Glendale officials insist it’s time to end the debate over a $197 million incentive package the city is offering to a Chicago investor who wants to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and keep the struggling hockey team playing at the Jobing.com arena.

The deal that has been proposed is legal, they say.

The taxpayers are protected.

There are iron-clad guarantees the team will not be moved, even if it goes into bankruptcy again.

All of the relevant questions, advocates claim, have been answered.

But beyond words of assurance from the city, scant information has been provided about how much financial exposure the city’s taxpayers will face if the optimistic projections of a successful team do not pan out.

The team’s track record leaves some doubt.

It has never turned a profit since moving to the Valley in 1996. The Coyotes have lost as much as $40 million this season, prospective buyer Matthew Hulsizer told the media. Glendale posted $25 million to partially cover the losses. The team has consistently lost between $25 million and $40 million annually.

In 2009, the former owners of the franchise filed for bankruptcy. Glendale’s rush to put together a new incentive package came about because interested buyers wanted to move the team to Canada, leaving the $180 million arena without a major tenant.

The National Hockey League eventually bought the team. Hulsizer wants to buy it from the league for $210 million, which includes this year’s financial losses. To make the deal work, the city plans to issue bonds to raise $100 million that it will give to Hulsizer to help complete the purchase. The bonds are supposed to be repaid by arena parking revenue that the city claims the team owns. In addition, the city will pay Hulsizer $97 million as part of an agreement that he manage the arena for 5 ½ years.

Glendale officials claim that the economic benefits of keeping the Coyotes playing there are about a half-billion dollars, a figure they plucked from bankruptcy proceedings.

The Goldwater Institute has announced it is prepared to take the city to court under the state’s constitutional ban on governments making gifts to private entities if the deal, as currently structured, goes through.

Read More