Matt Hulsizer Guarantees Glendale Bond, Kills Goldwater Case

Lets quite the c*ck waving now and get this deal done.

If GWI reall has the interest of the "taxpayer at heart or if there is somehing else driving their obsession.
Should be pretty hard for them to keep opposition up now. But, I’m waiting with baited breath to see if they do. Still convinced there’s powerful money behind killing the deal.

Hey, Travis, I just wanted to comment on the latest news for your readers.

While we are all speculating, I would suggest that the guarantee from MH will not be to the bondholders themselves (which is what “guaranteeing the bonds” would be). Legally speaking, that might create some consideration issues. In order for such a guarantee to be enforceable, there needs to be consideration passing directly from one party to the other. Since MH does not have a contractual relationship with the bondholders, there would be difficulty in MH getting legal consideration for his guarantee (since MH gets his $100M from COG, not the bondholders).

I would expect that the guarantee would be from MH in favour of the COG itself. Since GWI’’s argument was in respect of potential shortfalls in the projected revenues (upon which the NPV of the parkign rights was based), I would expect that what MH will be guaranteeing is the parking revenues, in favour of the COG itself.

you guys must be pumped on that news.. not only will tax payers be off the hook so if everythign tanks you guys wou;dn’t be screwed but it makes it harder for gwi to do anything. i also heard that even if this whole new news wasn’t in the air that gwi would have to file an injuction before the bonds sold out in order for the case to have any sort of backing.. not sure how accurate that is…but i am kind of curious though what happens if the bonds don’t sell? are people going to buy them now that this has come up?… are you guys going to buy them? were you going to buy them in the first place before the gwi came about? why must tomorrow be monday?

From Winnipeg I congratulate the fans and the taxpayers of Glendale.

 Looks as tho the team is saved. i like the wording of this article especially the financial part where it explains why MH did not just buck up for the whole team. The market value of the yotes is an important factor as what the NHL paid to get the team out of bankrupsy is not what the actual worth is. With the political input this is a done deal. It seems to me on the face of what I have read the right thing was done. The taxpayer has been protected. Finally in all this mess the taxpayer has been thought of in a way to protect them instead of fleasing them.
Please don’t take this next comment and say I am a TROLL because I truly mean this; I hope this is a call to fans of hockey to go out to games in Glendale. There is a lot of money in the yotes area and they need the support. This whole mess serves as a call to fans that there actions, or lack there of, serves the true financial result of the teams success. This is kind of a second chance. Not that the past is all the result of fans but a clear picture has been painted to the public to get out and support the yotes. I for one am happy for the fans of hockey there you guys deserve to scream for your team.

Go for the cup Phoenix !!!!!

Well, I thought this basically sealed the deal but it’s being reported now that he didn’t actually guarantee payments for the bonds. Instead he guaranteed rent and fees on the arena that were already part of the lease agreement. I don’t know how those weren’t ‘guaranteed’ already if they were in the lease but that’s another issue entirely (for the record I have very little faith in governments negotiating effective contracts with private industry). As far as I can tell this really didn’t change anything to do with the bond deal, which is Goldwater’s case. Hulsizer is basically saying he’ll be paying $75M over the course of the lease so everything’s fine. Yeah, of course he’ll be paying over $75M in rent. I don’t know what they still owe on the $180M arena but it must be a lot more than $75M and you’d expect they would be recouping their costs from him through the lease duration. With interest on the original amount he should probably be paying well over $150M. But that’s a completely separate pot of money from the bonds.

I don’t really trust this guy to not just take a bunch of money from Glendale, setup a company to own and operate the team, have all agreements between this new company and Glendale, and stick around until Glendale stops paying him millions per year. After that, have the company declare bankruptcy and just walk away leaving Glendale with another $100M of debt to pay off and no tenant for the arena. For the municipality’s sake, hopefully that’s not the case. So far I haven’t seen much that would indicate this guy’s really interested in sticking it out long-term if things don’t pickup really quick. He isn’t even willing to actually buy the team with his own money so how long do we expect he’ll stay if the team keeps losing losing $30M/season? If he was going to guarantee the bonds he’d probably at worst end up putting in about $30-40M spread over a number of seasons. I’d be a little weary of expecting 30 years of arena use out of him if he’s shying away from a relatively small commitment like that which would allow him to finalize the purchase. Something tells me he really doesn’t care much about owning the team. Balsille would add a zero to that number and not think twice about it if it would get him a team.

According to biased Canadian media, Goldwater has officially stated it will sue should the bonds be put up for sale. I haven’t been able to confirm this with non-biased media and the statement isn’t documented.

So either Goldwater is right in smelling something fishy about Holsizer’s offer and the deal in general or else the group has undisclosed reasons to see the team leave. Admittedly, Glendale is in the position of being a suburb that got in over its head and is desperate to keep its expensive arena from going largely dark. A minor league team would help but not equal what’s lost with an NHL team leaving.

