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Shoalts: Glendale Mayor Scruggs wants city's $$ back
Originally, Scruggs wanted to simply withdraw the $20-million from the account but she was not aware until recently that the city did not have control of the escrow account.
******* mayor. Commits 20 million, doesn't check if she controls the account.
She is clearly against the $20 million for next year. She is still ticked off that nobody is providing her with a figure on arena management cost. Incidentally, she has done her own investigation on the Phoenix US Airways arena and some from Jobing.com estimates. For US Airways she estimated $14 million, and $13 million for Jobing.com. She thinks that the cost without the Coyotes is $11 million.
She is ticked at Daly for standing in front of council and saying that a deal was imminent.
She wants a payment plan for the $25 million.
She says that having the $20 million back from the NHL would solve all of their immediate budget issues causing them to lay off staff, etc.
She wants council members to sign a letter to Bettman expressing their frustration and disillusionment with how the NHL has led them astray on this deal.
In my opinion, if the NHL is not able to secure a local buyer, the least they could do is eat the losses for this year and help Glendale out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ducks2010
More golden television moments...Is Gary Bettman sleeping well tonight?
Part of Transcript
City of Glendale - Budget Workshop - April 3, 2012
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Arena Management…Councilmember Alvarez’s favorite idea/subject. Page 294 we have $20 million plugged in for next year. I will not support a budget that has $20 million plugged in for arena management… and I’m not just going to end it right there. I’m gonna tell you… um… Everybody in this room knows, I have been asking for information since June… that I have repeatedly done this in every way, shape or form possible and have gotten nothing. Last time at our meeting of February 28th, I think it was, everyone agreed you would get it on March 20th. I watched… listened to the meeting on March 20th… not one word about it. So I’m going to come up with my own number. This is what I’m gonna do. Now… there is one huge difference here between what councilmember Alvarez thinks and some people in the community and what is reality. If the team leaves, we still have to run that arena. So you cannot wipe out $20 million. You have to put in some amount of money… ah… to.. ah… manage the activities that are going to be left there…. Pay a management company to manage them… keep the place running so force and so on. Now let me tell you what Phoenix spends… OK… Through some really good hard digging by people smarter than me… OK… we were able to find the city of Phoenix’s fiscal year 2011 financial statement and they budgeted $12.4 million for their US Airways Arena. Their actual year end budget was $14 million. And I guess the US Airways arena is somewhat similar to our arena. Um… Now they have a sports team there… they have the Suns there… but they have all the other things going on and so forth. They also have money in a lot of other places… it is much more complicated to figure out that I could really do… they also move money back and forth from the arena to pay for their hotel… But that is kind of a starting point… $14 million. Now, I also have some figures… these are annual expenses to operate the Jobing.com arena, our arena, as reported by the arena management group financial statements. I was waiting… hoping that somebody could verify this because every time that I have brought it up I have been told… oh… “it is so complicated… you can’t get it”… whatever… but I do have the figures that were gotten for me and the costs include but are not limited to… labor expenses for events, concerts and games, operation and maintenance expenses, and administration expenses. So for fiscal year 2009, that cost was $13.9 million… for fiscal year 2010, that cost was $12.2 million… So I’m gonna just come up with a number out of the air because nobody would… ah… help me get a real number. So I think… Instead of $20 million…. I keep going back and forth between $10 million and $12 million… What I’m looking at is what it is going to cost to run the arena for all the other events and hopefully we will have more events that whats… than the non-hockey events that are there now… We will get some revenues we don’t get now.... but we are going to give up a lot of revenues that we get because of the hockey team being there and we are going to have to pay somebody to manage the arena. So I’m going to just pick $11 million because I cannot decide between $10 million and $12 million. So for me… When I look at a budget… If I see $20 million there for arena management… that is not a budget that I am going to, um, approve. And now on that same subject… I’m gonna ask y’all to think about supporting this idea… This comes from our meeting.. Feb 28, 2012… and I said.. ah… and … as we revisit history… the reason why we approved that second payment of $25 million to the NHL. Why 5 of us voted for this… was because we were told