PNI Coyotes Deal 0611

In this photo taken Wednesday, June 10, 2015, Arizona Coyotes fans Chris Webb, second from right, and Andrew Hill show their support for their team as the as the Glendale Council votes to back out of an arena lease agreement with the NHL team during a special council meeting in Glendale, Ariz.

(David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic via AP)

The vultures are circling as the Arizona Coyotes dig in for a fight with the city of Glendale, where they play their home games in Gila River Arena.

This week, the Glendale City Council voted to void a 15-year agreement they had with the NHL team. The $225 million deal helped the Coyotes remain in the Phoenix area in 2013, when the team was in such poor financial condition, the league had purchased it and was running it.

The vultures include, well, us, Portland that is. The Oregonian's John Canzano wrote that the situation could open the door for Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen to swoop in and get another tenant for his arena, the Moda Center.

Indeed, during the financial turmoil in 2013, Allen made an effort to purchase the Coyotes to move to Portland.

Our neighbor to the north, Seattle, also is another potential vulture and is watching closely.

But indications are that we are a ways from the Coyotes truly being a carcass for us to feed on. An attorney for the Coyotes told the council that if it voided the deal, the team would seek $200 million in damages from the city, the Arizona Republic reported.

And it remains to be seen if the grounds on which the council voided the agreement stand up. Although the reason for ending the lease has been characterized as the city losing money during the two years the deal has been in effect -- more than $6.3 million this year (for hockey and concerts) through April alone, according to the Republic -- the legal reason cited wasn't about lost money.

Instead, the council used a conflict-of-interest statute that allows the city terminate a contract in the first three years "if a person who was significantly involved in drafting or creating the contract for the city later becomes an agent or employee of the other party of the contract," the Republic reported.

The conflict comes in the person of Craig Tindall, a former city attorney who went to work for the Coyotes.

The NHL is standing firmly behind the team, issuing this statement:

"We have been advised by the Coyotes that the City of Glendale's contentions are without merit and we fully expect the Coyotes to continue to play at the Gila River Arena and for the City to continue to honor its obligations to the Coyotes. After everything that has transpired, it is extremely disappointing that the City of Glendale would do anything that might damage the Club."

The Coyotes' ownership group, called IceArizona, has a fifth-year opt-out in its lease deal with Glendale, allowing the team to void the deal if it loses $50 million in its first five years, according to the Associated Press. But for now, team officials seem ready to fight to stay.

There is also the possibility that the Coyotes could eventually move into a new arena built by the Phoenix Suns, writes the Republic's Paola Boivin, who notes the such cities as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and Denver have arenas that house NBA and NHL teams.

But in a week in which so much happened with the Coyotes, few things fired fans up like the testimony of Coyotes fan Ronda Pearson:

-- Mike Tokito

mtokito@oregonian.com

503-294-7604; @mtokito