Why was the Coyotes Game not full?

For those wondering why the Coyotes game was not full last night, here is a list of events that were also happening last night (or early today)

1. Ironman Triathlon - This was not last night of course, but people would be going to sleep early for it. 
2. Drake Concert
3. ASU Football
4. The lighting of the tallest Xmas tree in America that took place in Anthem.
5. Fall festivals in:
1. Buckeye
2. El Mirage
3. North Phoenix
6. UFC fight on PPV
7. Good Guys car event in Scottsdale.
8. Several other events.

So yes, there were less people last night at the game, but it was a very busy night in town with lots of other events. 

Current odds for teams to win the Stanley Cup

Here are the current odds for teams to win the cup as on 4/23/2013.



Pittsburgh Penguins 15/4
Chicago Blackhawks 4/1
Boston Bruins 8/1
Anaheim Ducks 10/1
Vancouver Canucks 11/1
Los Angeles Kings 14/1
Montreal Canadiens 14/1
San Jose Sharks 16/1
St. Louis Blues 16/1
New York Rangers 18/1
Toronto Maple Leafs 20/1
Washington Capitals 20/1
Minnesota Wild 25/1
New York Islanders 33/1
Ottawa Senators 33/1
Columbus Blue Jackets 40/1
Detroit Red Wings 40/1
Winnipeg Jets 40/1
Dallas Stars 100/1

How ObamaCare helped me

Ok will all this talk about Obamacare costing people so much money, I have to put my 2 cents in.

I am self employed and it is very hard for me to get health insurance, so I have to just apply and hope I do not get denied. Before ObamaCare, I applied many times for health care only to be denied because of pre-existing conditions.

So now, since the new healthcare plan has passed, I applied again for healthcare. Of course, I was denied because of pre-existing conditions. Since the new law passed, I was now eligible for coverage under the new law.

I sent in my paperwork for the new insurance and was approved. I got great insurance for a good price and I am doing well.

So I guess my healthcare premiums did go up. From nothing to $188 a month.

The Lockout affects me too

I was recently hired on by the company that provides food services for Jobing.com arena during the events to work the concession stands. This was such a hard thing to do as I have been a season ticket holder for 9 seasons now, but I own a small business and the economy is still in the shitter so I made the hard choice to seek employment.

Joyce Clark tweets about Arena Management Fee

On May 21st, 2012 Glendale city council member Joyce Clark (@clarkjv) sent out a series of tweets regarding the proposed arena management fee to the Jamison group for managing Jobing.com arena in Glendale AZ.

May 21st 2012 10:41 pm - Ch 12 just had 2 bring up GWI in Coyotes piece. FYI: Cardinals Stadium, $9-10 M to Global Spectrum. ( more in next tweet)


May 21st 2012 10:43 pm - Part 2: AZSTA ( stadium owner) has another line item in their budget of approx. another $8 M for " stadium operations." ( one more tweet)


May 21st 2012 10:46 pm - Total approx $18 M to run stadium. $17 M is in line with other facilities when you really start looking at their budget line items

We Have Fans

I have seen numerous hockey fans from around North America rooting for the Coyotes to go all the way now. I am choosing to ignore the people who call themselves fans who are rooting for us to lose so I just concentrate on the good fans.

I have gotten messages from fans on Twitter, Facebook, and other places genuinely hoping the Coyotes can ride this thing for as long as possible and going all the way. I have friends here in town that have never watched a hockey game before, starting to follow the games and even tuning in to watch. This is such a wonderful feeling to see these people root for us.

I hope that everyone will continue to welcome them and show them the ropes. These are the fans that are going to buy a 4 pack next season, love it so much they will upgrade to a 10 game pack. In a couple of years they will not be able to stay away and they will become full season ticket holders.

Welcome to Coyote Country everyone. Sit back, stay a long time and enjoy this wonderful ride we like to call hockey.

Jamison at Coyotes game

So Greg Jamison was at the game. He was just standing in the lower lever in the hall by that Belgium beer kiosk. During the OT intermission myself and a couple of friends went up to him and talked to him. He was amazing and very accessible. He said not to give up on the sale. He certainly did not give us any inside information BUT, he said he has followed this teams situation for a long time and he knows the real story on the past financial issues and he is sure we can be very successful here. He said he has been working on this deal for a long time. I told him that I am trying to not read the media and he replied with don't listen to the media at all!

 Dumb me should have asked about buying the arena and westgate.

 Anyway, it was a very, very cool experience and I can only hope he is the new owner.

My Letter from Gary Bettman

So I wrote a letter to the NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman regarding the Coyotes Situation and here is what I got back from him.

