Expected revenues from Jobing.com Arena coming up short for Glendale

It’s the first year of a 15-year agreement between the Phoenix Coyotes and the City of Glendale.

So far, the deal is bringing in fewer dollars than Glendale expected.

The latest projections are that Glendale will get $4.4 million in arena and parking revenues this year. That’s far less than the $6.6 million that had been expected.

“We expected a lot more non-hockey events which hasn’t occurred yet, ” said Councilman Gary Sherwood. “We also thought we’d do a little bit better in parking.

Sherwood said that the owners of the Coyotes are attempting to find solutions and are having talks with Global Spectrum, which runs the arena.

He blames part of the parking revenue problem on the Arizona Cardinals. This is the first year that Coyotes fans have had to pay $10 to park at arena parking lots. The Cardinals have opened up a parking lot for Coyotes fans at University of Phoenix stadium that charges about half that.

“They were undercutting some of the prime parking,” said Sherwood. “It’s no secret that we have to ‘further the relationship’ between the Cardinals and the city.”

Sherwood suggested that Glendale block off a street that gives fans access to the Cardinals parking lot. He later claimed that he said that with “tongue in cheek.”

Fans also choose to park in other lots at the Westgate City Center.

“I think we are working quite a bit with Westgate over the last few months to try to get those parking spots where customers can park for free,” Sherwood said.

“(We’re working to) come up with some arrangement there to help us on the parking revenue.”