Show me the money!

So I was taught an important lesson as a child if you don't have the money you can't buy it. Too bad others haven't been taught this.

This is the problem that plagues our economy right now. A bunch of people where given loans to buy houses they couldn't afford. This problem is also evident in pro sports. Take the Phoenix Coyotes for instance.

Now before we get into this let me be upfront, I hate the Coyotes. I have 2 reasons.

#1 They used to be the Winnipeg Jets (my favorite team) and were moved to the desert.

#2 They were complete assholes to me when I was making the movie. Originally 30% of the movie was going to be about the growth of the sport in the southern US. My idea was to interview Wayne Gretzky about his role in bringing hockey to the south. Gretzky at the time was the Coach of the Coyotes. I went through the proper hoops, contacted the right people and asked them for a 10 minute interview. I even gave them the option of screening all the footage and having final approval of the shots. In response I got a one line email from their PR guy saying he was too busy. So flash forward to 6 months later, I'm in Dallas shooting stuff with the Stars (who by the way were awesome supporters of the film) for the movie and guess who is in town? The Coyotes. So I figure since I am going to be in Dallas and they will be too this would be the perfect opportunity to shoot a quick interview. I had everything set up. Gretzky was 10 ft away from me and still their PR flunky in a cheap suit wouldn't let me ask him a single question. So screw them.

Anyway back to my original point. The Coyotes are for sale. They went bankrupt almost 2 years ago and the NHL has been running them ever since. The NHL is wanting to keep them in Arizona due to the simple fact they would look like morons if the team failed. Reputable businessmen don't want to come with in a mile of the Coyotes due to the fact in 14 years they haven't made a single dime and they have the worst lease agreement in professional sports.

So enter ICE EDGE HOLDINGS a group of guys from Canada and the US who want to own a hockey team because it would be "cool" (their words). Problem is they don't have any real money.

I did the rough math:

170 mil for the team
25 mil for City of Glendale Losses for this year
25-30 mil a year in losses
50 mil a year in expenses

So being conservative they would need roughly 500 mil to float the team for the first 5 years or so.

No bank in the world would give these clowns a dime let alone 500 mil in the best of times, but we are in the middle of a nasty recession.

The City of Glendale is try to use Tax payers money and creative accounting to try and help ICE EDGE make the numbers work but sadly I fear there is no hope for them.

So the moral of the story. You want to buy something, have the freaking money!

Go Jets!