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

[hangman005]

Having a good/great owner is important and none have ever wanted the Yotes. That sucks.

I think Murelo back then would have been a god send.... He really picked up the team when they were running out of runway.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Not gonna happen there. Either try again in Atlanta or go to Cleveland.

Another Canadian team wouldn't hurt either.

another Canadian team does not grow the sports--you are looking at Houston or KC

 

[cbcwpg]

Move the Coyotes back to Winnipeg. Move the Jets 2.0 back to Atlanta.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Not gonna happen there. Either try again in Atlanta or go to Cleveland.

Another Canadian team wouldn't hurt either.

Can’t imagine there’s much appetite to redo all of the divisions again. I think they’re staying out west somewhere.

 

[RogerRoger]

It's probably Houston, Salt Lake City/Kansas City in that order. The league doesn't want to mess up with the conferences and divisions now, that would have so much resistance from the other organizations. AFAIK all of the teams above have potential owners/buildings (not sure about KC but someone can correct me there).

Quebec and Atlanta will get a shot if the league expands or an Eastern Conference team is in trouble. Neither seems to be in the horizon any time soon.

They could move to Quebec, but that would be contingent in securing 2 expansion teams in the West. Apparently Bettman has recently been talking with the owner of the Utah Jazz, so there's some speculation there. Houston would definitely be one of the expansion, where the other one would be is still guesswork.

 

[ijuka]

Really, they cannot even be bothered to spend on campaigning?

Yeah, this should be relocated. Hopefully to a more deserving city.

 

[stl76]

I thought the back up plan was to lease nearby tribal land and build an arena there…no?

 

[Seb]

another Canadian team does not grow the sports--you are looking at Houston or KC

Relocating the Yotes anywhere out of Arizona will grow the sport.

 

[LiveLongandProspal]

Move the Coyotes back to Winnipeg. Move the Jets 2.0 back to Atlanta.

Uhhhh, why not just move the Coyotes to Atlanta and cut the middleman?

 

[supermann_98]

another Canadian team does not grow the sports--you are looking at Houston or KC

Is it really all about "growing the sport" or selling out an arena every night and making money?

I guess that's a decision for the NHL board of governors

 

[Boris Zubov]

If this arena proposal fails, they should move the Coyotes to Toronto. Hogtown hasn’t had a hockey team since 1967

Well it failed, but I can say with absolute certainty, they're not going to move to the GTA.

 

[Carbooja]

Gary's going to move the Videotron Centre to Arizona from Qubec.

 

[hangman005]

Uhhhh, why not just move the Coyotes to Atlanta and cut the middleman?

The NHL does not do things the easy way.

 

[robertmac43]

I feel for the true Yotes fans, this Franchise has been on life support for a while now. Looks like it will finally be coming to an end.

 

[hangman005]

Gary's going to move the Videotron Centre to Arizona from Qubec.

Not gonna lie..... that would be funny to see.

 

[Boris Zubov]

No he won't, he can't, the city just told them to f*** off

Tempe is only one city in the Phoenix metro. Hypothetically they could still find another city in the Valley to make a deal with. Highly unlikely at this point, however. Feels like the clock has stuck midnight on them.

 

[Voight]

I don't understand what the NHL's plan was here.

They refused to move the team despite the market showing very little potential for years after years and other markets being ready to accept it. But they also made virtually zero effort to improve the situation. The team was allowed to flounder for years under an idiotic cast of charlatan owners, not even trying to compete.

I haven't followed the Yotes situation closely since the days of Ice Edge and fortnights, but according to one of the tweets above, ownership spent a paltry $250,000 on the referendum, one/eighth of what the opponents spent. Apparently finding the equivalent of entry-level contract dollars to determine the future of the franchise was too much to ask from either the league or the team.

That tells me ownership really didn't doesn't care to keep the team in Phoenix. Meruelo is a billionaire and didn't care to spend a million bucks on this? Seems fishy.

 

[Rob]

If Bettman still insists on trying to find about her solution in Arizona that means the Coyotes will be playing even longer at Mullett Arena.

 

[Voight]

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.

Maybe American players but I think European players would be fine, Canadian players indifferent.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Is it really all about "growing the sport" or selling out an arena every night and making money?

I guess that's a decision for the NHL board of governors

More and more it is not about the money in the arenas. As I stated before, I briefly worked in and around Swedish hockey and got a look behind the curtain. There is more to the game than just what goes on in the arenas now. The business has changed over the last 50 years and it is hard to fathom just how little what happens in the arena reflects the bigger business picture sometimes.

 

[cbcwpg]

Uhhhh, why not just move the Coyotes to Atlanta and cut the middleman?

Because the NHL has silly rules to do with teams' histories / franchise records etc. Coyotes to Winnipeg, Jets to Atlanta, puts the original franchises and their histories back to where they came from.

 

[Voight]

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.

Even if it is true, the Steelers are a religion in Pittsburgh. Its a VERY different situation.

 

[Voight]

Nah pretending like everything was fine in Arizona and would work out is the biggest joke.

Ever since they got that new owner, everything was a straight tire fire.

The amount of mental gymnastics some people did to defend the dude was hilarious.

 

[CoachWithNoTeam]

It blows my mind that the voters voted against this one. I get when there is public outcry about building an arena with tax dollars, but this wasn’t that. It seems like it was a campaign primarily about voting against a billionaire AND developing the city.

Big-time self-centered NIMBY vibes from a deceitful campaign that framed it as protecting the city from a greedy billionaire.

 

[Shwan]

Jfc these voters literally picked a toxic dump over the Yotes. Hope those people enjoy their landfill and polluted ground water.

For all the talk of misinformation this is the one that takes the cake and it's surprising because it's a Yes talking point.

Phoenix Business Journal ran some articles almost 2 years ago that give the verified timeline of events:

July 2019 - Alex Meruelo Becomes Coyotes Majority Owner.

Early 2020 - Meruelo meets with Tempe Mayor Mitchell and the city/team stay in contact since.

June 8 2020 - Alex Gutierrez named CEO of Coyotes.

July 16 2020 - Gutierrez tells Tempe he will have an arena Proposal for Tempe by Labor Day 2020.

September 8 2020 - Coyotes and Tempe agree to an NDA and hire Matt Jensen to assist in finalizing deal.

June 2021 - Tempe’s Engineering Department releases report identifying the compost site for potential private development.

July 2021 - Tempe publishes Request for Proposals for compost site with the stipulation that any respondent must be affiliated with a professional sports team. Only Meruelo and Bluebird Development respond to RFP and are selected.

The city offered this land to the Coyotes on a silver platter and worked with them for a little under a year to develop the proposal. The city could next week release a new RFP for the land that doesn't have the sports team stipulation and they'd get several responses.

Would they be better than the Coyotes? Who knows but that's the effective point Tempe 1st made: the only way to find out is if you vote no here.