TSN's Dave Naylor is in Glendale, Arizona to follow the Coyotes' ownership situation. He spoke to the NHL on TSN's James Duthie on Thursday night following the meeting between the City of Glendale and the Goldwater Institute.
The president of the Goldwater Institute, Darcy Olson, came out of the meeting and she said they brought desserts to the meeting. They called it a 'cupcake summit'. She said "unfortunately, the cupcakes were a lot tastier than the conversation." That gives you a sense of how that went.
Matthew Hulsizer left partway through the meeting, had a plane to catch, and did not address the media before he left. Mayor Elaine Scruggs of Glendale did speak to the media as did the staff of the Goldwater Institute that was involved in the meeting. It's clear they have fundamental disagreements on issues: everything from whether or not the city's contributions to the deal to close with Matthew Hulsizer to keep the team in Glendale is illegal; whether those contributions are illegal; to what the economic fallout would be if the Coyotes leave this area.
Right now where we are, the City of Glendale says it's going to go forward and try to close this bond sale that it was supposed to close back in February. The Goldwater Institute says they will sue (with the) possibility of an injunction there as well – nowhere near a resolution.
I think as we get close to May, time is running out. It's clear it would be so much easier for the NHL to close the transaction with its potential partners in Winnipeg to move the team there, than it would be here, where you've got to close the bond sale. Which again – even Gary Bettman has expressed some doubt about whether that's possible – unless Goldwater backs off and it's clear they're not going to. So there are a lot of hoops to clear in Glendale to get this done, not many hoops to clear in Winnipeg.