The aftermath of the vote in Glendale (suburb of Phoenix, Arizona) was that the Coyotes were staying put in the desert, for atleast another year, as the city pledges to pay $25 million to the NHL. This ruling and the money allows the city to be to get another year’s time to search for a new owner & one who will keep the franchise in the Arizona area, rather than moving the team elsewhere, which is what was going to happen if the vote was negative for the $25 million. Winnipeg, with an NHL ready arena and an ownership group with plenty of cash in True North, were the best & only true candidate for moving the franchise.

So after all that promise that the Coyotes, who started out as the Jets in Winnipeg and were sold & moved to Arizona 15 years ago due to the then owner losing money, would be sold to TNSE and move back to their rightful home turned out to be in vain as the NHL & commissioner Gary Bettman in particular pulled out all stops to help Glendale save their franchise – atleast until next year because if they don’t find a potential owner(s) with enough cash, we could be repeating this again next year. So what’s in store for the fans of Winnipeg? Well plan B, which is the Thrashers of Atlanta, whose owners want to sell the franchise as they have been losing money. TNSE had been saying that if they couldn’t get the Coyotes, they would then focus all their efforts on the other franchise up for sale, which is the Trashers. True North in Winnipeg will meet via conference call with the Atlanta ownership group tomorrow. The call will be conducted by Gary Bettman who reportedly is prepared to allow True North to move the franchise to Winnipeg.

Rumours are that True North is prepared to commit $170 Millon to the deal, 110 of which would go to the Atlanta group with the remain $60M going to the NHL as a transfer fee.