AZ francize in "transition" to where? and to what?

[dcz28]

Sure. Whoever buys the ‘yotes may try to move them to Canada too. However, the Jets are in financial trouble again for the same reason the original franchise was - not enough corporate revenue. I’d suspect that’s a problem for Ottawa as well.

Houston, Atlanta, San Diego, San Francisco, Baltimore, Orlando & San Antonio are all metro areas in the US with other major league sports and without an NHL team. All of those markets are 2-4 times bigger than Ottawa.

Honestly, I don’t give a fuck about Ottawa and between the differences in the market and the financial issues of the previous ownership, I don’t think it means much as a comparable.

Arizona has a pretty big metro area (same as the places you mentioned) but it doesn't really matter if over 90% of people there don't give a fuck about hockey and will only go to games if the team is good.

For sure. That’s a huge risk in any southern hockey market in general. The best place for the NHL to relocate the Sens from an economic standpoint would be the metro Toronto area but the Leafs aren’t having that.

The Sens are fine in Ottawa, like i said, they just need an arena that's actually in Ottawa and isn't a pain in the ass to get to for anyone not living in the West end.

Leafs will never allow another team close to them...they would be stupid to allow it. They can print money as it stands so why would they want to fuck with that. Their fans travel 4 hours to Ottawa just to see the Leafs go to Montreal or Buffalo. They can charge whatever they want for tickets in Toronto because they know people will buy it and the place will be full.

[holytoledo]

Arizona has a pretty big metro area (same as the places you mentioned) but it doesn't really matter if over 90% of people there don't give a fuck about hockey and will only go to games if the team is good.

For sure. That’s a huge risk in any southern hockey market in general. The best place for the NHL to relocate the Sens from an economic standpoint would be the metro Toronto area but the Leafs aren’t having that.

The Sens are fine in Ottawa, like i said, they just need an arena that's actually in Ottawa and isn't a pain in the ass to get to for anyone not living in the West end.

Leafs will never allow another team close to them...they would be stupid to allow it. They can print money as it stands so why would they want to fuck with that. Their fans travel 4 hours to Ottawa just to see the Leafs go to Montreal or Buffalo. They can charge whatever they want for tickets in Toronto because they know people will buy it and the place will be full.

Yeah, my bad. I meant the best place to relocate the Coyotes. I don’t disagree with you on Ottawa being a viable market with the right arena.

Also agree on Toronto.

[DelHowLich]

"The NHL is preparing a contingency plan in the event the Arizona Coyotes relocate to Salt Lake City as soon as this offseason, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports.

Multiple sources indicate the league is drafting two different schedule matrices for next season, one with the Yotes remaining in Tempe’s Mullett Arena and the other with the franchise moving to the Delta Center in Salt Lake, Seravalli says. Relocation is a less likely outcome after the plot of land the Coyotes intend to use for a new arena and entertainment district in north Phoenix was officially listed for auction last week, but Seravalli reports majority owner Alex Meruelo is “intimately involved” in a backup plan that would sell control of the franchise to Ryan Smith, majority owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, before the June 27 land auction.

Per Seravalli, the Smith Entertainment Group would spend over $1.2B to acquire the franchise, including a relocation fee distributed to the league’s other 31 owners. Meruelo could still get paid for his majority stake at a valuation north of $1B after purchasing the franchise at a valuation of $300MM in 2019, a figure Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro reported last week that Meruelo was seeking in preliminary discussions to sell the club.

However, if no sale is announced before the end of May, that’s a nearly surefire sign that the Yotes will remain at the 4,600-capacity Tempe venue for 2024-25. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has said that “waiting until a June land auction date would likely ensure the Coyotes will play at least one more season at Mullett Arena.”

