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http://seattletimes.com/html/hockey/2024716050_seattlenhl07xml.html</p>
</p>
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Against a backdrop of 100-degree temperatures, workers last month began implementing the latest changes for a hockey team once just a lone councilman’s vote from winding up in Seattle.</p>
They spent a sweat-filled Saturday tearing down the outdoor facade at the Jobing.com Arena to replace it with the name of the venue’s new Native American tribal rights-holder. Four days later, the Glendale City Council approved renaming it Gila River Arena, home to the Arizona Coyotes, in a vote far less acrimonious than their past meetings involving the NHL club.</p>
In fact, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office is investigating events leading up to the council’s contentious vote 15 months ago approving a new arena lease agreement by a 4-3 margin and keeping the then-Phoenix Coyotes from relocating to Seattle.</p>
Three sources with knowledge of negotiations confirm the Coyotes would have been bought by New York investment banker Ray Bartoszek and his partner Anthony Lanza and moved to Seattle as soon as the following day — playing up to three seasons at KeyArena — had the vote not passed.</p>
“Most people don’t realize how close we were to actually getting an NHL team,’’ says former Seattle mayor Mike McGinn, who had been involved in the relocation talks.</p>
The Arizona AG is probing whether the four councilors whose votes kept the Coyotes in Arizona violated the state’s Open Meetings Law by meeting secretly to discuss the lease beforehand with the lawyer for IceArizona, the team’s eventual owner.</p>
Adding to the controversy is that one of those city councilors, Samuel Chavira, had campaigned the previous summer against further subsidies for the Coyotes before casting what became the critical vote in favor of the lease. Then, a year after the Coyotes deal passed, the team’s most supportive city councilor, Gary Sherwood, wound up casting a swing vote in a 4-3 approval of a casino project he’d previously campaigned against but that Chavira had long favored.</p>
Any findings in the AG investigation about a possible violation of the Open Meetings Law will ultimately come too late for Seattle, still in gridlock over a new Sodo arena project that has stalled NHL expansion hopes.</p>
But the emerging truth is tough to ignore: A one-vote decision is the only reason Seattle isn’t already gearing up for a second NHL season beginning this week.</p>
</p>
More at the link...</p>
</p>
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Against a backdrop of 100-degree temperatures, workers last month began implementing the latest changes for a hockey team once just a lone councilman’s vote from winding up in Seattle.</p>
They spent a sweat-filled Saturday tearing down the outdoor facade at the Jobing.com Arena to replace it with the name of the venue’s new Native American tribal rights-holder. Four days later, the Glendale City Council approved renaming it Gila River Arena, home to the Arizona Coyotes, in a vote far less acrimonious than their past meetings involving the NHL club.</p>
In fact, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office is investigating events leading up to the council’s contentious vote 15 months ago approving a new arena lease agreement by a 4-3 margin and keeping the then-Phoenix Coyotes from relocating to Seattle.</p>
Three sources with knowledge of negotiations confirm the Coyotes would have been bought by New York investment banker Ray Bartoszek and his partner Anthony Lanza and moved to Seattle as soon as the following day — playing up to three seasons at KeyArena — had the vote not passed.</p>
“Most people don’t realize how close we were to actually getting an NHL team,’’ says former Seattle mayor Mike McGinn, who had been involved in the relocation talks.</p>
The Arizona AG is probing whether the four councilors whose votes kept the Coyotes in Arizona violated the state’s Open Meetings Law by meeting secretly to discuss the lease beforehand with the lawyer for IceArizona, the team’s eventual owner.</p>
Adding to the controversy is that one of those city councilors, Samuel Chavira, had campaigned the previous summer against further subsidies for the Coyotes before casting what became the critical vote in favor of the lease. Then, a year after the Coyotes deal passed, the team’s most supportive city councilor, Gary Sherwood, wound up casting a swing vote in a 4-3 approval of a casino project he’d previously campaigned against but that Chavira had long favored.</p>
Any findings in the AG investigation about a possible violation of the Open Meetings Law will ultimately come too late for Seattle, still in gridlock over a new Sodo arena project that has stalled NHL expansion hopes.</p>
But the emerging truth is tough to ignore: A one-vote decision is the only reason Seattle isn’t already gearing up for a second NHL season beginning this week.</p>
</p>
More at the link...</p>
