Yesterday the PAC Save Glendale Now petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to take their appeal of their case against the City of Glendale and the court quickly rejected their petition. This means that their appeal is going to be made before the Appellate Court instead. The Appellate Court has no choice but to hear their case, although it seems to me to be a good sign that the Supreme Court rejected their case. You may remember Save Glendale Now as the group that is attempting to block the sales tax increase which would be used to pay the arena management fee for Greg Jamison to manage Jobing.com Arena after he purchase the Phoenix Coyotes.
The Appellate Court will not be hearing any new evidence for the case, they will just determine whether any rules of law were broken in the original trial. As I was sitting in court I did not get the impression that the judge was particularly favoring Glendale's case overall. In fact of the 3 reasons that the city rejected Save Glendale Now's petition the judge ruled that only 1 of the 3 was a valid reason to reject the case, the fact that SGN's wording used inaccurate and misleading language. Because it did not appear that the judge favored Glendale's position I very much doubt that he broke any rules of law in order to block the petition. Language is very important with petitions like this, and it appears that according to Arizona law the city, acting through the City Clerk in this situation, has a right and responsibility to reject petitions that use inaccurate or misleading language to make their case.
A lot of people are speculating why SGN would choose to appeal their loss despite the high probability that they would lose. I think that it is important to remember that these people probably are not very concerned about the Phoenix Coyotes and they honestly think that this will have a negative impact on their businesses. They also are probably frustrated that their efforts are for naught because of what they perceive to be an insignificant detail. That being said this whole issue is a hurdle for a Coyotes ownership deal and as such it is in the best interest for the City of Glendale and the Coyotes that this finishes quickly.