Until there are new developments, it’s at the point where my chief concern is to see the hockey obsessed Canadian media remain disappointed in the Coyotes not leaving the US. The NHL is steadfast in wishing to keep out as many small markets as possible, especially from Canadian cities which are a poor draw and continue to keep the NHL from being a fully recognized major sports league.

To that end we might interpret the NHL’s silence on these developments as being a possible sign that there’re other markets being explored behind-closed-doors. Let’s recall Bettman’s cryptic remark about there being other options, plural, beyond automatically heading to Winnipeg.

Confirmation from the Goldwater website, of Hulsizer’s latest bond guarantee being insufficient to prevent a lawsuit as things stand. Dated March 21, 2011.

http://goldwaterinstitute.org/article/5850

Stu.

I read your take on this latest effort by MH on the gme network. I listened to it and read the transcript. Hard to understand Why the NHL has put so much stock in this guy and why they didnt see the potential problems with this deal. I guess what i am also saying is this is so sweet a deal for him and is a major tax burden on Glendale. It is like the NHL is condoning this half assd deal. I guess I see the NHL as complisit in the shafting of the Glendale people.

Jordan
I understand the points you are making but do not agree with asuming MH will put money into team to build it up and make more successful. He wont even throw in the 30 or 40 mil to get Goldwater off his back. Of all the times to put money where his mouth is would be now! If he threw an additional 40 mil on the table that would be the end of the Goldwater blockade. I am not a lawer or an accountant but if he wants this team he is going to have to put more of his own money into this deal. Makes me wonder how serious this guy really is.
I understand the Glendale city council saying " we are in this deep allready we need to save jobs and our investment" but is this the right guy? The NHL is just sitting back hoping that no one notices the risk and the cost the taxpayer is on the hook for. The way this deal reads to me the city of Glendale may as well buy the team and run it. Is that against the law?
From a purely practical standpoint who would sink money into a team that has lost over a half a billion dollars in the last 15 years? It’s going to be hard to find someone to take the leap, with there own money. Unless the yotes do well and get to the second round they will loose 40 plus million this year! I have a question. Even if this deal goes through and MH gets this sweeeet deal; why is he doing it in the first place? Lets say there was no Goldwater and it goes through; what is in it for him? Where is the money to be made? You know the next 7 years are not going to put money in his pocket; thats for sure. I can’t figure out why he is doing this. can someone do the math for me please? Whats in it for him in the current deal arrangment? I am getting the sence he will suck money out of this team and then fold his tent and Glendale will be right back where they started but in even more debt. Whats worse is the NHL must know this. They are not stupid.———- Just get the team to hang on a bit longer and we will see? Yeah right !
The more I here and think about this MH as the knight in shining armor the more I see him as the devil in disguise. I just can’t stand these obscenely rich guys getting even more wealthy on the backs of the taxpayer under the guise that they are helping the league, the city, etc, when in fact their plan is to screw the people for as much as they can and move on. Fing parisite. I am just pissed off as I thought this offer by MH was something that it wasn’t. It he was serious and really wants to own an NHL team for the long haul, seems to me 40 to 60 mil wouldnt or shouldnt stand in the way.

These are just my observations and i look forward to responces.

Hey All,
I just wanted to pop in here and let you know I’m a San Jose Sharks fan and I’ve been following this saga loosely. Just wanted to show you guys and the Phoenix Coyotes some support! Even though they’re technically pacific division rivals I would really hate to see the Coyotes moved. The games they played against my Sharks this year were really good games, and Bryz is a beast of a goaltender. It’s BS to see a team that has come out really competitive like this possibly get folded and moved. I’m so tired of hearing of the “Bring back the Winnipeg Jets” war cries too. I read something on AZ central about this and started reading some comments on there from the Jets trolls… those people are bitter, souless excuses for human beings who are living a miserable existence with a nasty sense of hockey entitlement. They really think they deserve a team… but not just a team, THIS team. REALLY? I mean, yeah, I would probably be pretty miserable if I lived in a S***hole like Winnipeg, but some of their comments just crossed the line. If they want a team so damn bad, go out and form one, get GWI to finance it, and cry to the NHL to get an expansion for it. Oh by the way, haven’t we already tried this hockey experiment in Winnipeg, and it failed miserably? Yeah, remember that? They’re just jealous one of the Chief canadian exports is great hockey players…. because their leagues can’t compete with the NHL. And they rip on the American sense of national pride? Anyone else smell hypocrisy?

This whole thing has hints of the plot line to the movie “Slap shot”, and Whatever happens I hope the end result benefits the Coyotes and you guys get to keep them in Phoenix.

Best wishes and as I always end my posts on Fear the Fin, KEEP THE FAITH. Hope to see you guys on the face off dots next season, in Glendale/San Jose.