that we were just this close to a deal being done. Mr. Daly stood right in front of us and he told us that…. “We have never been closer… There was a deal that was going to be done so we should never have to pay that $25 million”…. Is what I recall us believing at that time… We gotta put it in there as a placeholder… So the the.. ah.. NHL wouldn’t go move the team off someplace… but we should never have to pay it. But I said on February 28th… so here we are now… a year later… No Mr. Hulsizer… and it appears that the NHL never intended to business with Mr. Hulsizer in the first place… but we put this money up believing we would never spend it… and here we are…. I’m guessing two months…. From having to pay this. No Mr. Hulsizer… No Mr. Anybody Else. No Deals… No Nothing… So we have a problem. And my solution and my suggestion that I have put out there, and put out publically…. That Mr. Beasley start talking to the NHL about what a great partner we have been with them… and we have stuck to this…. And we have helped them get the TV rights for the west coast… and given the stress that our budget is under… that there be a payment plan developed so that we don’t pay $25 million on May 2, 2012 or any other date, but that we structure a payment plan that fits within our budget. So that is going to be my number one contribution as you go forward and develop a proposed budget for us to look at… so… what I have been told is… First I was told.. “No that we won’t have any leverage with the NHL if we talk about that.”… then I was told… “Well, I proposed it to them and they have taken it under advisement.” … I’m gonna ask all of you now… We have never been allowed to be part of any of these negotiations… and I’m gonna ask you…. Are you willing to sign your name to a letter… to Mr. Gary Bettman… Commissioner of the NHL… and say “This is what is happening to the City of Glendale…” … they have been in control of this process the entire time. Everything had to start with them. We couldn’t do anything til they said that, ah, we could talk to somebody… They have been in control of this and they have led us to this terrible point that we are at today… talking about the things we are talking about. If we don’t pay that $20 million that is in escrow, which I have been told by our city attorney, we can’t get out… without their permission. It was put in an escrow account that we cannot terminate. If we get that out of the escrow account and we pay them $5 million say… not $20 million… our problems and everything that our employees are fearful of will pretty much go away… and in terms of the extra $5 million to meet the $25 million that we never could come up with the answer for…. I better not see it in any budget and if it is in a budget, I’m not voting for it… because they don’t have it locked up in escrow yet… so… that is my item number 13… and that is my answer to the $20 million… you can’t wipe it out entirely… but you can sure take a huge chunk out of it… now I’m saying take $9 million out and I’m saying… “We talk to the NHL.” And I’m sure they will get a call from some of these reporters right now…. It is their problem they made. They misled us and they can’t do this to our city. OK… going back to where I am looking for cuts.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: Wait… Question.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Can I finish my part? OK? Can I finish my things? My part here and then you can ask your question?
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: Thank-you. Yes.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Going to the financial services department… Financial Services on page 232-254. There are 32 FTE’s coming out of the General Fund and it is costing ….
[SKIP FORWARD TO 3:48:33]
… and none of these buildings are good for selling because we spent too much to build them and the market is down and everything…. But there was no discussion whatsoever about what the State did… a sale lease back. We are looking for large amounts of cash. That is what we are looking for… is for large amounts of cash. If we are not going to get it from the NHL in the form of them releasing that $20 million, then I think we should be putting our assets up for sale pretty darn quick and then lease them back… because what we need now is we need cash to get us over this hump. Vice Mayor says everything is going to get better and it will some day… but we need cash right now to get us over this hump… and I think that is something that should definitely be considered… At home I had some ideas written about where to make money… revenue… but you know… one of the problems.. one of the reasons why we are in the mess we are in right now is that we built the budget last year and we… we approved that budget based on the restructuring of certain leases that were going to bring us $8 million and it only brang us 2… brought us $2 million. So we can’t build a budget based on charging people $10 for a library card or any of these other types of things… We can only build a budget based on real… real money… that’s really going to be there… that there is no question about. Do you have any questions for me about anything that I have said?