Dear Geoff,

Thank you very much for writing me with questions about the situation with the Coyotes in Phoenix. Here is the most up to date information.

We have decided to lower the sale price significantly to ensure a quick sale. We are doing everything we can to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix and with lowering the sale price to under $100 million, we expect the sale to be complete by the end of January. We are 100% confident that the sale will go through to Greg Jamison and the Coyotes will stay in Phoenix. Greg Jamison will be purchasing Jobing.com arena in conjunction with the team to ensure the team stays for decades to come.

We at the NHL appreciate your concern about the situation and I hope you have alleviated your fear.

Sincerely,
Gary "The Hammer" Bettman

If you have not figured out by now this is a 100% fake letter. I wrote it just to show how easy it is to fabricate a letter from anyone and post it on the internet.

My Experience with Roc and Manuch

People following the Coyotes ownership situation have certainly heard about Roc from Roc and Manuch. Roc has been tweeting that he knows someone in the Jamison ownership group and has been given the privilege of tweeting out insider information about the sale.

Roc has never given his source nor has the Jamison ownership group confirmed they have any relationship with Roc. The other day he tweeted that the Jamison group was out of the ownership picture. He said his source, who is part of the ownership group texted him and told him this news.

I tweeted to a few people, NOT ROC, and said why should people even believe this radio personality.

Roc replied to this tweet that was not even to him and called me out saying I was a bad fan. He DM'ed me saying that I should unfollow him if I don't like it and then he promptly unfollowed me so I could not respond to his DM. He tweeted that I was being a keyboard warrior and he wanted to meet in person. Mind you all these tweets have now been deleted.

I told him I would love to meet up with him and tweeted him 3 times asking him where and when we could meet and he never responded.

Several days ago Roc also tweeted that he was not going to tweet about Coyotes news again because of all the haters. So then he still tweets news and then gets upset when people question his sources.

For the record, I have never questioned Roc's commitment to the team nor his status as a fan. I am not mad because he seems to think he is just the messenger of bad news. I am pissed because he said I was a bad fan and called me out to meet and then deleted the tweets about it and unfollowed me so I could not respond to his DM's and still has not told me where and when we are going to meet up.

Ps. Hey Roc, Anytime and anyplace I will be there to meet up with you. I will say EVERYTHING I have tweeted to your face. Will you do the same??? I am waiting.

Geoff

Updated odds to win 2012 Stanley Cup

Pittsburgh Penguins - 7/1

Boston Bruins - 15/2

Chicago Blackhawks - 9/1

Philadelphia Flyers - 9/1

Vancouver Canucks - 9/1

San Jose Sharks - 11/1

Detroit Red Wings - 12/1

Washington Capitals - 15/1

New York Rangers - 16/1

Los Angeles Kings - 20/1

Minnesota Wild - 20/1

St. Louis Blues - 22/1

Dallas Stars - 28/1

Buffalo Sabres - 30/1

Florida Panthers - 30/1

Nashville Predators - 30/1

Toronto Maple Leafs - 35/1

Montreal Canadiens - 40/1

New Jersey Devils - 40/1

Phoenix Coyotes - 40/1

Tampa Bay Lightning - 40/1

Edmonton Oilers - 50/1

Calgary Flames - 75/1

Colorado Avalanche - 75/1

Winnipeg Jets - 75/1

Ottawa Senators - 90/1

Anaheim Ducks - 100/1

Carolina Hurricanes - 200/1

New York Islanders - 300/1

Columbus Blue Jackets - 500/1

Equality by Eric

This is a message from my friend Eric.

David and I will celebrate 28 years together in January. We have bought houses, enjoyed family, buried loved ones, had good times, endured bad times, gone on vacation, have great friends, support the arts, pay our taxes, volunteer...but haven't been on a reality show that results in the "winner" marrying someone, we don't go to Vegas and marry someone for 55 hours, we don't get corporate sponsors for a wedding /media stunt. We aren't the ones who are ending the sanctity of marriage. That's not what we want. We just want what is fair and equal. No political message. Just what's fair. It's time.

My Wayne Gretzky Experience

Seeing a tweet today from Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski)about wanting to smoke a cigar with Wayne Gretzky before he dies reminded me about an experience I had with Wayne back in 2006.

I received an email from the Phoenix Coyotes back during the 2006-2007 season about an upcoming charity lunch with the team. All proceeds from the event were to go to charity so I looked at the options that were available.

You could buy an entire table for 10 at $1000 and a player or coach from the team would be at the table. You could pay $100 for just a seat at a random table or you could pay $1000 for the ability to sit with then head coach, Wayne Gretzky.

