Coyotes get developers to drop opposition to tax-kickback plan by promising not to do it again

access_time personNeil deMause

An Arizona commercial real estate group has dropped its opposition to the Arizona Coyotes‘ demand for $200 million in tax kickbacks for a new arena because, apparently, the team is promising not to do it more than once:

“We were initially opposed,” [NAIOP Arizona president Tim] Lawless said.

But now the group is neutral.

That comes after meetings with Coyotes President, CEO and co-owner Anthony LeBlanc and assurances an arena tax district would not be applied to other projects and sports developments.

I guess technically this means that LeBlanc gave the commercial real estate developers assurances that any authorizing legislation would be narrowly written to just give him a giant whopping tax break, and not all sports team owners, which would have potentially drained an even large share of funds from the state treasury and left existing real estate owners holding more of the bag. That’s not likely to make the owners of the Diamondbacks and Suns happy if they’re hoping to ask for tax kickbacks for their own projects, but LeBlanc can worry about fighting with them later.

Anyway, none of this immediately changes the fact that top state officials sound cool to the LeBlanc plan, and supposed partners Arizona State University still haven’t actually signed on, and so on. But getting one less semi-powerful group hating on him has to be seen as progress of a sort for LeBlanc, anyway.

Other Recent Posts:

Share this post:

8 comments on “Coyotes get developers to drop opposition to tax-kickback plan by promising not to do it again”

  1. I’m convinced the only reason Phoenix has an NHL team is the number of Canadians who winter in Arizona. Therefore, I think Canada ought to pay for this arena.

    Hey, if it works for Trump’s Wall, it should work for the Coyotes’ Arena.

    1. The only reason we have a NHL team is because taxpayers have paid a buttload (Neil’s term) of $dough to subsidize them. Now that Glendale has wised up, LeBlanc is on the prowl for a different herd of cows to milk, er, taxpayers to hose. Maybe he’ll find them, who knows. He’s smart enough not to ask the taxpayers directly; the preferred method is to browbeat or purchase some stupid pols, of which there is a seemingly endless supply.

      But I like the idea of getting Canadians to pay for a new arena. In Canada, preferably.

  2. Arizona Board of Regents claims approval power over Arizona Coyotes arena on ASU land in Tempe

    http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2016/12/13/arizona-board-of-regents-claims-approval-power.html

  3. Arizona’s new House speaker is not too keen on the Coyotes taxpayer funded plan.

    New Arizona House speaker talks 2017’s top issues

    http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2016/12/27/arizona-house-speaker-top-issues-2017/95880888/

  4. The City of Glendale has an Arizona Coyotes Fact Sheet.

    https://s27.postimg.org/hux7u6wc3/Glendale_Fact_Sheet01.jpg
    https://s28.postimg.org/ws1qgwl0t/Glendale_Fact_Sheet02.jpg

    At the bottom of Page 1, without any other announcement from either IceArizona nor the arena manager, AEG, on January 1, 2017, the lease was extended for the 2017/18 season.

    How is that not bigger news?

  5. Anthony LeBlanc said he hopes that a recently introduced bill in the Arizona legislature, SB 1474, can help forge the public/private partnership the team needs to make the new facility affordable.

    http://news.gcu.edu/2017/02/sports-day-sun-shares-bright-ideas/

  6. ASU pulls out of plan to bring Arizona Coyotes to Tempe

    http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nhl/coyotes/2017/02/03/asu-pulls-out-plan-bring-arizona-coyotes-tempe/97460974/

Comments are closed.