Coyotes ASU temporary visiting team’s locker room and training area

[TheLegend]

Nothing regarding hockey in AZ has ever lined up timing wise.

Coangelo asks Ziegler in the late 80’s if the nhl would ever come to AZ. Ziegler tells him no chance. So the Suns arena is built basketball only and opens in 1992. Coyotes arrive from Winnipeg in 1996.

Potentially there was a shot of getting the land where a mall stood in the late 90’s around Scottsdale but the deal doesn’t happen.

Suns owner sarver finally sells his share of the Suns but not after the Suns arena is renovated for $250 mill. Not sure if someone could buy the majority of both teams or not but maybe that was a chance to have taken the city’s offer of blowing up the arena and starting from scratch at that location.

Just the way it has been in AZ.

Add to that.... Westgate sold to another local billionaire for pennies on the dollar less than two years before Alex Meruelo can buy the Coyotes. Thus eliminating the only chance of keeping the team in Glendale.

 

[DFAC]

Embarrassing - NHL truly is a bush league

 

[TheLegend]

Some folks love to hate the Yotes. Best part is when they are in a new place and outdrawing cities like Edmonton the last laugh will be yours.
For the record, I’m a transplanted Hawk fan living in central Florida. I had seasons tix for the Lightning when they played at both the fairgrounds (which also had temporary lockers rooms (FOR ALL GAMES) and the “thunder dome”. Lots of people poked fun at them. Thought they should move the team. If you remember ownership was the issue then too but all the high and mighty “up north” thought they should move out of the south. Hockey won’t work there.
How are they doing now?

Um... the new Tempe arena (if it's built) will have a capacity of just over 16k. Which will put it in the middle of the pack as far as capacity.

 

[rojac]

It actually looks like a decent rink to watch a game as a fan. The locker room situation and some of the other stuff is kind of a shame though. Hopefully those who attend have a good time.

The current locker room situation for both the home and visiting teams is for four games. i’ll wait until I see the actual locker rooms they’ll be using for the rest of their stay at Mullet Arena before judging.

 

[didimentionlarseller]

the arena looked pretty normal on tv during the game its basically just a lower bowl no upper seating and they set up most camera angles to not show that I thought it would be worse

 

[Prairie Habs]

Um... the new Tempe arena (if it's built) will have a capacity of just over 16k. Which will put it in the middle of the pack as far as capacity.

Ranking NHL Arenas: Smallest to Largest by Capacity | The Hockey News

This ranking from earlier in the year had UBS arena as 30th of 32 at 17.1k. Was 16 a typo, because it definitely wouldn't be middle of the pack?

 

[Reaser]

We were sold on an amazing intimate atmosphere with rowdy college kids and how great it'd be. The place seemed pretty quiet and frankly a bit dead. Even Buccigross -who if anyone would love to hype it up it'd be him- said in the post-game that he was surprised there wasn't more energy from the crowd. This being for the home opener, in a game they were leading and went to OT, chances to get excited. At least the crowd you could see, which to be fair would be most of the crowd considering, was just sitting there ho-hum all game.

Do allow that the ESPN(+/Hulu) mics/audio mix didn't do a great job of picking up any crowd noise ,but I don't think it would have made much of a difference on how it came through.

It wasn't 5k drunk college kids banging on the glass, screaming, and chanting all game like European football supporters. Which is essentially how every response to "this is a joke and embarrassment for the league" said it would be. It was sub-5k people sitting politely barely engaged when they looked up from their cell-phones.

Making the one thing that is used in defense -"it's not that much of an embarrassment because intimate atmosphere and rowdy college students!"- not much of a defense. Since, somewhat predictably, that was not the case.

That said, best ice in the league according to the visiting Jets players, so that IS a positive.

Note: I'm American and lived in and liked living in Phoenix/Arizona so don't @ me with the usual dismissive "another Canadian whining about the Yotes, lol" nonsense token responses we see in every thread like this.

 

[TheLegend]

-sporting eventsThey're already offering discount tickets to ASU students.

The arena might have a novelty feel for the first few games because it's new... but there's not much demand for a rebuilding Arizona team in a college stadium. If there was demand, they wouldn't be at ASU

Unless the tickets are 4X the price, it's a loss.

Welp.... let's address the arena part first. Coyotes wanted to stay in Glendale until they could get a new arena built. Glendale wanted them to stay another 15-20 years for a couple of reasons....

1) They needed the dates to draw traffic to Westgate (Coyotes brought an average of 500k visitors each year.)
2) They don't want a third arena built in Phoenix metro area to compete against. The Suns arena downtown dwarfs them in non-sports sales by almost 2 to 1. A new arena in Tempe would choke them off even more because the location is far superior, and they still have ~$130 million in bond debt owed on their arena.

So if the Coyotes weren't going to remain in Glendale, their only chance was to kick them out and force them to leave the Arizona market. They didn't count on (or expect) ASU coming into it.

