Arizona’s problem is not in the area in which it operates. Its biggest problem is the incompetence of the owner, writes Tommi Seppälä, Urheilu’s NHL reporter.
Good news first: hockey is not going away from Arizona, even if the local NHL club is moved to Salt Lake City according to various reports – possibly as early as next season. Arizona has a really good buzz and lift on the junior hockey side, and as a region it is a very attractive option for players from many angles.
The southern parts of the United States attract clubs from the top leagues, and Arizona also has everything it takes to run an NHL club.
Except an NHL level arena. Oh, and the NHL-level ownership ladder.
Read also: The NHL is gearing up for a billion-dollar move – puck in Lauri Markkanen’s home arena already next season?
The NHL is moving the coyotes club to Salt Lake City for the simple reason that the club does not have an NHL-level home arena in Arizona. The Coyotes have played for two years in the arena of the university team.
There is no point in embellishing the truth in this respect: 4,600 spectators in an attractive arena is not enough for an NHL club. The most worrying thing is that there is no information about the new home arena.
It got a shoe from its previous home arena, an arena owned by the city of Glendale, in the spring of 2022, because the city did not want to renew the lease. According to various sources, numerous unpaid bills were the reason behind the decision. Earlier in the same season, the city threatened to close the hall’s doors in the middle of the season, because the club had unpaid tax arrears of over a million dollars.
In Arizona’s case, this is ultimately what it’s all about, both in the big picture and the small picture: constant screwing at the ownership level.
From crisis to crisis
Let’s take a brief review of the club’s history.
In the year 2005 Jerry Moyes bought the club, but already in 2009 he filed for bankruptcy.
In 2013, the desert was raging again and the NHL threatened to move the club elsewhere. At the time, the city of Glendale wanted to support the new owner, Renaissance Sports & Entertainment, by signing a long 15-year lease on the arena.
Just two years later, the city and the club were already at odds, and the city decided to cancel the long lease.
In 2016, the club announced that it would move to Tempe, twenty minutes away from Glendale, and build a new arena there on a university campus. And be that as it may, only a moment later the university withdrew from the agreement.
Three years later, a new owner appeared again, this time a billionaire Alex Meruelowhose previous attempt to buy NBA team Atlanta Hawks was called off at the last minute due to uncertainties.
During Merueto, Arizona has allegedly downplayed its financial concerns, and according to various reports, employees have been mistreated under the new management, subcontractors and other partners have been blackmailed, threatened, and so on.
The latest twist was being fired from the home arena and moving to a small university hall.
Arizona has been a disgrace to the league for a long time, and the most incredible thing is how long the NHL has agreed to watch its own product rot. Apparently now the measure is getting full. As seen in Atlanta’s move to Winnipeg in the spring of 2011, such big decisions can happen in just weeks. Arizona may well be moved as early as May.
And why wouldn’t it be.
Almost certain success
Salt Lake City is a turnkey solution for the NHL. The city applying for the 2034 Winter Olympics is one of the best growth centers in the United States, and in an extensive Senate study, the state of Utah was chosen as the best in the country in 2023. The study analyzed 70 different areas from the economy, to healthcare and education.
In other words, in Salt Lake City, the NHL would be waiting for a credible owner (the NBA club Utah Jazz is also owned), a business community committed to sports (money) and a new arena plan. The Jazz’s home arena built for basketball is not the best possible for hockey, but it should attract well over twenty thousand spectators even in hockey.
Among other things, the baseball league MLB is also coming to Salt Lake.
And don’t forget the city’s hockey history. The local Golden Eagles played in the lower levels as early as the late 1960s. When the NBA-Jazz moved to Salt Lake City from New Orleans in 1979, hockey tickets were hard to come by and basketball tickets were distributed in villages to fill the arena. In recent years, the ECHL team Utah Grizzlies has provided hockey entertainment in the city.
All the same, compared to Arizona, Salt Lake City would be a sure shot in the middle of the table for the NHL.
And this doesn’t mean Arizona disappears from the map. The NHL definitely keeps the area in mind if and when it wants to expand at some point. Several players have spoken highly of playing in Arizona. As soon as the city gets a new NHL arena and a willing owner, the puck will return to the desert.
However, it is not appropriate to continue the drama of suffering that is now at hand for another day.