I'm convinced....the Goldwater Institute does not like this building. (Photo: Jesse Spector/flickr)

In a move that surprised absolutely no one, the Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the Glendale City Council vote that took place last week regarding the Phoenix Coyotes arena deal. That vote was passed 4-2 and the watchdog group said they would fight it if the vote was passed. The surprising part was that they waited till Wednesday afternoon instead of filing first thing Monday morning as promised. Rumor was they were checking to see if they had a case. Could a part of this deal actual be okay with the conservative group? Yeah, I doubt it too.

So what does the lawsuit entail this time?  From AZCentral:

The institute puts forth two arguments. They argue the city should have allowed other potential arena operators to bid for the job. They also say there was not enough council support to allow the lease with likely Coyotes buyer Greg Jamison to immediately go into effect as an emergency measure.

In a separate filing, Goldwater also argued that Glendale should be held in contempt of court for not providing all documents to them regarding negotiations between them and a prospective owner in a timely matter. They felt that two important documents were not provided before last weeks’ vote therefore making the vote invalid.

Additional information regarding the lawsuits can be found here and here.

According to Lisa Halverstadt of the Arizona Republic and AZCentral, both sides are set to appear in court next Tuesday June 19th at 10:30 a.m. PST before Judge Dean Fink to discuss the case.

This evening, the city of Glendale replied with the following:

“Glendale maintains it is in compliance with all laws applicable to the Jobing.com Arena management agreement. This agreement will provide the maximum benefit from the arena to the citizens of Glendale over its term. The arguments presented to the Court by the Goldwater Institute and the other plaintiffs attempt to invalidate a decision by duly elected representatives of the citizens.”

I’m not sure what invalidating the vote does other than force the City Council to meet and vote again. I’d be surprised if anyone changes their vote so honestly this is just wasting everyone’s time (something Goldwater seems very good at). Where was this institute when the arena was originally built? The city’s funds were used then but I don’t remember there being a problem with getting permits and such.

Coyotes fans should be focusing on the draft next week and free agency while looking forward to improving on their WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS APPEARANCE, not dealing with this crap for the third year in a row. I think I speak for all Coyotes fans when I say JUST GO AWAY GOLDWATER.