Assistant City Manager Horatio Skeete: Ah, Mayor… Mmm, I… I think I heard you some of, some of these things have, ah, been in da works and will continue to be developed and we will certainly be able to present you with alternatives and ah, valid discussion arounds most of these items and the ones that we haven’t thought about yet.. that, that you presented today, we will go back and think about those as well. We will, like you’ve said earlier on in.. in your presentation and in your discussion among yourselves… some of these items are items that we may have considered before and for good reason, that you are not aware of yet, ah um, did not bring them forward. We will also include those in da presentation and in da discussion so that you understand why we are not bringing forward some of the things you may have suggested and, and see if there additional discussion and, and direction that you can give us to, to get us to where we need to… but we will consider those items over the next week or so.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: That is very fair.. And quite honestly I think that is at the heart of this whole problem. We just don’t know anything. You know you are sitting and you consider things and you have ideas but they don’t pan out and we sit over here and we worry and try to think of ideas… lets go sell all our buildings… lets do this… lets to that… and you are off there figuring out why none of it will work. We don’t talk to each other…. We don’t get that information. We don’t know. And I think what we have gone through the last six workshops has been an opportunity for us to peel back that onion… and understand and, and know what really is going on around here… so fair enough… whatever you bring forward that… say no.. your idea is not going to work and this is why… that is all I am asking you… just listen and give me an answer…. But I think the biggest thing that I have offered here… the largest single number… all has to do with the NHL, the arena, the team…. And I have put it on the table here… yes… Councilmember Lieberman.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: Thank-you you did a great summary. I will give you credit for that. I did not vote for the latest $25 million, I am proud of the fact that I didn’t vote for it… I talked against it when I didn’t vote for it. The vote was 5-2. Now several things you have brought up. Lets comment first on the baseball fields… I didn’t see anywhere at all in this budget where the $13.4 million we are going to owe next year… if my facts are correct within half a million, is coming from? Nobody has described to me yet where the $5 million would be coming from except Mayor when you say $11 million… do you mean that is all of the $20 million in escrow or are you referring to the $20 million in the book for next year?
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Ok… first of all… what I am offering my comments on the draft, the draft budget that the staff presented to us when we started all this back in February…. So my comments are on that. The $11 million is what I think we would spend instead of the $20 million that is in the book, based on the figures I have had from the arena from past years and based on what Phoenix spends for U.S. Airways. It can’t be zero… we own a building… there are expenses… somebody has to run it… and pay the salaries and so forth… So instead of $20 million, I am suggesting $11 million. Separately, I am suggesting that anybody who is interested join me in writing a letter to Gary Bettman… saying release us from that $20 million that is in escrow and let us pay you over time because you have just about….
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: That $11 million where?
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: No!
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: That $20 million?
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Yes! From last. The..
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: Then where does the $11 million come in? Is that from this year? That is what I want understood. I don’t understand where you get that from.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: OK.. let me get the book. OK.. let me get the book.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: You are going to leave the $20 million that is in escrow and let us pay it over time?
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: OK. Let me start over… The $20 million is in escrow. We have no right to take out. I have talked to our attorney about this more than once. The escrow was setup in such a way that only the NHL can release us from paying it. But…
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: Ah but… the other $5 million….
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Can you let me finish? Can you let me? This is the $20 million that you didn’t vote for last year… so lets finish one story. The $5 million we didn’t have… so it didn’t go into escrow… I said I will not approve a budget that has that in there…. Then the $11 million takes the place of… what page is that budget on? I’m sorry..
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: The $20 million for next year?
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Oh my god, no matter what I say… it is gonna be…
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: No I’m just trying to clarify it here.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: OK … If I can find the, ah, what page is the? Page 234. Thank-you very much.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: Let me look.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: That is correct… Right here… and I made an issue of that when we discussed it.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Well you didn’t bring it up today. You should have. And you would have had some support for it.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: No you did. Right here.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: It would have been good to have some support… Yes we talked about this a lot. Councilmember Alvarez brought it up early on and I said I’ll address that as item #13. So this $20 million. OK so this $20 million right here… This is draft budget for 2013. I’m saying… for me… the maximum I’ll go is $11 million. Separate item, voted on last year, that you voted no on, was the $25 million for the second year to the NHL… and I’m saying they have no right to that money. They have held us hostage for a year… but it is locked up in escrow that we can’t take it out… and I am saying lets write a letter and say “No… this is not right!”.
Councilmember Norma Alvarez: Mayor, knowing that the $25 million… How long have you known about that? Because I do…
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: You were here and voted “No” on that last year.
Councilmember Norma Alvarez: Yah… Well,… You voted yes.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Yes, I did because… You remember Mr. Daly stood there and…
Councilmember Norma Alvarez: Yes
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: we were… we have never been so close… we were this close to getting a deal done. Our staff told us… We will never have to pay this because as long as the team is sold, before the hockey season starts in October, we will never have to pay anything…. And that is what I believed. I think my colleagues believed.
