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Report: City of Glendale must pay NHL $25M by Monday; Coyotes allegedly lost $36.6M

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The 2010-11 season might have left the City of Glendale feeling a bit bloated, but Rebekah L. Sanders of the Arizona Republic reports that they have until Monday to pay the bill. That means they’ll need to pay the NHL the $25 million they promised, although Sanders reports that the Phoenix Coyotes’ actual losses amounted to a whopping $36.6 million in the last eight months dating up to March.

I’ll just let you marinate in that figure for a moment: $36.6 million.

Sanders reports that the city promised taxpayers that they wouldn’t need to foot that $25 million bill since a new owner would take care of it, but the sale is obviously still in limbo.

Some people will jump to the conclusion that the “deadline” is now Monday, but if this twisted saga proves anything, it’s that there aren’t many clear answers to its many questions. The NHL might cut the City of Glendale a break (it is coming off a season of record-breaking projected revenues, after all) by giving them an extension, perhaps.

Who knows at this point, though. Yesterday’s big story was that the Winnipeg city mayor Sam Katz openly doubts that the Coyotes will move to his city because of the threat of a lawsuit. The potential sale of the Atlanta Thrashers also hangs in the balance of this mess, so there are two NHL franchises greatly affected by what shall occur in the next weeks/months.

Every time there seems to be a moment of clarity in this situation, the odds-on favorite scenario flips on its head. For that reason, we won’t forecast a winner; instead, we’ll just keep you up to date as the situation continues to change. Eventually we might even be able to discuss a resolution to the matter.