Jamison faces deadline in bid to buy Coyotes

Prospective Phoenix Coyotes owner Greg Jamison faces an imminent deadline to purchase the club from the National Hockey League in order to receive the arena-management deal negotiated with the Glendale City Council.

In order to receive the arena-management deal, which would pay him $15 million a year to run Jobing.com Arena, the home of the Coyotes, Jamison must have purchased the team from the League by 11:59 p.m. local time Thursday night.

If Jamison misses that deadline, the agreed-upon deal for the arena-management rights is no longer available and a new deal would have to be negotiated. That deadline is a contractual provision existing between Glendale and Jamison that is not directly tied to the potential sale of the team.

"This Jan. 31st deadline, quote-unquote, is not a deadline from our prospective," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said on Hockey Night in Canada radio Thursday afternoon. "It is a contractual date that happened to be in an agreement between Greg Jamison and the City of Glendale. Assuming the condition precedent to that date doesn't happen by [Thursday] night, I would imagine everybody has to reassess where they are -- or at least those two parties have to reassess where they are and where they go from here. Our objectives are going to remain the same, which is to find and transition ownership in Glendale."

Glendale mayor Jerry Weiers told the Arizona Republic on Thursday that a local attorney, representing the Jamison group, approached the mayor about the possibility of an extension. Weiers told the newspaper he has no intention of extending the deadline.

Jamison is a former president and chief executive of the San Jose Sharks.