At ASU.... It was always the plan to offer cheap seats to students. And you have to have an active ASU email address to get them. It also amounts to only 5-10% of the capacity.

The revenue from STM ticket sales this year is 50% more than what they made last year in Glendale. The average ticket price in Glendale last year was around $90. Now it's $170. But it's also all lower bowl seating,

Their biggest challenge is all the other revenue streams. Ad space in the arena is limited (ASU controls that.) as are the number of suites (22 vs 80+ at Glendale). They're still working on that.

 

[TheLegend]

Ranking NHL Arenas: Smallest to Largest by Capacity | The Hockey News

This ranking from earlier in the year had UBS arena as 30th of 32 at 17.1k. Was 16 a typo, because it definitely wouldn't be middle of the pack?

16k was correct... I was guessimating where it would be with other arenas.

Glendale capacity was 17,125 for hockey. So it appears they're dropping down a position.

Then again the arena is a small part of a much bigger project. Meruelo isn't counting on the arena itself, even he will own it and get all the revenues from it (unlike paying to be a tenant in Glendale and getting only gate receipts and concessions). That was the major reason why they had to leave Glendale.

 

[Devils 3silverones]

16k was correct... I was guessimating where it would be with other arenas.

Glendale capacity was 17,125 for hockey. So it appears they're dropping down a position.

Then again the arena is a small part of a much bigger project. Meruelo isn't counting on the arena itself, even he will own it and get all the revenues from it (unlike paying to be a tenant in Glendale and getting only gate receipts and concessions). That was the major reason why they had to leave Glendale.

All good. Aside from the why they had to leave glendale part. They had to leave glendale because glendale made them leave. There wasn't an option.
Regardless of future developing plans, the coyotes didn't leave. They were evicted.

 

[TheLegend]

We were sold on an amazing intimate atmosphere with rowdy college kids and how great it'd be. The place seemed pretty quiet and frankly a bit dead. Even Buccigross -who if anyone would love to hype it up it'd be him- said in the post-game that he was surprised there wasn't more energy from the crowd. This being for the home opener, in a game they were leading and went to OT, chances to get excited. At least the crowd you could see, which to be fair would be most of the crowd considering, was just sitting there ho-hum all game.

Do allow that the ESPN(+/Hulu) mics/audio mix didn't do a great job of picking up any crowd noise ,but I don't think it would have made much of a difference on how it came through.

It wasn't 5k drunk college kids banging on the glass, screaming, and chanting all game like European football supporters. Which is essentially how every response to "this is a joke and embarrassment for the league" said it would be. It was sub-5k people sitting politely barely engaged when they looked up from their cell-phones.

Making the one thing that is used in defense -"it's not that much of an embarrassment because intimate atmosphere and rowdy college students!"- not much of a defense. Since, somewhat predictably, that was not the case.

That said, best ice in the league according to the visiting Jets players, so that IS a positive.

Note: I'm American and lived in and liked living in Phoenix/Arizona so don't @ me with the usual dismissive "another Canadian whining about the Yotes, lol" nonsense token responses we see in every thread like this.

Only about 5-10% of the crowd were "drunk college kids".

But I can say (as a Coyotes fan) you gave an honest assessment. I watched it via Hulu and it did seem quiet as the game progressed. Some of us in our GDT were beginning to fall asleep from all the rope-a-dope hockey we put out the last two periods.

We actually played much better in Columbus than we did tonight.

 

[TheLegend]

All good. Aside from the why they had to leave glendale part. They had to leave glendale because glendale made them leave. There wasn't an option.
Regardless of future developing plans, the coyotes didn't leave. They were evicted.

Well.... that's what Glendale wanted everyone to think.

Glendale wanted them to stay another 20 years (their city manager admitted this on the record). Had the Coyotes agreed to that you would have never heard anything about "missed tax payments", "behind on their rent", etc.

But the Coyotes couldn't stay there. Financially it was a bad situation for them. Not because of the lease in itself, but from an overall revenue standpoint.

The Coyotes did offer to stay for at least 3 years with an option for two more (Glendale city manager also admitted this) while they pursued the new arena. Glendale said 20 years or nothing.

So now if the Coyotes were such bad tenants as Glendale painted them to be, why would they have wanted another 20 years worth of them?

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Only about 5-10% of the crowd were "drunk college kids".

But I can say (as a Coyotes fan) you gave an honest assessment. I watched it via Hulu and it did seem quiet as the game progressed. Some of us in our GDT were beginning to fall asleep from all the rope-a-dope hockey we put out the last two periods.

We actually played much better in Columbus than we did tonight.

Columbus didn't show up tonight either....

 

[Devils 3silverones]

Well.... that's what Glendale wanted everyone to think.

Glendale wanted them to stay another 20 years (their city manager admitted this on the record). Had the Coyotes agreed to that you would have never heard anything about "missed tax payments", "behind on their rent", etc.

