Coyotes Deal Drawing Interest

A group of Canadian and American investors in the running to purchase the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes may have some company.

Ice Edge Holdings has been in talks with the city of Glendale, Ariz., over lease agreements at the team’s home Jobing.com Arena. A recent string of reports in the Phoenix Business Journal also named several other potential buyers.

Former Coyotes owner Steve Ellman, who owns a shopping center next to the arena, has expressed interest, as has Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, the paper said.

Another scenario reportedly suggests Toronto billionaire David Thomson and Mark Chipman, who heads the group that operates the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, moving the team back to Canada.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly addressed rumors in a statement, adding the league has no deals in place to move the team from Glendale at this time.

“Our focus continues to be on completing a transaction with local ownership that is committed to operating the team in Glendale,” he said. “Based on the communications and information we are receiving on a regular basis, the stakeholders involved continue to express a high level of confidence that that can be successfully achieved. We will not focus on completing arrangements for one or more alternative option(s) until such time as it may become necessary.”

Ice Edge, which is negotiating to keep the team in Arizona, reportedly announced that it “continues to work closely with the city of Glendale and the NHL to finalize all required pieces of this very complex transaction.”