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Former Sharks CEO Greg Jamison failed to meet a January 31 deadline to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes (AP File Photo).
January 31 has come and gone in the Valley, and it appears the Phoenix Coyotes' three-year saga may have hit yet another road block in the desert.

Prospective buyer Greg Jamison had until midnight Thursday to complete his purchase of the Coyotes from the NHL under the terms of a 20-year, $308 million lease agreement with Glendale for Jobing.com Arena.

"We will not be able to complete our purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes today in time to meet our deadline with the city of Glendale," Jamison said in a statement. "However, our journey to purchase the Coyotes will continue. We realize this will require additional conversations with the city of Glendale and the NHL. We still believe we can reach an agreement that satisfies everyone. We hope negotiations with the city proceed as smoothly as possible, as everyone involved wants the Coyotes to remain in Arizona."

While Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers told Arizona Sports 620's Burns & Gambo Thursday that he would honor any deal agreed upon by the City of Glendale's previous council members, since Jamison could not pull the necessary capital together by the non-negotiable deadline, all bets are off moving forward.

"We want a professional hockey team here, but not when it's literally tied to the backs of our taxpayers at the same time that we're letting our law enforcement jobs go by the wayside and our fire," Weiers said. "Public safety has got to be our very first priority, and as much as I want the Coyotes here, it can't be done on the backs of the taxpayers by sacrificing, trading public safety for hockey."

With Jamison failing to meet the lease deadline, the door has now been left wide open for any other potential bidder to meet with Weiers regarding a possible purchase of the team.

The league has owned the team since the fall 2009 and has attempted to find a buyer on multiple occasions without success.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Arizona Sports,

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    enforcer wrote...
    NW bound
    So now we'll have to watch to see if the sale of the Sacramento Kings goes through. If it does, look for the Coyotes to be in Seattle by next season, If not, the most likely location will be QC. One thing is for sure, they are now done in Arizona, and we have been deservedly removed from the list of four sport towns.
  • Abuse
    cbarnes40 wrote...
    How will the Coyotes leaving help Glendale?
    $308 million lease agreement for 10 years sounds like it would help Glendale out a lot. If the Coyotes leave they don't get the money and the arena sits empty besides concerts and other events. If the Coyotes leave would Glendale somehow save money to pay for other government jobs (cops, firefighters, etc..)? I just don't see the benefit of not extending the deadline on the agreed upon $308 million to another month or two until a deal is in place. What other options do they have unless they want a ghost town arena for most of the year.
  • Abuse
    ex-distancerunner wrote...
    Phoenix, a happening city?
    I mean the entire metroplilan area that was one of the few cities to lose a professional sports organization.. A happening city? Ha Even Detroit as boarded up and empty as they are can't lose a team..
  • Abuse
    mva5580 wrote...
    Talk about complete lack of foresight
    How could the peole who make these decisions NOT see this was going to happen eventually? Moving the Cardinals to Glendale was no problem. It's only 8 games a year and NFL is, you know.....slightly popular. Moving the Coyotes to Glendale was completely idiotic and doomed to fail from the beginning. 40+ games a year and around a 45 minute one way drive for a huge part of the target fanbase. A fanbase which, by the way, is nowhere even close to the size of an NFL team. It's just unreal to me how people who can make so much money can be so stupid.
  • Abuse
    CorrectOpinion wrote...
    @cbarnes40
    cbarnes, I think you misunderstand. The City of Glendale would have to PAY Greg Jamison $308 million over 20 years, not get it from him.
  • Abuse
    CorrectOpinion wrote...
    More...
    The "lease" payment from the Coyotes amounts to about $600,000 per year. The mortgage(bond) payment on the arena is about $9M per year. This means that the City of Glendale must pay roughly $25M/year just to keep the Coyotes in that arena. So minus out the lease payment from the Coyotes and minus out the sales tax generated from 660K tickets sold at the statistic average price of $36.15/ticket which is about $700K. We also have to take into account the $2.75 surcharge per ticket $1.8M. This all comes to about $3.1M that the city takes in for the city spending $25M.
  • Abuse
    CorrectOpinion wrote...
    Seriously?
    Is anyone going to seriously tell us that the businesses that surround the arena generate $22M/year in additional sales tax for the city? Perspective: $22M in city sales tax would mean an additional $758M dollars would have to be spent on purchases PER YEAR just in that area.
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