Andrew Barroway Purchase of Coyotes Approved: All is Well?
Reports earlier today from John Shannon of Sportsnet indicate that the Arizona Coyotes’ 51% sale to hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway is official and he is now the majority owner of the club. The $152.5 million sale was initially agreed to in October with the electronic voting from the Board of Governors beginning earlier this week. Hopefully this will put behind the years of ownership issues that the club has endured and the Coyotes’ fans can finally concentrate on the product on the ice.
With any sale, there is optimism that things will be different. While no one should reasonably expect payroll to jump tomorrow, the hope is that Barroway will realize the need to invest in the team and get them back on a winning track. The team has approximately $38 million committed to next year’s salary cap already, and with early projections of the cap ceiling increasing to $73 million, management will have plenty of cap space available to significantly increase the payroll and, hopefully, improve the on-ice product.
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This isn’t Barroway’s first rodeo when it comes to ownership. As many people still remember, he initially agreed to purchase the Islanders from Charles Wang earlier this year before the rug was pulled out from under him and Wang sold elsewhere (reports were Wang received $548 million from new ownership, as opposed to the $420 million allegedly offered by Barroway). This was after he made a failed attempt to purchase the New Jersey Devils two years ago as well. And don’t forget his failed attempt to purchase the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers in 2006. Clearly Barroway was hell-bent at acquiring a professional sports team, so now all eyes will be on how he treats the Coyotes.
While the infusion of capital will be a welcome addition to the Coyotes, Barroway’s previous failed attempts to purchase a sports team does raise an eyebrow for this writer at least. Reportedly he couldn’t come up with the cash to purchase the 76ers…he got cold feet after reviewing the Devils’ financial records…his bid was trumped for the Islanders after a deal was supposed to be in place. While on the surface none of these individually mean he’ll be a bad owner, it is a little troublesome when viewed together. Yes, he said all the right things about owning a team being a dream come true, but is his end game to bring a championship to Arizona, or is he looking to maximize his investment and make as much money as possible before flipping his newest asset?
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We won’t know that answer for some time. This summer will be interesting with the amount of cap space available to the Coyotes. Historically the Coyotes haven’t draw well at the box office, not finishing outside the bottom-five in home attendance since 2007/08. The team has had some quality, playoff seasons mixed in those lean years as well, including a Conference Finals appearance in 2011/12. This isn’t a discussion of whether Arizona is a viable hockey market. However, if the team continues to struggle with attendance, will Barroway look at the bottom-line and strip it down to the bare-minimum or worse, move it elsewhere? Barroway amassed much of his fortune as a hedge-fund manager; does anyone think he’ll continue to throw good money at a bad investment if it isn’t profitable? Yes, there is new television money coming into the league now, but will it be enough to cover the potential losses?
I don’t want to rain on Coyotes’ fans parade today. As mentioned earlier, it should be met with optimism. If the old ownership wasn’t willing to invest in the team, then absolutely it’s time to look forward at the next suitor. But I would be wary of believing that all of the ownership ills are a thing of the past now with Barroway in the fold.
Yes, it’s fair to give him time to put his stamp on this organization and be optimistic about the future…but cautiously optimistic.