But the Coyotes couldn't stay there. Financially it was a bad situation for them. Not because of the lease in itself, but from an overall revenue standpoint.

The Coyotes did offer to stay for at least 3 years with an option for two more (Glendale city manager also admitted this) while they pursued the new arena. Glendale said 20 years or nothing.

So now if the Coyotes were such bad tenants as Glendale painted them to be, why would they have wanted another 20 years worth of them?

Legend, I am well aware of the past. We all are.

A tenant wanting to stay after "final" notice is the usual response. Eviction option stinks.
Landlord will ALWAYS give a extension option, if there is a commitment to a PAID agreement, set in to the lease agreement that the landlord sets out.
Glendale said 20yrs. Yotes said 3. Glendale said no. Evicted. That's it.

I enjoyed the game tonight. A great job by Yotes and Tempe. It looks like the right way to go about the next steps.

I wasn't here to fight. Enjoy your weekend.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

Everyone's going to cry but just make the f***ing best of it. Personally I like the premise of a smaller arena with the fans on top of you even if this whole thing is f***ed up

 

[Saitama]

The locker room didn't look great, but I actually kind of liked the atmosphere of the arena! Looked like a lot of fun in that crowd!

 

[Arthur Morgan]

For the 1 millionth time...

You do realize we don't have the lowest attendance in the NHL over the past decade...right?

what does it matter? can only support 5k fans for atleast a bare min of 3 years.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Everyone's going to cry but just make the f***ing best of it. Personally I like the premise of a smaller arena with the fans on top of you even if this whole thing is f***ed up

well it's just stupid at this point it has been proven that Phoenix sorry I mean Arizona is a place that does not care about hockey. there are other markets with an arena and a city full of funs just waiting to get an NHL team.

see the fans bitch because the more money the NHL makes the higher the salary cap rises, salary cap can be used to re-sign or sign new players that could potentially make their teams better. however Arizona is just taking up a slot and barely helping make money, at this point its beyond a joke. if any other team in the NHL did this they would be relocated right away. but no we're stuck with Arizona.

the question truly is does every hockey fan hate ASU for adding Division 1 Hockey

how many tiers is Division 1 Hockey below the NHL?

 

[Mach2]

Looks like they did a midnight raid on the local Goodwill store.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

They didn't even have a goal horn.

If I'm being honest, it was like watching Kraft Hockeyville. It was frustrating at centre ice because you didn't have the full view unless it was either end of the ice.

 

[Royale With Cheese]

I watched the game last night and didn’t mind the vibe at all. Most viewers wouldn’t have noticed without the references being made to the smaller arena.

 

[2023FriendshipTour]

Looks like we don't have the worst dressing rooms after all!

 

[kylbaz]

We were sold on an amazing intimate atmosphere with rowdy college kids and how great it'd be. The place seemed pretty quiet and frankly a bit dead. Even Buccigross -who if anyone would love to hype it up it'd be him- said in the post-game that he was surprised there wasn't more energy from the crowd. This being for the home opener, in a game they were leading and went to OT, chances to get excited. At least the crowd you could see, which to be fair would be most of the crowd considering, was just sitting there ho-hum all game.

Do allow that the ESPN(+/Hulu) mics/audio mix didn't do a great job of picking up any crowd noise ,but I don't think it would have made much of a difference on how it came through.

It wasn't 5k drunk college kids banging on the glass, screaming, and chanting all game like European football supporters. Which is essentially how every response to "this is a joke and embarrassment for the league" said it would be. It was sub-5k people sitting politely barely engaged when they looked up from their cell-phones.

Making the one thing that is used in defense -"it's not that much of an embarrassment because intimate atmosphere and rowdy college students!"- not much of a defense. Since, somewhat predictably, that was not the case.

That said, best ice in the league according to the visiting Jets players, so that IS a positive.

Note: I'm American and lived in and liked living in Phoenix/Arizona so don't @ me with the usual dismissive "another Canadian whining about the Yotes, lol" nonsense token responses we see in every thread like this.

And that's the first game. That's probably peak energy. Give it a couple dozen games and it'll be a bigger joke.

 

[Space umpire]

well it's just stupid at this point it has been proven that Phoenix sorry I mean Arizona is a place that does not care about hockey. there are other markets with an arena and a city full of funs just waiting to get an NHL team.

see the fans bitch because the more money the NHL makes the higher the salary cap rises, salary cap can be used to re-sign or sign new players that could potentially make their teams better. however Arizona is just taking up a slot and barely helping make money, at this point its beyond a joke. if any other team in the NHL did this they would be relocated right away. but no we're stuck with Arizona.

So you’re pissed because the Leafs cap situation is Arizona’s fault. Got it.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

So you’re pissed because the Leafs cap situation is Arizona’s fault. Got it.

Where did I even talk about the Leafs? It's more about Arizona pulling their weight around the league which seems almost impossible with a 5k arena
pretty sure at this point 3 years into a flat cap most teams are in need of more cap but sure the Leafs are the only reason