Councilmember Steven Frate: I believed.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: That is why we voted yes… OK? Because we didn’t think we would ever have to… The deal was this close to being done. We would never have to pay that money… Now, how long have I known that it is in an escrow that we can’t get into? Just the last couple of weeks when I started asking. Its on the record at our meeting February 28th… I said lets go get that… Nothing… reasons why not… Can’t do it. So I asked… Can we get it? And I go to the attorney… who else would you go to but the attorney? He says.. No… it was put in escrow… locked up. Unless they release it, we can’t have it. Now… is there any reason why they are going to feel sorry for little old Glendale? Maybe not… but maybe there is because they want to take that team someplace else and maybe other places should know what they get involved in when they get involved with the NHL. This is how I feel. I mean… I don’t know if they are going to charge me with slander or what…. This is how I feel…. Based on two… How long have we been fiddling around with these people?... Two and a half years? Three years?
Unknown: Four.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Four. Based on four years… This is how I feel… and I feel for everyone of the people in this audience…. I feel for everyone of the citizens…. Just like councilmember Knaack said… I just want to do something about it… and we have been held back, held back, held back.
City Manager Ed Beasley: Mayor
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: I don’t want to be held back anymore.
City Manager Ed Beasley: Mayor…Ah… Appreciate the comments. I’m just trying to figure out who has held you back because the council has given us direction to take a certain steps. If they want to change that direction publicly... that is fine. I have spoken with Mr. Bettman about the terms in which you have requested. He asked that he has taken it under consideration. He said he will consider, ah, what he would do at the right time…. So if there is a change of direction… ah, pursuant to what happen and again what was supposed to take place on March 20th… the direction was to start to take a look at the options in regards to that Plan B, but also to stay the course. But I don’t want anyone to misunderstand that someone has kept anyone from having discussion with the NHL or at any point in time misled them in regards to what the NHL’s intentions were. You are absolutely correct in the sense that we are in a holding pattern and we don’t control the situation… and then that is why we need to place within a budget and make a decision very shortly of whether you do decide to go forward, if a deal comes forward, or if you decide to go ahead and go to a Plan B. Either way we will be prepared to meet those challenges if they come forward.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: OK… Who has been held back? OK… I have been trying to get a Plan B out since June. All these people have held me back, you have held me back. Your recommendation was no. You can go back on the minutes for September.. The recommendation was that “It is a bad time… We shouldn’t know these things… We shouldn’t irritate people” … and that was what the decision was… Don’t get the information. It is all in the newspaper… It is all everywhere… OK… On the… um… March 20th… I kept pushing… pushing… pushing…. So we were at a meeting…. February 21st… pushed again… How much to run our arena? Suggestion was… Well how about we do this in the middle of March because by then we will know more… Willing to wait until the second week of March… Ok… Ah, um… Ah… Suspected staff recommendation that we should not pursue Plan B last September because they know best… willing to wait until the middle of March…. Middle of March OK…. So.. all of these things… that is why I am saying… and, and, in terms of who says “Don’t talk to Mr. Bettman” …. You have told me repeatedly… “Nobody should talk to anybody”. You are the contact and so forth so what I am saying is….
City Manager Ed Beasley: Mayor that is not correct, I am sorry.. You have had more… You have the call… You had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Bettman… as the council
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: and he called me.
City Manager Ed Beasley: That is correct…So it is not that you didn’t have the chance to speak with him.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: He called me because he didn’t like what I said.
City Manager Ed Beasley: And… And… Mayor… that… that may be fine. I just want to make sure that it is clear that on March 20th which you keep reflecting upon…. The direction has been given and has been operated upon.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: You gave direction that you did…. But explain to me on February 21st, these people said they wanted the information on March 20th… On February 21st, he said he wanted Plan B… others said I want it the middle of March. So what happened between February 21st and the middle of March that made you think that you should not bring the information forward?
City Manager Ed Beasley: Because your notes are not correct Mayor… What the council said was that they would consider the option to move forward if we didn’t have a deal by March 20th. That is when we proceeded to plan and look at a Plan B process in conjunction with a Plan A.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: OK. I will check my notes.. with people’s comments… their voice.
Councilmember Norma Alvarez: Mayor, Mayor.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Yes Councilmember.
Councilmember Norma Alvarez: My biggest concern is… putting the money, ah, in a, where it is being held by the NHL and not knowing if… you said you just found out about it… I didn’t… If you didn’t know… How would we know?
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: I didn’t say you did. All I am saying is I asked questions to find out.
