It looks like we’re finally here, at the end of the Coyotes era in Arizona. The Coyotes moved to Phoenix from Winnipeg in July 1996, meaning nearly three decades of bickering, unrest and instability were about to end. Obviously, one of the main attractions of the proposed sale and relocation of the Coyotes to Salt Lake City will be the prospect of stability provided by Ryan Smith, owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz.
Smith has made his interest in an NHL franchise known for some time, but he also understood he had to play by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s rules.
That mostly meant waiting patiently until the time was right for the league to finally say yes to opening him up — at which point he would either have the chance to bid for an expansion franchise or serve as a point landing spot for a team that sorely needed one. a new house.
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That’s the key starting point here: understanding that the process can’t be rushed because Bettman has invested a lot of time, effort and personal capital into trying to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix.
In fact, for about four years, between 2009 and 2012, Bettman was the de facto owner of the Coyotes. This was after Jerry Moyes put the team into bankruptcy, which meant the league ran the team, set the budgets and provided financial governance for the hockey operations department while it tried to find a suitable owner . It’s sometimes difficult to know who owns the Coyotes and for how long (Richard Burke, Steve Ellman, Moyes, a consortium of Canadian investors led by George Gosbee, Andrew Barroway and more recently Alex Meruelo) and everyone who kicked the tires. on the franchise, without ever investing real money in the operation.
This group includes, but is not limited to, Jerry Reinsdorf, Matt Hulsizer, Greg Jamison, Darin Pastor, a group called Ice Edge – and most famous of all – BlackBerry executive Jim Balsillie. Balsillie wanted to buy the team for $212.5 million and relocate it to Hamilton, Ontario, an offer that an Arizona bankruptcy court ultimately rejected. Had this been done, the matter would have been settled by 2009.
Instead, the NHL benefited from 15 more years of drama. Disputes between the team and its owner, the city of Glendale, over unpaid bills have flared repeatedly. Eventually, the Coyotes moved from Gila River Arena in Glendale to their current temporary home, the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University, where they have operated for two seasons.
It’s not an NHL-caliber arena at any level and for some time Marty Walsh, the executive director of the NHL Players’ Association, has publicly criticized the arrangement. For what? Because under the current NHL collective bargaining agreement, players and owners split all hockey-related revenue 50/50. The fact that the Coyotes have generated so little revenue hurts the overall bottom line and keeps money out of players’ pockets.
The Coyotes have been a corporate clown show for so long, mainly because Bettman couldn’t let go of his obsession with the market. The Coyotes team originally played at America West Arena, home of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, and although the arena itself was not designed for hockey and therefore had approximately 2 000 seats with obstructed view near the ice, the team drew well at the start.
It was a downtown arena and easy to get to.
The critical mistake occurred in 2001 when Burke sold the team to Ellman, who could not cope financially as a tenant at America West and eventually moved the team to suburban Glendale. But getting fans in and out of the arena, especially on weekday evenings due to traffic jams on the city’s ring road, ultimately canceled the operation, which continued to bleed red ink.
For decades, Bettman continued to show up at bankruptcy hearings and city council meetings; the latest was about a year ago, when Tempe voters rejected three proposals to build a $2.1 billion entertainment district that would have included a new arena for the Coyotes.
Bettman promised the Coyotes would stay in Arizona forever if the plan was approved. This was not the case.
Just earlier this month, the Coyotes announced — with much fanfare — a plan to win an auction for state-owned land in Phoenix and develop an arena and entertainment district there.
But the timeline was vague and would have meant at least three more years of play at Mullett Arena, even if they won the auction, secured construction financing and completed the project on an expedited basis.
It was too much of a hope-and-pray situation, even for Bettman, the Coyotes’ staunchest defender.
Many people couldn’t understand Bettman’s obsession with the market, but it’s really not difficult to explain.
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Bettman’s eternal vision for the NHL always involved a geographic “footprint” that strategically distributed teams across the United States. Phoenix is the fifth most populous city in the United States and supported minor hockey years before the NHL arrived. It was supposed to work. It would have worked without the arena and instability of ownership.
And ultimately, when the full details of the sale are revealed, it’s likely that Meruelo will not only pocket $1 billion from the sale of the team to the league (which would then hand it over to Smith), but that he would get an expansion team’s first right of refusal in Arizona.
So it’s not like Bettman is abandoning the market completely. He’s simply giving him a chance to breathe – which is straight out of his playbook. It’s not a complete surrender, as it might seem to the outside world. Just a temporary reprieve.
Ultimately, it’s hard not to dissect every part of the Coyotes’ sad, never-ending history without seeing Bettman’s fingerprints everywhere you look. For years, the unwavering message was that the Coyotes would eventually work in Phoenix. More recently, some coverage. That he was “reasonably” confident that Meruelo’s plan to build a new arena would solve the problem once and for all.
And now, silence from the commissioner and only a brief acknowledgment from his deputy, Bill Daly, to our Pierre LeBrun, that the league “continues to work on a solution to what has been a difficult and difficult situation…and is not able to comment beyond that.
Fair enough.
From NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly on Coyotes (and Salt Lake City) speculation:
“The League continues to work on a solution to what has been a difficult and difficult situation. But we are unable to comment beyond that.— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) April 10, 2024
Finalizing an agreement this complicated and of this magnitude is not a matter of moments.
But it could be a happy outcome for all parties involved, depending on how it ultimately plays out.
Salt Lake City has a hockey team with a good young core and plenty of draft capital for the future. This means there are none of the growing pains usually associated with an expansion franchise. Meanwhile, Meruelo gets the first chance at an expansion team and if he can’t make it, then maybe someone else will.
Ultimately, if a new NHL franchise re-emerges in Arizona, it will have the chance to start from scratch and break free from the history of league and ownership mismanagement that has been a constant for nearly 30 years. years.
It is high time to turn the page on this sad saga. Perhaps the sequel, if it is ever written, can be a fairy tale success story.
(Top photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)