I was earning quite a bit of money back then so I decided to go for it and sit at Wayne's table. It seemed like a once in a lifetime experience and I did not want to pass it up.

Since he was the coach of the Coyotes at the time, I did not realize what a privilege it is to have this opportunity. Someone told me once that there is a prize in the Canadian Lottery that is a meal with the Great One. I was really young when he was playing so I was not educated on how amazing a player he was.

So I get there as soon as the doors open to the arena and head down to the covered ice. The Gretzky table stood out among the others as it was beautifully decorated and all but one chair has a Gretzky Coyotes jersey on it. I hurried over to the table and grabbed one of the seats next to the one without a jersey hoping he was going to sit there. The other people that paid to sit with Wayne started to sit down and I was surprised to hear a few of them actually flew in just for this opportunity. They were floored that they could pay $1000 to charity and were able to have a lunch with Wayne.


The entire team was introduced and then came to sit down. When Wayne sat he introduced himself and asked us all of our names. We all had a jersey, puck, hockey card, and hat at our places and he broke the ice and asked if he could sign our stuff. He was very good at talking to each of us on a personal level and it was great to see how down to earth he is.

Darren Pang was talking at the podium about the team and as soon as he was finished at least half of everyone else that was there got up from their table and came over to our table so Wayne could sign items for them. This is the part that made the experience amazing. Wayne obviously knew what we all paid to be at his table so when the other 200 people were coming up to him, he was polite and said hi, but he continued to focus all of his attention on us at his table. It really is cool to see how fast he can sign his name without looking. He was very nice and seemed genuinely interested in every single one of us.

One sad part is when every single person sitting at Georges Laraque's table got up at the same time to go wait in line and he was stuck there sitting by himself.

Looking back I think I took for granted that the greatest hockey player of all time was the coach and the fans had access to him. Even though I thought he was a terrible coach, he was a great player.

I had the jersey framed and it is still hanging in my living room.

Arizona Republic Response

I emailed the sports editor on the Arizona Republic about the lack of Coyotes coverage and this is the response I received.

"This will answer several e-mails I’ve received about our lack of staff road coverage for the Phoenix Coyotes.

We value the Coyotes and know they have loyal fans. But we have to make tough decisions about how best to use our resources to cover a myriad of sports in a crowded sports marketplace. At this time our policy with the Coyotes remains the same – we don’t expect to be able to travel with them. As the end of the regular season nears, and they appear headed toward the playoffs, then we will re-evaluate.

We are taking steps to minimize the impact of this decision by supplementing wire content with occasional staff stories on off days while the team is away – for example, reaching out to coaches and players on the phone when warranted.

Some have suggested that since the NBA is in lockout, we should reallocate travel money normally used on the Suns. That’s not relevant because we have to be prepared to react in case some form of a season still takes place. Also, we face new expenses in 2012, such as the Summer Olympics, that have to be considered.

Thanks for taking the time to share your concerns.

Mark Faller
Sports editor
The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com"

Phoenix Coyotes Marketing

I have been a full season ticket holder for the Phoenix Coyotes for 9 seasons now and I have seen marketing campaigns come and go over the years. We have had everything from Pierre the hockey playing puppet that looked like he just got his ass kicked to the Don't Blink campaign last season that I thought was a total failure.

I understand that the marketing budget comes from the owner of the team and the current owner is the NHL so the team is limited in what they can and can't do.

Here is an idea though, why not ask the fans. Ask the fans what they want to see happen at the games, what kinds of ads they think will bring people into the door and in the seats. Who better to ask than the people that are passionate about the sport and have to spend their money to attend these games. If I was asked, I certainly would have told the team that fans would much rather have a bobblehead of Keith Yandle or Martin Hanzal rather than a rock star or US Senator.

I am sure there is great value in having someone with an expensive marketing degree and sports experience calling the shots in the end, but what bad would come out of asking the fans?

Here are some quick ideas for the team:

How many times do you see lots of empty suites at the games? I can't think of many better ways to get people in the door than giving away some suites throughout the season. Chances are that someone who won a suite would bring 11 others, some of which might never have gone to a hockey game before and after being to a game, would consider going again.

Have Facebook and/or twitter contests where people who retweet or post something on their wall would be entered to win a suite. It would be very easy to set up a ticket referral program where each person has a unique link and every person they send there and sells a ticket would be entered in the contest to win a suite. Throw in a food credit to sweeten the prize.

Wouldn't the team rather have 12 people in a suite rather than leaving it empty?

So how about the team sets up a web page on the Coyotes site where fans can send in their suggestions. There are COUNTLESS things the organization can do that would cost little to nothing. The team needs more fans in the seats and current fans really need the chance to voice their opinion.