Councilmember Norma Alvarez: No but… Saying.. That’s the most important… That somebody or staff went and made a deal without our permission.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: What happened is we voted here 5-2 to put, to put aside $25 million knowing that we only had $20 million not $25 million. The document that created the mechanism to do that never came to us. Councilmember Martinez.
Councilmember Manny Martinez: I have a question for Mr. Tindall. I haven’t said anything because I thought that anything that we said in… ah, in executive session… we couldn’t speak about. There was reference to the March 20th meeting. It appears that we are talking about it and I… Can I speak about that?
City Attorney Craig Tindall: Ah, Ah, Well, Ah, Well…, The, The, ah, ah, Mayor and Councilmember Martinez, ah, um, In answer to your question… the… instructions and directions that were…. That were given on March 20th are obviously something that… that we have to implement… so certainly we can talk about the implementation. The conversation, the information, the executive session would remain confidential… so, um, the discussion that has gone on so far is fine…um… the specific documents or conversations that are had in executive session would remain confidential… um… and then while I have the floor…. If I could address the escrow agreements have… were presented to council with the other documents at the, ah, at the time that the documents were approved…. Ah um… so those.. those documents have been presented to council and then we have had…. The mayor and I, ah, confirming conversations with respect to the effect of that escrow agreement… within the last few days… or weeks.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: I am not talking about anything out of executive session. These are notes from our Feb 21st session because the $20 million was stuck in… Economic Development…and I believe… or Financial Services… so this was as we talked about it sitting here.
Councilmember Manny Martinez: Oh.. ah.. but… but… see, ah.. I was referencing Mayor the ah… I don’t know if I have the right date. There was a meeting that you missed.
City Attorney Craig Tindall: And Mayor. Mayor.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: March 20th.
Councilmember Manny Martinez: But that was March 20th?
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: And I was expecting to hear that… in the meeting… because that was what everybody said… Middle of March… and I listened on TV and it wasn’t there. OK. Everybody said OK… middle of March… because the $20 million was questioned back on February 21st… when we were at Financial Services… where the $20 million was stuck…. And so that’s when the whole discussion “middle of March” came… well middle of March became March 20th… because that is the date of the meeting… so I sat there and listened and there was nothing… now I don’t know. What I am questioning is not what you did in executive session, what I am questioning is How did direction change from February 21st, which was… give us the information so we can do Plan B… to March 20th?
Councilmember Norma Alvarez: Well if I remember correctly..ah.. where we were asked that question was in the executive session.. Ah um… I know that we cannot vote on anything… so there was no vote taken and I have made it clear from the beginning that I do not want… want us support sports… giving money to… ah… sports.. and taking away from services… I have said that.. and I have voted against it and I will vote against it again. That is… Nobody is going to change my mind about… I’m very concerned that all of a sudden, ah, you know its in… we can’t take that money, we can’t… you know… it is in escrow… you know… I don’t understand that… and that… what I am very concerned.
Councilmember Manny Martinez: My reference was that… to the $20 million… I wasn’t talk really… well… talking about the money… I was referencing the fact that we did give direction vis a vis with regard to Plan B.
Unknown… Ya.
Councilmember Manny Martinez: We did give direction… That is what I wanted to address.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: I would suggest… you read the minutes of the Executive meeting that you missed, because I made it very… very clear in no uncertain terms at that meeting… how I felt… and some of it would fit in to what your supposed Plan B might be… but I would beg of you to read the minutes… because I made it very very clear to everyone… what I thought about next year… the $20 million and the $5 million that has not showed up.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: I appreciate it… I’m still talking about something that happened on February 21st. You continue to explain why on March 20th in Executive session… you did something or said something… but I’m saying… Who gave permission to change direction from February 21st to March 20th…. Totally different subjects…. But it is the end of it… Ah… Mr. Beasley has told me I am all wrong… what I wrote down as you were talking is not write…. I am wrong and that is his answer.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: So are we going into Executive Session today?
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: I have no idea? I don’t know… Do you have anything to talk to us about in Executive session?
City Manager Ed Beasley: <unknown>
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: He said it is posted and we have something every Executive session… Have we not sat here and I have said… Do we have anything for Executive Session? And we have been told “No we don’t”… on numerous occasions. Do you remember that?
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: Yes… I certainly do.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Down in B3, up here… so we always ask… “Do we have anything for Executive Session”. It is posted because we asked you to post it for every meeting.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: It is posted twice… Craig… Does the legal department have anything for Exec Session?
