The Arizona Republic reports that with a deadline looming for prospective Phoenix Coyotes buyer Greg Jamison to purchase the team from the National Hockey League, Glendale officials have no idea whether he'll complete the deal.
He needs to buy the team by Thursday to secure a 20-year deal to use and manage the city-owned Jobing.com Arena.
If he misses the deadline, the agreement will expire, and with it the goodwill of a previous City Council that offered Jamison lucrative terms that would pay him to manage the 17,125-seat arena.
Glendale voters replaced four of the seven members of the City Council in November, and the new contingent seems unlikely to extend Jamison, or any other potential hockey-team owner, another contract as sweet as the one awaiting Jamison's signature.
The current deal will pay Jamison an average of $15 million annually to book non-hockey events and oversee parking and maintenance at the arena, guaranteeing Jamison and his ownership group about $300million in city payments over the life of the contract — if he signs it.
Jamison, former CEO of the San Jose Sharks hockey franchise, has been working behind the scenes for more than a year to assemble a group of investors to buy the Coyotes from the NHL, which bought the team in bankruptcy court.
New Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers said he has his doubts about whether Jamison actually will be able to pull it off by Thursday.
"For the life of me, I can't figure why, if everything is lined up, if he's got the money in hand, why would he postpone this? That's the only thing I haven't been able to figure out," Weiers said. "What would be the purpose of delaying it?"
The mayor said he asked Jamison that very question last week. Weiers said Jamison responded that he was optimistic about completing the sale but offered no details.
Neither Jamison nor league officials offered any explanations about the seemingly slow negotiations when asked by The Arizona Republic last week.
Jamison said, "We're aware of what we have to do to get this closed. We're working very hard to get there. So far, the anticipation is that we will get there. That's kind of where we're at, at the moment, and I probably wouldn't take it much further than that."
He declined further comment.
NHL spokesman Frank Brown stated in an e-mail that the sale process continues and that league officials remain hopeful of a positive resolution.
"Transactions follow their own timelines. I will not characterize specifics," he said.
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