"If a two-year custody battle tires a parent out, Glendale is exhausted.

But like a devoted guardian, the city continues to fight, ignoring naysayers who doubt its team can make it.

Seeing itself as protector of the Phoenix Coyotes, Glendale has been on a mission to find a caretaker to keep its hockey team.

Since the city's spats with former owner Jerry Moyes erupted two years ago this month with his filing of the team into bankruptcy, the fight has evoked a classic family feud.

Name-calling and hurt feelings. Dirty laundry revealed in court. Struggles over money.

And through it all, a string of possible owners has paraded in, aiming to take Moyes' place as head of the franchise. To describe the bidders simply: one bald, one old, one young. And, by the end, one Glendale believes is just right - Matthew Hulsizer.

The Chicago businessman and former college hockey player is the city's brightest prospect to run the team. Glendale has no finalized agreement despite months of talks with Hulsizer. The City Council is expected to promise Tuesday to dole out as much as $25 million to the National Hockey League to keep the team through the 2011-12 season.

Without that pledge, Glendale's team could find itself in another home.

The custody battle with Moyes followed the well-worn path of many breakups - disputes over money and accusations of cheating.

Moyes, the wealthy magnate of Swift Transportation, had invested millions in the Coyotes as a favor to Mayor Elaine Scruggs.

Moyes wasn't a hockey guy. Scruggs acknowledged she was a critic of "government paying for sports."

But both saw potential to land commercial development around a city-built arena and require the developer to revitalize a decayed central Glendale shopping center.

"I said, 'Jerry, I've got this great idea, I need you to help me,' " Scruggs recalled later. "He says, 'Do you know how expensive this is?' I said, 'No, but I want to talk about it.' "

Glendale spent $180 million to open Jobing.com Arena in 2003. Moyes became a team investor.

As the years passed, though, Moyes' check-writing to the money-bleeding team earned him the nickname "Uncle Jerry" from organization insiders.

By 2008, Uncle Jerry was fed up. He asked the city to fund part of the losses. Glendale countered that he needed to cut costs, such as not using his company's planes for team travel.

What began as a rift widened.

Moyes circumvented the city to find someone to take overthe team. He chose a tall, dark and bald Canadian, Jim Balsillie. The BlackBerry billionaire seemed eager to pay whatever it took to whisk the team to Canada.

Moyes said Glendale went behind his back to find a buyer as well. City and NHL officials shook hands with Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Then 73, the sports whiz was already busy with two teams but was tied to Glendale, where his baseball club trained each spring.

Moyes beat Glendale to the punch. As the league was en route with Reinsdorf's offer, Moyes put the team into bankruptcy. With that move on May 5, 2009, he aimed to break the lease with Glendale and sell the team to his choice, Balsillie."