NHL jersey and affiliation news has been exciting, but back to the subject at hand. It appears the NHL’s not interested in expanding beyond 32 teams, so let’s look at teams that could be ripe for a new home.
After looking at attendance for the 2021-22 season, I’ve made a list of 5 teams that could be ripe for a change of scenery. These teams all fell under 75% of capacity. Two around 50%. Four have gone public with arena issues.
To keep things concise, I’ll focus on one team each blog. The first team is the ever popular soap opera known as the Arizona Coyotes.
First, let’s start with a rundown of team history. The team started as a WHA team called the Winnipeg Jets in December 1971. In June 1979, the Jets were one of the WHA teams absorbed by the NHL. July 1996 saw the franchise move to Arizona and become the Phoenix Coyotes.
In 2003, the team relocated again, this time a few miles away to Glendale. This would be the beginning of the drama. Jerry Moyes bought the team in 2005, by 2009 he declared bankruptcy. The NHL took over the team, signing a short-term lease with Glendale. In 2010, the league received a bid for the team, but it was derailed by a litigation threat. When the league threatened to move the team in 2013 (they nearly moved to KC), Glendale signed a 15-year lease with the team to support the new ownership effort.
By 2015 with new ownership in place, Glendale voided that lease after alleging a violation of conflict of interest laws. This started the year-by-year lease agreements. In 2016, the team had plans to move to ASU, building an arena there, but the university backed out of the deal.
In July 2019, the Coyotes got a new majority owner in Alex Meruelo. He purchased a 95% stake in the team. The previous owner, Andrew Barroway, maintained a 5% minority stake. Despite the change in ownership, the Coyotes arena troubles continued.
The drama with Glendale, Gila River Arena, and Coyotes heated up as the city and arena got fed up with unpaid bills. They threatened to lock the team out if debts were not paid. The Coyotes dodged that bullet, paying the debts off just in time.
Gila River Arena management had enough of the drama, and gave the Coyotes notice they wouldn’t be welcome back at the conclusion of the 2021-22 season. This began speculation of where the team would move, with cities like Quebec and Houston salivating at the possibility of bringing the NHL home.
The Coyotes settled in on a plan to temporarily share facilities with ASU as they worked on a new arena site in Tempe. The Coyotes will be playing the next 3-4 seasons at ASU, sharing the 5,000 seat arena with the college, assuming they don’t violate the agreement they entered with the college. In the meantime, the Coyotes work to get the green light for land they’re interested in near the airport. The airport and FAA have questioned the plans, not just for the arena but the development that would surround it. It should be noted this is land the Arizona Cardinals had interest in building a stadium on 20 years ago.
So, while the Coyotes don’t look like a winning team with the current roster. The team has a promising future on the ice, somewhere. Where that future ends up is a big question mark, until the Coyotes get an agreement worked out on that land, get the land purchased, and start the digging.
Meanwhile, if they can’t figure things out in the desert, KC could be a perfect landing spot. There’s an NHL caliber arena available with no other regular tenants. There would be no need to realign the league, the team would fit perfectly in the Central Division. Also, with the built-in hockey fan base that exists they certainly would draw more than the paltry 5,000 or even their previous season average of 11,601. Of course, in this case, there’s also Houston.
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