Coyotes Tempe arena project rejected by public referendum - will remain at Mullett Arena for 2023-24

[Gil Gunderson]

Salt Lake would probably become an NTC staple, maybe moreso than the small market Canadian teams.

Same with Quebec City. I don’t imagine many players wanting to go there.

 

[Henkka]

Salt Lake would probably become an NTC staple, maybe moreso than the small market Canadian teams.

Same with Quebec City. I don’t imagine many players wanting to go there.

What's wrong at Salt Lake City ?

 

[Wanderson]

32,55% turnout. That’s pathetic.

 

[Vilam]

This sucks. **** the unions.

 

[old kummelweck]

I visited Pittsburgh on business back in the early 00's and one of the people I was working with kept pointing out the window at the new football stadium and calling it 'plan b'. Apparently the voters rejected the plan and funding to build the stadium, and the (governor?, mayor?) went with 'plan b' which was to build it anyway. Not sure that story is true.

 

[StreetHawk]

I've heard that. Is he known to be hard to work with?

I could be wrong but aren't there other situations in the league like that where the owner of the arena owns the NBA team but not the NHL team? Financially there's still a mutually beneficial arrangement to be had there, so it should be fine as long as the guy isn't a dick.

Of all the nhl and nba shared arenas I don’t think there is one where it’s the nba owner who owns the arena or controls the arena management agreement.
Houston or Atl would want some skin in the game to allow the nhl into the building.

 

[Statto]

Most people are laughing at Bettman once again looking like an incompetent fool. This was inevitable. The most likely of outcomes. And yet they appear baffled, bamboozled, that this could possibly happen.

Time to move on. From Arizona and Bettman’s naive incompetence.

Worth remembering that Bettman does the bidding of the owners. It’s not like he’s had all the power and control here, he’s just the figurehead of it all.

 

[Oddbob]

NHL isn’t gonna have another year in a college arena if another city is ready to go. I think we’ve seen the final game for the Coyotes.

Feel awful for their fans, this seemed like a great deal for the arena and city. But got misinformation spread by unions spending way more money. Sorry Yotes fans..

Doubt it highly. Way too quick of a turnaround to get something going for next season in a new City already. We are closing in on June already and they still have to meet with the NHL and decide what to do.

 

[Headshot77]

Why TF did this go to a public vote anyway?

 

[GigaChad]

This team won't relocate to Quebec simply because then there would be 17 teams in the Eastern conference and 15 in the west. 0% chance.
Houston / Kansas gonna have a new team soon.

 

[Oddbob]

While this is true, it's a lot of stuff to take care of, in 2011 the Thrashers officially moved on May 31st.

They likely knew far more in advance than this though. Don't remember honestly.

 

[hangman005]

The people of Tempe:

 

[Oddbob]

Yeah, even The Undertaker eventually lost at Wrestlemania.

So if I read correctly, Vince McMahon voted no here?

 

[Oddbob]

I feel when people say "they prepared for the possibility of this" they don't realize is this team is playing in a college stadium with no plans of moving to a bigger stadium.

The whole college stadium was temporary, and even then, the NHL was pushing it with they're going to play here for the next 4 years until Tempe gets a stadium.

Today, Tempe voted no to any stadium.

It's not as if Arizona is playing in an NHL stadium right now. The NHL can't keep them at a college stadium with no end in sight, there may even be limits on how long the college is willing to host them - and then what? They get kicked out of a college stadium and are playing where?

Right now the Coyotes are playing indefinitely in a college rink with no plans of relocating and no stadium to relocate to. That's why time was of the essence. The temporary ASU proposal now has no deadline.

Maybe, they can play at your house. How big of a back yard ya got?

 

[Oddbob]

Bring back Quebec Nordiques; move Detroit back to the Western conference with Colorado.

Ah no thanks. Hated all the late night games eventhough we are a very eastern time zone team. If that happened CBJ can do that, they have been around less time.

 

[pld459666]

Bring back the Nordique's

 

[ItWasJustified]

Atlanta has never really legitimately failed...one time was 50 years ago in another ERA. The 2nd was due to ownership suing one another. Its hard to believe a team there under normal circumstances would not be fine

People want to try Quebec for a third time. Why not Atlanta?

You two must have failed math in middle school.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Quebec has failed twice as well, yet that isn't enough?

No, they haven't.

Seriously? That first time was over 100 years ago.

That first time the NHL literally took the franchise, gave it to people who moved them to Hamilton.

 

[Scouter]

Doubt it highly. Way too quick of a turnaround to get something going for next season in a new City already. We are closing in on June already and they still have to meet with the NHL and decide what to do.

I guess you forgot that they moved the Thrashers in the off season to Winnipeg, they always have a back-up plan.

 

[hangman005]

Is the referendum for a publicly-funded arena?