2012 NHL UFA List

I know, I know, I am looking way too far ahead, BUT here is some notable players who will be unrestricted free agents after this season.

Alexander Semin
Ryan Smyth
Nick Lindstrom
Zach Parise - i personally would love to have him on the Yotes.
Jaromir Jagr
Saku Koivu
Jordin Tootoo
Sami Lepisto
Al Montoya

This is just a very short list, you can see the rest here.

2012 UFA List

Here is a list of the Coyotes whose contracts expire after this season.

Shane Doan - UFA
Daymond Langkow - UFA
Ray Whitney - UFA
Taylor Pyatt - UFA
Patrick O'Sullivan - UFA
Kyle "El Chupacabra" Chipchua - RFA
Petteri Nokelainen - RFA
Michal Rozsival - UFA
Adrian Aucoin - UFA
Chris Summers - RFA

In my opinion, Doan will be signed to a contract that will have him here for the rest of his playing days soon after Jamison takes over the team.

Coyotes Roster

Stanley Cup Odds 2011-2012

Here are the current odds to win the cup according to BoDog.


Vancouver Canucks - 7/1
Washington Capitals - 7/1
Boston Bruins - 10/1
Pittsburgh Penguins - 10/1
San Jose Sharks - 10/1
Philadelphia Flyers - 11/1
Chicago Blackhawks - 12/1
Detroit Red Wings - 12/1
Los Angeles Kings - 14/1
Buffalo Sabres - 18/1
Tampa Bay Lightning - 18/1
Anaheim Ducks - 25/1
Montreal Canadiens - 25/1
Nashville Predators - 30/1
New Jersey Devils - 30/1
New York Rangers - 30/1
St. Louis Blues - 35/1
Calgary Flames - 40/1
Dallas Stars - 40/1
Phoenix Coyotes - 40/1
Carolina Hurricanes - 45/1
Edmonton Oilers - 50/1
Toronto Maple Leafs - 50/1
Winnipeg Jets - 60/1
Colorado Avalanche - 65/1
Columbus Blue Jackets - 75/1
Florida Panthers - 75/1
Minnesota Wild - 75/1
Ottawa Senators - 75/1
New York Islanders - 80/1

Phoenix Coyotes goodbye letter from Matt Hulsizer

Heather & Members of the Booster Club,

I am very sorry to confirm to you that we have pulled out of the Coyotes process. My family and I had fallen in love with the team and with Arizona but it was just not meant to be. I want to thank you all for your support over the last 9 months; it meant a lot to us.

As disappointed as I am, I urge you to keep the faith. The Coyotes are a great team with a great coach and a great GM. The team is also doing much better financially than it was a year ago. There is a lot of time and a lot of interest in the club and all the potential owners are counting on your continued support.

While I am sorry that it didn't work for us, I am certain that hockey can work in Arizona.

All the Best,

-matt

Matchup Odds for the Cup Finals

Here are the odds on Bodog.com for matchups in the finals for the Stanley Cup.

Washington Capitals vs. Phoenix Coyotes 50/1
Philadelphia Flyers vs. Phoenix Coyotes 80/1
Boston Bruins vs. Phoenix Coyotes 85/1
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Phoenix Coyotes 80/1
Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Phoenix Coyotes 150/1
Montreal Canadiens vs. Phoenix Coyotes 225/1
Buffalo Sabres vs. Phoenix Coyotes 225/1
New York Rangers vs. Phoenix Coyotes 250/1

And odds to win MVP of the playoffs
Keith Yandle 200/1

Who to clap for

When the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes is all said and done, and all the papers are signed, sealed, and delivered all the fans will stand and applaud.

I hope every single hockey fan and person clapping realize who they SHOULD be clapping for.

Applaud the person standing next to you who went went through the same heart-wrenching ups and downs as you did. Applaud for the fan who sits next to you that also spent $5000 on season tickets over the past few years and has invested more time into their team than some parents invest into their children's education. Applaud to the couple who decided to come to their first hockey game because they were at Westgate and found they could get a couple of tickets for under $40. Applaud for the people who have had season tickets since 1996, stuck with the team through everything.

Applaud for the person whose first game was seeing Shane Doan get 2 goals in a game and then hit the goal post TWICE to be denied his first hat trick.

Applaud for the fan whose favorite Coyote moment was seeing Krys Kolanos dismantle a HOF goalie on a penalty shot.

Whoever you clap for, make DAMN sure you know that every fan, went through the exact same thing as you with the ownership saga. They ALSO spent their hard earned money on tickets, survived the Gretzky era, and stuck with the team.