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Could the Phoenix Coyotes be Moving? - Coyotes Time in Arizona May Be Nearing an End.

The Count of Merkur Cristo

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The Coyotes are Howling!!!
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GLENDALE, Az, By Ken Belson - Published 10 Feb 12 — "The Coyotes are celebrating their 15th anniversary of playing hockey in Arizona. But given the franchise’s ups and downs, it has sometimes felt like 40 years wandering in the desert.

Since arriving from Winnipeg in 1996, the team has had a parade of owners, played in two arenas, often been near the bottom of the N.H.L. in attendance and never made it past the first round of the playoffs.

Three years ago, the N.H.L. bought the team after Jerry Moyes, the previous owner, pushed it into bankruptcy. Since then, threats of lawsuits and a restrictive arena lease have hampered efforts to find a new owner. The team survives partly because the city of Glendale, which owns Jobing.com Arena, has covered $25 million of annual losses.

The false starts and dashed hopes may be nearing an end, though. Under pressure from voters and the bond market, a growing number of Glendale’s lawmakers, including Mayor Elaine Scruggs, no longer support subsidizing a money-losing team. Three investors are looking at the team, but without significant support or concessions from the city, they may join an even longer list of potential bidders who have walked away.

The league, too, is no longer obliged to pay the city of Glendale if the team breaks its lease at Jobing.com Arena, increasing the chance that the team may relocate. Gary Bettman, the N.H.L. commissioner, who has long argued that the team should remain in Arizona, acknowledged as much when he warned that time may be running short to keep the team where it is.

“We’re going to try to avoid a move of the Coyotes,” Bettman said in a radio interview before the All-Star Game last month. “But if we don’t sell the club, I’m not sure that this won’t be the last season here.” Any decision is likely to be made after the season, when the $25 million in aid from Glendale has been paid.

If the Coyotes leave Arizona, Quebec City is their most likely destination (as the Nordiques perhaps, but who has the rights to the team name & logo?).
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Mayor Régis Labeaume and the provincial government have promised to use public money to help complete a $400 million arena by 2015. Quebecor, a media conglomerate, has pledged to pay $63.5 million for naming rights and $4.5 million in annual rent if the company is able to buy the team. Until then, the team could play in the 63-year-old Colisée in Quebec, which was the home of the Nordiques before they moved to Denver in 1995 and became the Colorado Avalanche. The Coyotes would receive a warm welcome.

Last season, several hundred fans in white and blue Nordiques sweaters traveled to an Islanders game in Uniondale and a Devils game in Newark to show their enthusiasm for a team. For as long as the Coyotes are in Arizona, though, they will remain a lightning rod for critics of the league’s so-called Southern strategy of the 1990s, which added teams in several warm-weather states. While teams in Dallas; Anaheim, Calif.; Tampa, Fla.; and Raleigh, N.C., have won Stanley Cups, they, like the Coyotes, have racked up tens of millions in financial losses. The Lightning and the Stars were sold at discounts after their owners ran into financial difficulties. Last year the Thrashers became the second N.H.L. team to abandon Atlanta when they moved to Winnipeg to become the Jets.

The Coyotes were mildly successful after arriving in Arizona, making the playoffs in five of their first six seasons. They played downtown in an arena built for the Suns of the N.B.A., and despite poor sight lines, the building was centrally located.

The Coyotes’ descent began in 2003. The team moved 20 miles west to a new arena in Glendale, which, though fan-friendly, is farther from wealthy suburbs like Scottsdale. The collapse of the real estate market has slowed the construction of new homes and shops that were supposed to surround the arena. In late January, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service lowered Glendale’s debt ratings, citing the city’s obligations to the Coyotes.

“The team was doomed the day they signed on to move to Glendale,” said Jordan Kobritz, who teaches sports management at Eastern New Mexico University. “The Coyotes have had two strikes against them from the time they arrived.” Compounding matters, the team went into a funk, failing to make the playoffs in its first five seasons in Glendale. The lockout of 2004-5 washed out what would have been the Coyotes’ second season here; in the years since, attendance has steadily declined. This year the team is drawing about 11,600 fans a game, last in the league and barely two-thirds of the arena’s capacity.

To rebuild the team’s finances, several top executives departed and have not been replaced, and staffing over all is down 35 percent, according to Mike Nealy, the team’s chief operating officer. Nealy also stopped the practice of giving away tickets as promotions, and has instead focused on selling season-ticket plans.

