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Legal experts don’t like Goldwater’s chances in court tomorrow

We’re no law-talking guys here at PHT, so we couldn’t very well handicap tomorrow’s Goldwater-Glendale court battle in which the taxpayer watchdog group will attempt to invalidate a vote approving a lease for the Phoenix Coyotes at the city-owned Jobing.com Arena.

Fortunately, the Arizona Republic spoke to a couple of law-talking guys to get their takes, and what they said should make Coyotes fans happy.

“No matter what the facts, there’s always a high bar there,” Phoenix-based constitutional-law attorney Dan Barr told the paper. “The courts aren’t going to (step in) merely because they disagree with it. Usually, the violation has to be pretty blatant.”

Added David Derickson, a Phoenix-based defense attorney: “For me, as a former judge and a legal observer, I would think it would be very difficult for the court to interfere with a lawful process.”

If Goldwater’s lawsuit does fail tomorrow, the vote won’t actually go into effect for about a month, according to the paper. Whether that could delay the sale even further isn’t clear.

It’s also possible Goldwater could end up suing Glendale for violating the state’s gift clause.

And we still don’t know if Greg Jamison has the money in place to buy the team.

Otherwise it’s full speed ahead!