Negotiations continue

No news isn’t bad news, says Anthony LeBlanc.

The Thunder Bay entrepreneur, whose company Ice Edge Holdings signed a letter of intent with the NHL to purchase the league’s Phoenix Coyotes, said crucial negotiations with the City of Glendale on the lease of Jobing.com Arena are ongoing and he hopes to have a deal in place in weeks.

"We’re very, very close on that. We actually have a meeting on that on Friday. We are hopeful that we’ll have that wrapped up in the next week to two," said LeBlanc adding later that the prospective owners’ wish to play up to five out-of-market games in Saskatoon is a potential stumbling block in securing the lease.

Money, however, is not a problem, he said.

"Financing has never been an issue for us. But having that said, we are constantly changing some of the members of the group and adding people, and some people are not part of the group that were originally. The complexion of the group has changed a little bit, but the financing is locked in."

The additions don’t include former Tampa Bay Lightning owner Len Barrie, who hockey columnist Jim Kelley linked to LeBlanc after the two were spotted dining together recently at a Tampa area restaurant.

LeBlanc, sporting a Coyotes pin on the left lapel of his pinstriped suit, said the two are simply old friends – Barrie has a house in Phoenix – and as a potential NHL owner, he was just looking for advice.

"He had some interesting experiences in Tampa Bay, so we’re always looking to get any type of feedback we can get who have been through the process. It’s nothing more than a guy who runs in similar circles who was in town," he said, denying outright that Barrie, a former NHLer, would be part of the Ice Edge bid.

When Ice Edge principals signed the letter of intent with the NHL late last year, LeBlanc’s partner Keith McCullough said he hoped it would only take a couple of months to finalize the deal, both with Glendale and the league itself.

It’s taken a little longer than hoped for, LeBlanc said on Wednesday, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing he adding, stating in the interim they’ve been trying to stay out of the media spotlight unless they have something positive to report.

It just hasn’t happened yet, he said.

"But there’s nothing negative to report either, it’s just that these processes do take some time. It is a long process. That’s the only way to look at it. A lot of things need to happen, but a lot of this does have to happen behind the scenes and is not for public disclosure," said LeBlanc, in town for a brief overnight stay and a meeting with city manager Tim Commisso.

The hot topic of that encounter was expected to be LeBlanc’s desire to bring a professional hockey team to Thunder Bay, although he has backed off his earlier stance that if it happens it will be an American Hockey League franchise.

LeBlanc said at present no AHL team is for sale, so he’s been exploring the possibility of bringing an ECHL team to town if the AHL plans fall through. LeBlanc has publicly stated the only way a pro team can survive in Thunder Bay is if a new arena is built.

Under its Renew Thunder Bay plan, the city has proposed a 5,600-seat facility that would cost in the $60-million range. LeBlanc has stated he won’t pay for a new rink and that the money will have to come from another source.