NHL: Revolving Door Spins in Possible Coyotes Sale

Where have we heard this before? Oh, yes: first it was Chicago businessman Matthew Hulsizer, now it’s San Jose Sharks (former) president and CEO Greg Jamison who is spearheading an attempt to buy the Phoenix Coyotes. An annoucement of some sort is expected before Monday night’s Game 5 versus the Nashville Predators.

So who is this guy? Let’s begin with what Greg Jamison does not appear to be. The 58-year-old probably isn’t looking to buy the Coyotes as a writeoff for his company’s balance sheet. Wildly successful entities need a certain amount of unsuccessful assets to lessen their overall tax liability, and owning a sports team for that purpose is a good idea for some. It’s a win-win, really: if a purchased club continues to be unsuccessful, the tax writeoff is in place, and maybe the holding company gets a break or two or three from a city council which wants to keep the team in place.

Jamison, though, has come up through the trenches. According to the biography posted on the San Jose Sharks site, he started his association with professional sports teams in 1980 as director of marketing for the Dallas Mavericks. He also served as vice-president of business operations for the Indiana Pacers for several years before landing with the Sharks in 1993.

Time to explore what he might be. If you want to head up an effort to buy a pro sports team, you’re likely dealing with debt still sitting on the club’s accounts, probably in the millions of dollars. If you can get the city where the team resides to write off some of that debt, you’ve done your job to soften the impact of the purchase on your own organization’s balance sheet.

This is what Hulsizer’s group likely tried to do in Glendale before the Goldwater Institute stepped in. That group likes to say it’s “standing up for taxpayers” and in this, it has a case. Cash-poor Glendale has poured at least $50 million into the team in the last couple of years to keep it afloat, and few actually attend the games: the club is last in attendance and the only time the Jobing.com Arena has been more than half-full has been during the team’s improbable playoff run this season.

The Goldwater people scuttled Hulsizer’s deal, and they could blow up this one too. If Jamison is willing to step into what has already proven to be a field riddled with perils, he might just be a masochist. But, as always, there’s more to it: Jamison also wants a management fee (estimates range from $11 million to $16 million) from the City of Glendale to run the arena.

If he has his timing right and if the Coyotes continue to win in the NHL playoffs and if the Glendale city council agrees to the deal and if the Goldwater Institute backs off, Jamison might just be a hero. That’s a lot of “ifs” and “maybes.”