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The Arizona Coyotes are currently in the midst a dispute with the city of Glendale, Arizona and things are getting uglier by the day. If the NHL knows what’s best for it, they should move the Coyotes out of Arizona sooner rather than later.
First for a better understanding of the situation here is some pertinent team history:
The Arizona Coyotes were once known as the Phoenix Coyotes, which made no sense because, the team plays at an arena that is 18 miles outside the city of Pheonix, Arizona.
Glendale, Arizona is it’s own city with it’s own government.
The NHL wouldn’t dare name the team the Glendale Coyotes because only a handful of people outside of Phoenix actually know Glendale is a separate city from Phoenix. So they tried to make the team more appealing to the entire state in 2014 and renamed them the Arizona Coyotes.
The Coyotes were once a decent team in the NHL. They recently made the Western Conference Finals in 2012 for the first time where they lost to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion, the Los Angeles Kings.
Here’s the real issue:
Even with the Coyotes successes, the organization has been consistently tanking money due to a lack of a consistent and devoted fan base.
According to hockeyattendence.com, the Coyotes were last in the NHL using it’s most recent attendance data from the 2013-2014 season.
According to reports, the city lost $8.1 million on the arena alone last fiscal year and expects to lose $8.7 million this upcoming fiscal year.
The consistent loss in money by the organization trickles down to the city of Glendale having to make up for the lost revenue using taxpayer money.
There is also a state statute that allows government entities to end a deal within three years of signing if the person negotiating the contract for the city is also an employee of the other party as well. That is exactly what occurred with attorney Craig Tindall who was a Glendale attorney that went to work with the Coyotes while being paid a severance from the city of Glendale in 2013.
This is why the city of Glendale’s government held a “special meeting” on June 10th, 2015 on ending the cities contract with the Arizona Coyotes, which still has 13 years left on the deal. The vote was 5-2 in favor of ending the current deal, which was signed on August 5th, 2013.
The city council held a meeting with the public before the vote and a particular female fan went off on the Glendale Mayor.
The Arizona Coyotes official twitter account even changed it’s, “location” to, “Still in Glendale, Arizona.”
The Mayor of Phoenix, Mayor Greg Stanton, also reportedly contacted the city’s National Basketball Association team, the Phoenix Suns, and spoke to them about a possible partnership.
Essentially, the Arizona Coyotes could end up in downtown Phoenix and could be the Phoenix Coyotes, but, for real this time.
The latest development in this saga is the Coyotes filed a restraining order against the city of Glendale to try and stop the city from voiding the contract. That has been ok’d by the city but they need two months to prepare for the hearing. The Coyotes expressed they don’t want to wait two months.
The Coyotes have been under scrutiny and have had to fight off relocation rumors for five years before the current arena deal was made with the city of Glendale. In a nutshell, there have been consistent Coyotes relocation rumors for the last seven years.
The NHL gave a team in Arizona a shot, but it’s just not working. Even if the team survives today’s vote and stays in Glendale, it won’t survive much longer.
The NHL might as well move the team now and get it over with.
Here are some locations that may be good fits for an NHL franchise:
Hamilton, Ontario
Quebec City, Quebec
Seattle, Washington
As Fiveforhowling.com theorized, the Coyotes could be temporarily moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. This move would certainly kill two birds with one stone. The NHL could test the feasibility of an NHL franchise in Las Vegas and could find a temporary fix to the Coyotes vs. Glendale debacle. As is theorized in the article, the broadcasting teams and even fans could potentially still follow the team as the distance between Las Vegas and Glendale isn’t too burdensome.
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