“If you give them a free ticket, they’ll wait for the next free ticket,” he said, adding that revenue from ticket sales rose by double-digit percentage points last year and single digits this year. “We are fighting. It’s about paid butts in the seats.”

Still, Nealy acknowledged, “We’re not in a good situation.” The uncertainty around the club’s fate has made it hard to sign multiyear sponsorship and media deals. “We’re being honest with sponsors,” Nealy said. “We can only do so much. We don’t have an owner to help grease the wheels with sponsors.”

Other than approving budgets and lending support, the NHL has taken a hands-off approach to the day-to-day running of the club. The Coyotes’ payroll, about $53 million, is in the bottom third of the league. The league has not vetoed any signings, but the team’s troubles have made it harder to sign and retain players. With the uncertainty of the last few years, we’ve lost out on half a dozen free agents who were pushed in another direction, and we’ve also lost out on a couple of players who have become free agents,” the club’s general manager, Don Maloney, said.

Maloney added that he had “been able to squeeze every bit of talent out of the players I have.” The team started to rebound on the ice around the time it was bought out of bankruptcy. The Coyotes have made the postseason the past two years, and with 60 points through their first 55 games, they are in eighth place in the Western Conference.

Despite the improved play of the team, fans fear for its future. Joe Caruso, a season-ticket holder who is known as Coyote Joe because of his coyote hat, said: “I really wish we could get a new owner, because it’s tiring and upsetting, and the longer it goes on, the more worried I get. The Coyotes belong here.”

Coyotes NHL futre in Arizona is shaky. :sad:

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Hockey...The Coolest Game on Earth!!!
 
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I think a move is inevitable, if not now, then in the medium-term future. A successful team for 3-4 years would likely improve attendance, but it's not a hockey hotbed. I think the sport should stop trying to appeal to people that are less interested at the expense of areas (i.e. Quebec) that are more conducive to the sport.
 
Phoenix Coyotes. That's an arena football league team, right? :biggrin:

Honestly, hockey in Canada makes a heckuva lot more sense than hockey in Arizona. Sounds sensible to me.
 
Forget our Canuck friends, send them to Kansas City. We have a great new arena being used for concerts. It needs a hockey team. At least I think so. I don't really understand the details of hockey rules but any sport that still lets you carry a stick and refs let guys duke it out for a few seconds before breaking it up is my kind of thing.

Cheers, Todd
 
I would love to see the team move to an area with more hockey fan base. I was a bit disappointed when the league (at a very considerable loss of money) squashed the attempt to move them to Hamilton Ontario.

I know Canadians who spend thousands of dollars flying to places like LA and Phoenix during playoffs to watch games because it's cheaper than getting Playoff tickets in the Canadian market.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
Forget our Canuck friends, send them to Kansas City. We have a great new arena being used for concerts. It needs a hockey team. At least I think so. I don't really understand the details of hockey rules but any sport that still lets you carry a stick and refs let guys duke it out for a few seconds before breaking it up is my kind of thing.

Cheers, Todd


I'm sure they'll scout out Kansas City.
If the Coyotes leave Arizona, Quebec City is their most likely destination (as the Nordiques perhaps, but who has the rights to the team name & logo?).
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The Nordique logo, name &c is no doubt still owned by the Colorado Avalanche ... perhaps they'll give it to the Coyotes if they move to Quebec ... after all, the Coyotes gave the "Jets" name/logo to the new team moving to Winnipeg! Sometimes, karma can be a cool chick!!

But I've heard that Seattle is also in the running for a team ... I suspect that the NHL would rather see a team in that major US market rather than in Quebec City. Besides, keeping the franchise in the west means not having to increase travel for western teams ... a big issue out here!
 
There is a move a foot in Seattle to build a new stadium for a NBA team. There is another group that wants to bring a NHL team. The two groups have started working together to look at the possibility of sharing this new building. I don't think Seattle would be good for either but I guess we will see.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
There is a move a foot in Seattle to build a new stadium for a NBA team. There is another group that wants to bring a NHL team. The two groups have started working together to look at the possibility of sharing this new building. I don't think Seattle would be good for either but I guess we will see.

Strange that Seattle doesn't have the full compliment of major league teams already. The NHL there would no doubt be good for Vancouver, and some cross-border rivalry could be built. As for the NBA ... well the Supersonics are only slightly less sad than the Vancouver Grizzlies ... or "The Drizzlies" as I liked to call them as a nod to both typical Vancouver weather and typical play by the team.
 
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