From my understanding the Arena and by large the district were all to be privately funded, but the referrendum in large was to create a special district to remediate the landfill site and for the infrastructure (roads ect) both which will need to be done anyway if anyone is use the land. The CFD would take the bonds which would be paid back from a surcharge for those who use the CFD as opposed to paying it from the General fund an putting Tempe taxpayers on the hook.

From what I've been seeing though is the No campaign markets as bailing out billionares and the Yes group failed miserably to correct that notion in eyes of voters.

 

[BlueSeal]

Totally missed the point. What a loser post.

You missed THEIR points. Plural.

 

[Hockeyholic]

 

[Headshot77]

In 2009 a Canadian billionaire offered to buy the bankrupt Coyotes on the condition he was able to move them to Canada. Bettman decided he'd rather fight tooth and nail in the courts to have the league itself assume ownership of a bankrupt franchise for multiple years rather than have the team, which was clearly not viable in Arizona, be purchased by a Canadian and moved to Canada. That's when I soured on the Coyotes.

The league sets the rules of play, assigns officials, determines suspensions, in short, it's the very platform on which the games are played. The idea that it could own a franchise itself, for multiple seasons, is abhorrent and an affront to the idea of fairness and impartiality of the league.

There should be no confusion why people hate the Coyotes and the shenanigans the league pulled with them.

That same billionaire was notorious for "going about it the wrong way". He tried to pry franchises out of Pittsburgh and Nashville as well. The man wanted his toy and didn't respect any existing city or franchise in order to get it.

Tbh we should have a franchise in Hamilton with Balsille running it. But he was a major chode and the NHL wanted nothing to do with him.

That whole situation should sour you on Balsille, not the Coyotes.

 

[Headshot77]

Bettman has cost the NHL so much with his stubbornness over Arizona. Had they moved this team to a viable city years ago the cap would be over 100M a year by now. Arizona has been a money pit and has held the league back in revenues. They‘ve been the dumping ground for IRetired players. Basically used by other teams as cap relief. How many players traded there only to never play for the team or even another NHL game. Never having the ability to ice a competitive roster. Forever rebuilding and acquiring the cheapest players and having to trade their most expensive players. They have many passionate fans that love the team but unfortunately not enough to support an NHL team. It was a complete embarrassment seeing Mullett arena hosting a professional sports team. I watched games with people who didn’t really know hockey that well, and they asked if this was a minor league game I was watching because of the small arena. That arena was not suitable. Bettman should have been canned a long time ago. How can the owners trust Gary to lead them in the right direction. All those promises he made that just failed. Owners and players alike all lost out on millions in revenue because of Gary’s failed pet project.

Bettman also created the salary cap to begin with lol. The WHOLE reason he is here was to institute the cap and keep player salaries as low as possible. He's done a masterful job of that.

 

[AndreRoy]

The problem with places like Kansas City and Salt Lake City is their size. The NHL failed after decades of trying in what as of the 2020 census was the 10th largest metropolitan area in the US. Granted, a lot of that had to do with piss-poor ownership, and size obviously isn’t a perfect predictor of success - the franchise that has been the model for the league over the last decade is in only the 18th largest metropolitan area - but given that hockey is still a niche sport in most of the US relative to, well, just about everything else, I doubt the NHL likes its chances in locales that don’t even crack the top 30 in population.

Houston is the largest metropolitan area in the country without an NHL team. I already mentioned its strong economic and population trends; other points in its favor are that it’s a massive TV market, it has a history with the sport between the Aeros and proximity to the Stars, and it already has a rather nasty rivalry with Dallas that wouldn’t have to be forced in the way that the league often tries and fails to manufacture with other pairs of teams in close proximity.

For those interested, here is the full list from the 2020 census. There’s obviously been substantial migration since then (for reasons I won’t get into on a hockey forum), but while some areas may have moved up or down by a position or two it should still be reasonably accurate.

1.	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA	19,261,570
2.	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	13,211,027
3.	Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI	9,478,801
4.	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	7,451,858
5.	Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX	6,979,613
6.	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	6,250,309
7.	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL	6,129,858
8.	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	6,092,403
9.	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA	5,947,008
10.	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	4,860,338
11.	Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	4,854,808
12.	San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA	4,709,220
13.	Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA	4,600,396
14.	Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI	4,317,384
15.	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	3,928,498
16.	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	3,605,450
17.	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	3,323,970
18.	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL	3,152,928
19.	Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO	2,928,437
20.	St. Louis, MO-IL	2,806,349
21.	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD	2,800,427
22.	Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC	2,595,027
23.	Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL	2,560,260
24.	San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX	2,510,211
25.	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	2,472,774
26.	Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA	2,338,866
27.	Pittsburgh, PA	2,324,447
28.	Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV	2,228,866
29.	Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN	2,214,265
30.	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	2,173,804