Coyotes ownership caught in another shameless lie

Last night The Athletic's Katie Strang reported that the Arizona Coyotes risk becoming essentially a homeless franchise unless they can buck up $1.3 million in unpaid taxes before December 20th, 2021.

More from TSN's Rick Westhead:

From Strang's column for The Athletic:

On Dec. 3, the Arizona Department of Revenue filed a tax lien notice in Maricopa County against IceArizona Hockey LLC, the company that owns the Coyotes, for more than $1.3 million in unpaid state and city taxes. The City of Glendale, which has been locked in a lengthy dispute with the Coyotes over delinquent bills, has already notified ASM, the Gila River Arena management company, and Coyotes team president and CEO Xavier Gutierrez of the cancellation of the Coyotes’ business license.

The Coyotes, according to the notice sent to ASM and to the team, will have until 5 p.m. MST on Dec. 20 to pay the outstanding arena invoices from the 2020-21 season, as well as the outstanding tax bill. If they do not settle up the remaining debt by that time, the City of Glendale has instructed ASM to deny team employees access to the arena and the offices within the arena used as administrative space. Arena vendors would also be locked out.

- Katie Strang

Further to the $1.3 million owed though, Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reports that the Coyotes will actually be on the hook for much, much more before they're allowed back in the building. Friedman reports that the city of Glendale will likely force the Coyotes to not only pay their debt, but they'll have to also pay their 2022 taxes early to avoid another situation where they go in arrears. 

From Friedman:

"There's a concern about the possibility that the Coyotes pay this bill ($1.3 million) then don't pay in the future (for 2022 taxes owed) and they (Glendale) have to chase them again. So I think there's a possibility the Coyotes will be asked to pay this and future money before they're allowed to go back into the building."

- Elliotte Friedman

It's important to note that Strang did reach out to the Coyotes and to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for comment before publishing her story, but both the team and the league declined to comment. The team however has released a statement through Coyotes insider Craig Morgan, saying essentially that they simply forgot to pay their bills.

From Morgan:

“We have already launched an investigation to determine how this could have happened and initial indications are that it appears to be the result of an unfortunate human error. Regardless, we deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused. 

"We will make sure that by tomorrow morning, the Arizona Coyotes are current on all of our bills and owe no state or local taxes whatsoever. And we will take immediate steps to ensure that nothing like this can ever possibly happen again.”

- Craig Morgan

There's only one problem with that... it's complete bullshit.

Again from Strang:

Enough already... just move this team and be done with it.