Saying Goodbye To Coyotes Ownership Reporter Lisa Halverstadt

I've said before that being a Phoenix Coyotes fan is a unique experience that requires you to follow city council meetings and court cases almost as much as games and players. Because of the unique nature of the events surrounding the team there are reporters who are have been general assignment reporters dedicated to explaining the off-ice problems of the Coyotes. Perhaps the reporter who has done this best is Lisa Halverstadt. She has covered the Glendale and Coyotes beats for the Arizona Republic since another excellent reporter, Rebekah L. Sanders, was promoted to the Arizona congressional beat. Lisa announced on Friday that she has taken a job in San Diego, and while wishing her luck, I can say that her coverage of the ownership deal will be missed.

In addition to regular articles about the ownership saga, Lisa routinely went to city council meetings and court cases where she would live tweet what was going on for everyone who couldn't be there. She inspired me to do my own live tweets from court cases, which I did for cases involving the Goldwater Institute and Save Glendale Now. Even though I was in court myself I would still read her Twitter feed when doing a write up for all the information I missed while making jokes about Law and Order and a Doctor Who ring tone.

During a time where it seems like the local media wants to ignore or is against the Coyotes, Lisa brought a sense of journalistic integrity to the process. Much to the annoyance of a portion of the team's fan base she would respond to questions from people all over the world looking for information about the process. Although I wish she was leaving after the sales process was done, we all owe her a debt of gratitude for providing excellent coverage during this entire process. Our loss is San Diego's gain.