NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday night that the conservative Goldwater Institute "has placed a cloud on the bonds" needed to complete the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes to Chicago businessman Matthew Hulsizer. "I quite frankly don't know who the people there report to or are accountable to," Bettman said, "but it fascinates me that whoever is running the Goldwater Institute can actually substitute their judgment for that of the Glendale City Council by, in effect, overturning a duly enacted resolution of the city and one that was enacted in public session." Thursday, Glendale mayor Elaine Scruggs said the Goldwater Institute had "taken the unprecedented step" of warning bond-rating agencies that the city's agreement on a new lease for the Coyotes to play at the city-owner Jobing.com Arena violated the Arizona constitution. In response to Scruggs, the Goldwater Institute pointed to an Op-ed piece in Thursday's Arizona Republic by institute president and chief executive officer Darcy Olsen saying it would be wrong to give Glendale "a free pass" to break the state's prohibition on government entities subsidizing private enterprise. Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=6195635
