Part of Glendale Westgate City Center repossessed

[NHLWinnipeg]

Westgate: the raison d'être for the Coyotes repoed by the lenders after no one would purchase for pennies on the dollar.......

Part of Glendale Westgate City Center repossessed by lender

Westgate City Center, the Glendale entertainment complex that serves as a pre-game party destination, is now partially lender-owned after a foreclosure auction Monday.

The lender iStar Financial took back the property from the developer, the Ellman Cos., after setting a minimum bid of $40 million and receiving no offers.

The property, near Loop 101 and Glendale Avenue, encompasses Westgate's main buildings that hold restaurants, shops and an AMC movie theater next to the Phoenix Coyotes hockey arena and near the Arizona Cardinals football stadium.

Surrounding land that Ellman Cos. planned to develop is scheduled for auction Nov. 3 by lender Credit Suisse.

Read more: www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/2011/09/19/20110919glendale-westgate-foreclosure-repossessed.html#ixzz1YRH10G19

[Guardian]

Just gets worse for the Coyotes.

[Lions67]

Sept 19, 2011 19:25:30 GMT -6 Guardian said:

Just gets worse for the Coyotes.

as weird as this is going to sound, this actually is good for the coyotes.

[NHLWinnipeg]

Sept 19, 2011 20:30:22 GMT -6 Lions67 said:

Sept 19, 2011 19:25:30 GMT -6 Guardian said:

Just gets worse for the Coyotes.

as weird as this is going to sound, this actually is good for the coyotes.

it really depends...I understand what you are thinking...it could be good...it could also be bad though...

[buff33]

What is worse, being a Coyote fan or a Leaf fan? Both those franchises are ridiculous for very different reasons, yet both are equally pathetic. Thanks again Mr. Chipman from rescuing us from caring about the mess in Gongdale.

[selanne405]

I'd rather be a leaf fan, at least there are other fans at games to share your misery with

[enarwpg]

Wonder what Mayor Scruggs and the Council members have to say about their "world-class destination" now, when no one wants to pay the mortgaged amount resulting in the lender now being part owner..... Goes to show that even with the Coyotes few people go to Westgate Mall !!!

[jmt21]

The whole mall only generated some 8M a year in sales tax revenue..... while the COG fork over 25M a year to keep the coyotes afloat.

[swervinmervin]

Sept 19, 2011 20:30:22 GMT -6 Lions67 said:

Sept 19, 2011 19:25:30 GMT -6 Guardian said:

Just gets worse for the Coyotes.

as weird as this is going to sound, this actually is good for the coyotes.

It's good (I think) only in this sense - that FINALLY the fate of the Coyotes will depend on the fundamentals of its own hockey market and arena location (in my view, without regard to the existence of the mall, which I believe was always an irrelevant point).

The problem is that there isn't **enough** fan interest. This is evidenced by the very, very low TV ratings for Coyotes hockey games in Arizona. It costs nothing to tune into an NHL hockey game on TV (or almost nothing), but people don't in numbers that are significant. If they won't tune in on television, they are less likely to pay any reasonable ticket price to go to the game in person. They are even less likely to go if there is a long drive to and from the game.

All of these comments have been made before. I am making them here to recap.

So, unless the interest in hockey can increase dramatically within 4 years (or the time available from the cash float from new owners), then the experiment will fail. That is the challenge for NHL hockey in Glendale.

The removal of the mall as a "red herring" irrelevancy is good news insofar as it makes the above analysis more clear. The mall was never a **significant** help to the Coyotes, nor is it a signifcant enough reason for keeping the Coyotes in Glendale - unless, as stated above, there is a dramatic increase in interest in hockey - in Glendale and Arizona - in the next 4 years.