WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – Matthew Hulsizer has one message for the people of the Glendale: the Coyotes are not going anywhere under his watch, should he become owner of the NHL’s beleaguered franchise.
"The Phoenix franchise is something that I think I can make work," explained the CEO of PEAK6 Investments after meeting with the NHL’s executive board Monday. "And for the foreseeable future, probably past my lifetime. I tend to be a longer-term investor. As I look out 25 years, I think people will look back and say `hey, that might have looked smart.’ Right now, it’s not going to look smart for a long time though.’”
Here’s perhaps just as imperative: Hulsizer said he is willing to lose money on the Coyotes as it attempts to repair the wounds from years of mismanagement and bankruptcy.
"I don’t know that I’ve resolved the issues," he said. "They may have been unwilling to lose money and maybe I am."
The 40-year-old hedge fund manager was unveiled to league governors by Gary Bettman here Monday afternoon. The commissioner is expected to speak to the media Tuesday regarding the Coyotes’ ownership situation, and a number of other league matters addressed at the conclusion of the two-day meeting.
“I have a few partners,” said Hulsizer. “They’re mostly strategic people, people who can help because it’s a complicated business. So they’re going to help that way, in terms of figuring out arena operations or team or scouting or minor league or things like that. It’s a complicated business.”
Hulsizer played the game from his youth through captaincy at Amherst College and hopes to take ownership of the Coyotes by the end of the year. He says he would be "the vast majority owner" of the club.
The Ice Edge group, once expected to take over the Coyotes, likely has a minority stake.
The purchase price is not expected to exceed $170 million.
“This is not a home run investment for us,” said Hulsizer. "It’s a hockey team and I’m a hockey fan. If you give them a good product, hockey teams have a good value."
Not, in the interim, however, though that seems of little concern to him. In fact, in an interview with Sportsnet, Hulsizer acknowledged it is at least a three-to-five year plan before the Coyotes could even anticipate sustainable interest in the Sun Valley.
“Those things tend to grow over time," he said. "It’s easy to lose customer confidence. It is hard to win it back and we’ve got to win it back and it’s not going to be overnight.
"If we win a couple of games, it doesn’t mean people will buy season tickets or suites.
We need to show we can win, or at least to put a good product out there consistently. Whether it’s how they enter the building, the experience pre-game, post-game, ticketing process, all those things need to be first rate. If we do that, over the next five years you’ll see a real fan loyalty come back."
The Chicago-based businessman said he has negotiated most of the lease with the city of Glendale on the Jobing.com arena and, "we’re just waiting to sort of finalize that."
There is a city council meeting Dec. 14, believed to be the final hurdle for Hulsizer’s ownership. A vote on the building agreement will be held then, four days before details of the lease are made public.
"I’m an investor, I’m writing a cheque. I’m not running the team," said Hulsizer. "I’m not running the arena. We’re going to hire the best people in the world to do that.”
That also means he will not be overseeing the franchise on a day-to-day basis.
He expressed confidence in both GM Don Maloney and head coach Dave Tippett calling them "terrific," and said both his father and father-in-law were looking into real estate to move to Arizona as recently as a week ago.
A president will be hired to handle hockey operations.
"It will be somebody with experience and it’ll be somebody who you guys would all look at and say, `Yeah, I get it, this is a person who is an A player,’" Hulsizer said. "This is what we’re going to try to do — we’re going to hire ‘A’-quality people across the organization, we’re going to try to put a great product on the ice and hopefully earn back the fans.”
