Ice Edge Appears Ready to Buy Coyotes
I heard about this situation last night and Heather McWhorter over at Reflections from the Yotes Diva picked it up from TSN.ca as well, but it appears that Ice Edge Holdings is ready to close the deal.
To write that this is good news would be truly an understatement. The attendance situation, in my mind, is a direct result of not having an ownership group (the control by the NHL has helped, but it’s not the same) willing to revitalize the brand in the Valley. Having the Coyotes post a winning record so far hasn’t hurt either.
There are many casual fans out there wondering about the ownership issue and unwilling, at this point, to plunk down cash and invest in a team that, in their minds, “might be gone anyway.”
Darryl Jones said it best with this quote,
“(Fans need to)really believe definitively that the team is not leaving, to be able to open up their hearts again.”
Word….er so true.
People like Heather who fought back against the nay sayers that hockey can’t work here, to the point of setting up a website and an organization to keep everyone focused on the goal.
Or OdinMercer at Five for Howling who, along with Heather, went to court proceedings and reported it for everyone to read, and also had to fight back against those other groups up north that like Schadenfreude.
Or over at Hip Shot where hockey is a passion because it’s the greatest sport on the planet.
Or the other Coyotes blogs that after a summer of potential despair, they can now find even more reasons to be happy, especially as their team is winning.
Note, that I’m not ready to proclaim this as a done deal – far from it. When they sign the paperwork and take control is only when I will really sigh a relief, because I didn’t want them to go either – I still remember the times when I wondered if I was the only fan of the Coyotes in the blogosphere.
All I’m writing now about this development is that it’s a cool thing to see some movement, and to see some interest in a team that is playing exceptional hockey. Hopefully, if it does go through, they’ll find ways to generate interest and promote the team that is performing ahead of expectations.
Because hockey can work here.
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