Is it time for Glendale to let the Coyotes go?
Aug 30, 2012, 3:37 PM | Updated: 11:10 pm
A wise man once told me if you love somebody but they’re unwilling to help themselves, sometimes the best course of action is to just leave. It’s something that is easier said than done. Emotions have a funny way of complicating things.
In the long run, it comes down to whether you want to be with the person for the long run or you’re just in it until something better comes along.
It is a situation City of Glendale and the Phoenix Coyotes know all too well.
As a another chapter of this three-year-long ridiculous saga unfolds, it’s becoming abundantly clear that the City of Glendale doesn’t know whether it wants to stay with the Coyotes or pull a Kristen Stewart and get in bed with someone else. With the city dragging their feet on yet another lease, it looks like there is no real end in sight. The problem is that indecisiveness isn’t fair to anyone involved.
With Greg Jamison stating he has the money and the willingness to purchase the team, now there is no real reason to wait other than political posturing. We’ve seen it before on more than a few occasions.
The City of Glendale is proving to be the ‘runaway bride.’ Every time they get close to the altar, they get cold feet and run faster than Usain Bolt in the Olympics to the open arms of another suitor to do it all over again. Unfortunately the fans get to play the role of the family and friends left there to sit awkwardly trying to make sense of the confusion.
This mentality has done more harm than good. It’s hurt the players who aren’t sure if they’re signing a long-term deal to stay in Phoenix or to be uprooted at any moment and move anywhere from Las Vegas to Canada. It’s also hurt their families, who can’t get comfortable in a city. It’s a horrible situation for employees who don’t know whether they’ll come to work only to find out the locks have been changed. It’s hurt the fans who don’t know whether they’re rooting for a team that’ll leave them faster than Kim Kardashian left Kris Humphries or one that’ll be around for the rest of their lives. And most of all, it’s hurt the City of Glendale, its taxpayers and its image worldwide.
While there are a lot of issues to argue about in this situation the one certainty is, this entire thing has been completely mishandled from the second Jerry Moyes dropped the puck to start the bankruptcy proceedings. The City of Glendale has been unwilling to truly help themselves. Emotions, whether they’re political aspirations or outlandish activist groups’ own egomaniacal actions, have gotten in the way at each step. The question is: is it the best thing for everyone to just let the Coyotes go?
It’s time for the city to realize that sometimes the hard thing and the right thing are the same. It’s time for them to either commit to Jamison and the Coyotes long-term or let them go. It’s not the easiest thing for fans but it’s the right thing. Running away again only to prolong this situation that has caused nothing but turmoil.
It’s time to end this.