City Attorney Craig Tindall: There is one item… but it is informational only and can be provided at another time if you don’t have any other items… it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t be something we would need to take the time to go to Executive session today… It is not an immediate issue.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: Mr. Beasley..
Councilmember Manny Martinez: Oh that is what I was going to ask Mr. Beasley… Do we need to have an Executive Session? It is posted that we get an update every week… on the… on ongoing negotiations… and it is posted so I think we should have an Executive Session.
City Manager Ed Beasley: We have something to discuss.
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: Today?
City Manager Ed Beasley: Correct
Councilmember Phil Lieberman: So we do have Exec Session today.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs: Do anyone else have anything else to say? Meeting is adjourned.
But if the NHL rejects the request, which Scruggs wants to be made formally in a letter signed by herself and the six council members, it could mean the Coyotes will finally move to another city. While Bettman has said the league, which owns the Coyotes, are negotiating with more than one prospective buyer, Scruggs said in Tuesday’s meeting that no deal is in sight
If the NHL has control of the accounts then they have no intention of giving up that money, nor should they. They aren't the circus in town.
No but see she was misled! She listened to what the man who wanted the money said. Then she voted to give him the money. Then he didn't do what he said he was close to doing. Now she wants it back!
NHL = big meanie!!!!!!
I weep for the citizens of Glendale. Talk about priorities.
I did get a chuckle out of one of the comments in the Globe article. It went something like "Well I guess Mayor Scruggs you now understand how Mr. Moyes felt"
Granted Daly said they were close, in fact never closer, to a sale. And he might have said or at least gave the impression to the CoG that their $25M was never going to be spent.... But was anything ever put down on paper? I doubt it.
The CoG agreed to put this money aside while being convinced it was never going to be used! But hey, things happen ( or in this case don't happen with no sale being made ) so the possibility was always there it could be spent. Ask a few of the NHL teams if they don't want the money and are willing to "forget about it".
Yep. City that was in the sports business for a few years got played HARD by a league extracting taxpayer concessions out of cities for decades.
As per other posters in the Roman Numeral threads, Judge Baum advised Glendale the sale to JB should have been taken up. The NHL will get its money back while the City will be paying for years.
Can't wait until the likes of a 60 minutes does this story.....I can see Gary Buttman's nervous twitch now as he's saying "we did all we could" and all the buffoons on the council all blaming each other and the Mayor crying "we wants my money!"
What a sad and shameful debacle...of course the majority of H.F. posters saw this coming 2 years ago.....the only real winner in this is the GWI who can now produce several commercials of inept government and how they can stop it.
Can't wait until the likes of a 60 minutes does this story.....I can see Gary Buttman's nervous twitch now as he's saying "we did all we could" and all the buffoons on the council all blaming each other and the Mayor crying "we wants my money!"
What a sad and shameful debacle...of course the majority of H.F. posters saw this coming 2 years ago.....the only real winner in this is the GWI who can now produce several commercials of inept government and how they can stop it.
I don't know if its funny or sad but I went through older threads in the Roman Numberals. Seeing people say the grass is green for Glendale to stick with the NHL in hopes of it turning around in the future over Balsillie's bid......
Can't wait until the likes of a 60 minutes does this story.....I can see Gary Buttman's nervous twitch now as he's saying "we did all we could" and all the buffoons on the council all blaming each other and the Mayor crying "we wants my money!"
What a sad and shameful debacle...of course the majority of H.F. posters saw this coming 2 years ago.....the only real winner in this is the GWI who can now produce several commercials of inept government and how they can stop it.
In the end GWI comes out like the saviors. Afterall if the city would have sold 100 million in Bonds for parking rights. If MH would have bought those bonds. Think of the debt the city would have. Who kinows what would have happened if the team left after a couple of years and the city still had to pay MH for their bond back.
hahaha, great day for me, little weasel is gonna be kicked out from his hoped-to-be family house with a kick in the ass. There's no way players' association is gonna give Glansdale 20 mil from escrow, just ask @BizNasty2point0. It could be the end of little arrogant, stubborn, self loving non-hockey squirrel, he's humiliating the government of US of A, and it's never a good thing to do. Canada right now is the best place for NHL, it's probably the richest country in the world with strong currency, high oil prices, extremely well governed with outstanding social system and loving hockey to death. Only the stubbornness and inflated ego didn't allow little weasel to see the woods behind the trees, good luck Mr. Battman with the fight for the hearts of not yet converted hockey mums in the desert
