from Darrell Preston and James Nash of Bloomberg,
Hockey was probably always going to be a longshot in the desert. But nobody expected what’s playing out in sunny Glendale, where the city’s done the unthinkable to the Arizona Coyotes.
Tired of doling out $15 million a year in subsidies, the Phoenix suburb last week abruptly cut its payments to the National Hockey League franchise by more than half. The move, pretty much unheard of in professional sports, was the latest blow for the Coyotes, the league’s third-lowest in attendance last season, holder of the worst win-loss record in the western conference and the butt of jokes.
What Glendale did “is almost the exact opposite of what happens in these extortion situations,” said sports economist Victor Matheson of College of the Holy Cross. “Typically the team extorts more payments out of the taxpayers.”
The city canceled its stadium lease contract with the Coyotes in June, done with funneling so much to them as part of the deal even as it was cutting municipal services and raising the sales tax.
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