While the Phoenix Coyotes remain owner-free in the desert, a former Coyotes star might be helping them stay in the desert for the foreseeable future.
According to Lisa Halverstadt of the Arizona Republic, Jeremy Roenick has been approached by prospective Coyotes buyer Greg Jamison to be part of his team to purchase the league-owned franchise. Halverstadt reports that Roenick wants what just about everyone else interested in buying the team has wanted in the past.
Roenick, a Scottsdale resident, said he aims for deal that includes the struggling Westgate City Center, which developers built a decade ago in hopes of drawing crowds with sports, shopping and entertainment.
Nothing is easy with how things have gone with the Coyotes and those that have wanted to buy them.
Jim Balsillie went about it the wrong way trying to sweep them out of the desert like they were the Baltimore Colts of hockey. Jerry Reinsdorf dawdled never got an agreement worked out. Ice Edge Holdings were never able to get something completed, and Matthew Hulsizer was blocked by the Goldwater Institute from completing his purchase agreement.
A team of Jamison and Roenick could be enough to get things worked out if the particulars are right, but Roenick tells the Arizona Republic that there’s no time frame on a deal.
If Roenick can help keep the team in Arizona he’ll be as big of a hero to fans in Glendale and Phoenix as Mario Lemieux was for keeping the Penguins in Pittsburgh by buying them. As we know all too well with the Coyotes, getting it done might take a long time if it ever gets done at all. They may have to work fast, however, as time isn’t on their side to keep the team in the desert.