Coyotes majority owner meets with City of Glendale officials

Coyotes majority owner Andrew Barroway met with City of Glendale officials Monday in the Valley, discussing how to strengthen the partnership between the team and the city.

"It was tough to schedule," Barroway said Tuesday in an exclusive, almost 20-minute interview with azcentral sports from his office at Gila River Arena. "We had a meeting scheduled previously and then we had to cancel. Various travel schedules and what not, but we got it set up. ... I'm glad we did it, and we want to find ways to work together and do what's best for the team and do what's best for Glendale."

Barroway met with Mayor Jerry Weiers and Vice-Mayor Ian Hugh, and the get-together came on the heels of speculation the Coyotes could be in breach of the 15-year, $225 million arena management agreement between the two sides -- a claim Barroway dismissed.

"We certainly do not believe that there's been any breach of the agreement," Barroway said. "We feel very strong in our legal position there. More important than that, we want a positive working relationship with the city."

During a news conference later in the day, President, CEO and co-owner Anthony LeBlanc also refuted the rumor, explaining that the ownership group no longer has Fortress Investment Group as a lender. It was speculated that the team was funneling money it received from the city to pay down its debt.

"We have never breached. We are in full compliance," LeBlanc said. "The agreement is in full force and effect."

LeBlanc also categorized the meeting with the city Monday as a fruitful one, indicating that city attorney Michael Bailey and interim city manager Dick Bowers were also part of the session. No concerns regarding the agreement were raised, LeBlanc said.

"The relationship with any governmental agency is going to be trying at times just because of the politics that are involved," he added. "But we look forward to growing that relationship and continuing to foster it."

Barroway expressed the same hope, saying, "When the teams does well, the city does well. And when the city does well, the team does well. it's a mutually-beneficial relationship, and we'd like for it to be as great as possible."

Barroway, who assumed a 51 percent majority stake of the Coyotes Dec. 31 for approximately $152.5 million, is still based on the East Coast where he manages an event-driven hedge fund. As a member of the team's hockey committee, Barroway said he's in touch with General Manager Don Maloney at least once a week and described his relationship with the other nine owners as "collaborative.

"These voices all have opinions, sometimes strong ones, but I think we all fundamentally like each other and get along and we all want what's best for this team," he said. "Sometimes we'll have discussions on what we each think is best for it but ultimately, we've been able to work everything out work really well together and we think we have a bunch of different viewpoints and everyone gets a chance to be heard and try to make all the right decisions."

On the ice, the Coyotes continued to struggle last season following Barroway's arrival. The team plummeted to a second-to-last finish and racked up 50 losses en route to the team's worst performance since it relocated to the Valley.

"We had a tough first season for me, and I took a lot of those losses very personally," Barroway said. "It was difficult. I'm a competitive person, and you want to win and we want to build a long-term winner here, and the first year was tough. We think we made a lot of great trades. We're very optimistic about the future. We have a lot of great, young, fast, talented players. We think we're going to be a more exciting team, and we certainly want to be more competitive."

How much spending the Coyotes plan to do this summer remains unclear, but becoming a team jostling for playoff positioning in 2015-16 is the objective. And the team has financial flexibility to accomplish that, Barroway said.

"We'll evaluate on a player-by-player basis but if there's somebody that we really want to get, though, and we have to spend a little, we're open to it," he said. "So we're not pre-planning, 'We want to spend this much.' We're going to see who's out there, what can really help the team and make smart decisions."