City of Glendale made final payment to NHL for Arizona Coyotes
Oct 9, 2016, 9:00 AM | Updated: Oct 10, 2016, 11:03 am
In 2013, the city of Glendale agreed to pay the National Hockey League $50 million to keep the Arizona Coyotes while the league ran it.
Now, three years after the agreement, Glendale paid the last $5 million left as the final payment on Sept. 20 according to the Glendale Star.
“Per the agreement dated Sept. 20, 2013, the final $5 million payment from the city into the escrow account occurred yesterday, Sept. 20, 2016 (defined in the agreement as the third anniversary date),” said Assistant City Manager Tom Duensing. “The NHL can withdraw the final $5 million payment from the escrow account on or after Sept. 20, 2017 (defined in the agreement as the fourth anniversary date).”
Duensing went to say there are no more payments on the way.
“This final payment satisfies the original agreement between the City and the NHL,” Duensing said. “No additional city payments are due under this agreement.”
Although the city of Glendale has finished paying off their agreement with the NHL, that does not necessarily mean the Coyotes will remain there.
According to Arizona Sports’ Craig Morgan, president and CEO Anthony LeBlanc stated back in June that the team has chosen a site for their new arena.
The Coyotes’ lease agreement with Gila River Arena runs through this season, but after that, the team can look elsewhere to play. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman expressed his opinion about the team’s situation during the summer.
“I think they have an enormously good and valuable opportunity to get a new arena in a place that will work much better than what they’ve had.”
Morgan stated that LeBlanc has a backup plan in place if the chosen site does not work out for the team, but would not provide any specifics on that or the primary location.
