Coyotes to play at the city-owned Jobing.com Arena violated the Arizona constitution. The lease represents a crucial part of the deal to keep the franchise in Glendale.
After Goldwater Institute president and chief executive officer Darcy Olsen responded to Scruggs by saying it would be wrong to give Glendale "a free pass" to break the state's prohibition on public sector subsidising of private business, Bettman explained his frustrations to The Associated Press.
“I quite frankly don't know who the people there report to or are accountable to, but it fascinates me that whoever is running the Goldwater Institute can actually substitute their judgement for that of the Glendale City Council by, in effect, overturning a duly enacted resolution of the city and one that was enacted in public session,” he said.
“This situation is far too serious for such game play,” Bettman added. “My hope is somehow Goldwater and Glendale can find a way to get this done, promptly.” Glendale must sell US$116 million in bonds to provide Hulsizer with the funds needed to complete the deal.
Hulsizer would buy the team from the NHL, which acquired the Coyotes out of bankruptcy in 2009 with the aim of selling on the franchise to an owner who would keep the franchise in Arizona.
