Report: Coyotes purchase hits roadblock

The potential purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes from the NHL has hit another stumbling block. (Norm Hall/NHL/Getty Images)

A potential buyer for the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes cannot produce the funds to buy the team from the league, reports ESPN.com.

Because Former San Jose Sharks CEO Greg Jamison hasn't been able to buy the team, a Jan. 31 deadline to get a lease agreement with Glendale, Ariz. officials will pass without a deal being struck. The league has owned the franchise for four years.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the deal is still a work in progress and wanted to see how it played out this week.

A separate group of investors is prepared to step into the void created by Jamison's failure to produce the money he repeatedly insisted he would deliver to complete the deal, but the question is whether Glendale officials will agree to extend the lease agreement to a new group given that it was Jamison who negotiated the terms of the highly contentious lease deal. Under the current lease agreement, the team's owners would receive some $308 million over the life of the 20-year deal to manage the property, an average of slightly more than $15 million annually in management fees.