Even in the overwhelmingly likely event that Meruelo wins the June land auction, that’s not a guarantee this franchise remains in Arizona past next season, Seravalli says. The Phoenix area won’t be without an NHL club for long, though, as indicated repeatedly by the league in recent months. Sources said to Seravalli that part of an agreement to sell the team “could include language that would allow Meruelo to ‘reactivate’ the Coyotes franchise in future years, including name and trademarks, if a new arena is built and terms and conditions of the agreement with the NHL are met.” That would pave the way for the Coyotes to start fresh with an expansion draft after the development is built, perhaps bringing hockey back to Arizona before the end of the decade.

All indications point to Meruelo’s (and the league’s) preference to bypass relocation altogether, keeping the team at Mullett until the proposed new arena is finished, which would likely be for the 2027-28 season. That would also leave Salt Lake City open as an expansion market rather than a relocation one, a more financially lucrative option for owners."

BY JOSH ERICKSON

So Gary will have a team in the Phoenix area no matter what! Maybe the player escrow needs to be raised to cover this!!!!!!!

[wyrrlen]

If they are going to fold the team and try to bring them back via the expansion route, I don't understand why they would promote Arizona over the Atlanta market next. The Coyotes have had a few decades of attendance figures that cap at 15,000 but average closer to 12,000 with a low this year under 5,000 seats because of the arena. Horrible. Atlanta's worst year was 13470 seats and had more than 50% of its seasons with attendance greater than 15,000 (caps at 17,200 in 1999). That's just looking at retread markets - maybe I should go look up Hartford as well.

I can't imagine the plan would is really to expand back into Phoenix before tackling Houston or Orlando, though.

[DelHowLich]

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan both report that Coyotes players were informed today that relocation to Salt Lake City is indeed happening. Morgan suggests an official announcement could come on April 17th, the date of Arizona’s final home game.

[DelHowLich]

In an article from Barry Bloom of Sportico, the NHL Executive Committee has approved the relocation of the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City. Although this reaffirms the momentum of relocation from the desert, the NHL Board of Governors, which comprises all 32 teams, still has to vote on the matter.

There is still plenty of work to be done on the rumored sale, as recent reporting from Saturday illustrated that the relocation would become much more complicated. Coming from John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports, Arizona’s current owner, Alex Meruelo, will retain the intellectual property rights to the Coyotes franchise, and will be given a five-year window to build an arena and bring an NHL franchise back to the state.

[Machine]

lol
Why 5 years?
Bettman really has a death grip over trying to jam a team in the desert
Kinda wish I was a team owner
But alas none of my schemes worked

[WingFanInA2]

lol
Why 5 years?
Bettman really has a death grip over trying to jam a team in the desert
Kinda wish I was a team owner
But alas none of my schemes worked

Yeah I don’t get it either. Then again, I hate that fucking retarded midget.

[DelHowLich]

lol
Why 5 years?
Bettman really has a death grip over trying to jam a team in the desert
Kinda wish I was a team owner
But alas none of my schemes worked

Yeah I don’t get it either. Then again, I hate that fucking retarded midget.

He's paying off Meruelo $1B so the A-hole doesn't hold up the transition in the courts. And then he kicks back a relocation fee ($200M) to the other NHL owners when SMG buys the team for $1.2B.
Meruelo still has rights to the Coyote name and logo.

[winged wheel]

https://x.com/PierreVLeBrun/status/1781048394082873580

From NHL release:
``The National Hockey League’s Board of Governors today approved the establishment of a franchise beginning with the 2024-25 season in Utah, that will be owned and controlled by Smith Entertainment Group, which is led by Ryan and Ashley Smith. In addition, the Board approved a plan that renders the Arizona Coyotes franchise inactive, with a right to reactivate if owner Alex Meruelo has fully constructed a new, state-of-the-art facility appropriate for an NHL team within five years.''

``Effective at closing, the approved transactions will result in the Coyotes’ franchise transferring the totality of its existing hockey assets – including its full Reserve List, roster of Players and draft picks and its Hockey Operations Department – to the Utah franchise.''