Glendale Punished as Hockey Deal Follows Baseball

Glendale, Arizona, which has borrowed more than $355 million for professional sports venues, has seen the yield penalty on its bonds jump after approving an additional $225 million outlay to keep the National Hockey League’s Phoenix Coyotes in town.

While Coyotes fans gathered in Glendale city council chambers cheered the deal that is poised to keep the team in the Phoenix suburb’s publicly financed arena, investors have been less enthusiastic. Interest rates on some Glendale debt set a two-year high and yield spreads swelled as much as 20 percent after the city council on July 2 cleared a lease paying the team’s prospective owners $15 million annually for 15 years to manage the facility.