GLENDALE, Ariz. - The third attempt to allow Glendale residents to vote on a multimillion-dollar hockey deal failed.
Organizer Ken Jones said this likely was his last attempt to block the agreement.
Jones needed to collect nearly 7,000 signatures by Friday to put the deal on the ballot. He estimated that he and his 25 volunteers collected about three-quarters of that total.
Jones pulled referendum papers in early July shortly after City Council approved the deal to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in town. The contract requires the city to pay the team buyers, IceArizona, $15 million a year to manage Jobing.com Arena, with the expectation of bringing back $8 million to $11 million in revenue.
The NHL, which has owned the team since it filed for bankruptcy in 2009, is expected to finalize the sale of the team Monday.
Aside from finalizing the sale, the failed referendum bid likely marks the last hurdle for Glendale in its four-year struggle to keep the Coyotes. The Goldwater Institute, which for years had challenged the city's attempts to seal a hockey deal, announced in July that it wouldn't take legal action over the contract.
Jones, not known for backing down on the Coyotes issue, said this most recent attempt put the issue on the ballot was his final option.
His other referendum attempts followed the two previous deals that council nearly approved to keep the Coyotes in town. Both of those earlier pacts, however, fell through.
"We did not want Glendale to become a miniature Detroit," Jones said, adding the job was "just too big" for the volunteers.
"They are better citizens than those that did nothing. Shame on those who stood silently by like sheep," he said.
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