CXLIX - FINAL thoughts on the Arizona Coyotes

[Shwan]

BTW... contrary to some beliefs (or wishful thinking)..... Craig Morgan is actually doing more work now at AllCity/PHNX than when he was mainly covering the Coyotes. Wouldn't even surprise me if his paycheck has grown.

Is that why everyone has bounced from PHNX and now is run by Leah Merrill and the Coyotes old Media relations guy? Sounds like they're taking in the dough

Also I thought he was only going to occasionally cover Utah what happened?

 

[TheLegend]

Is that why everyone has bounced from PHNX and now is run by Leah Merrill and the Coyotes old Media relations guy? Sounds like they're taking in the dough

Also I thought he was only going to occasionally cover Utah what happened?

Rich Nairn isn't involved with PHNX afaik.

Merrill is now in charge of content for all of PHNX Sports. Pretty hefty step up.

Morgan went up for the inaugural Utah game. But also covers the Cardinals and has churned out articles since the opening of training camp. Cardinals are the priority for him at the moment.

Steve Peters is sticking with covering hockey (ASU, High Schools (maybe) and Tucson)

 

[Shwan]

Rich Nairn isn't involved with PHNX afaik.

Merrill is now in charge of content for all of PHNX Sports. Pretty hefty step up.

Morgan went up for the inaugural Utah game. But also covers the Cardinals and has churned out articles since the opening of training camp. Cardinals are the priority for him at the moment.

Steve Peters is sticking with covering hockey (ASU, High Schools (maybe) and Tucson)

Excuse me. I gave Patrick Brown an undeserved promotion from content manager, but it seems if he still needs to work as a middle manager at Zip while also as PHNX's editor my point still stands that no one on PHNX's payroll, including Craig Morgan, is getting paid very well

(How you still blindly walk into these is a miracle I hope never ends).

 

[StreetHawk]

I could see more NBA owners coming into the league in the future. It just makes sense at this point if they have an arena. The NBA makes so much money with tv and the NHL is on the upswing having their buildings being in use for 82 days a year and taking the MLSE approach of sports assets gives them more value to show their own personal media deals or create their own streaming platforms.

Given that the next 3 markets that the NHL wants are NBA cities, ATL, Hou, AZ (even Utah that they just got to). Thus, the first expectation would be that the purchase of an NHL team would have to be by the NBA owner. Arena management agreement as they would be the primary tenant and thus have control. If they don't own the NHL club, then unlikely to see an NHL team owned by a different owner in the same arena as they are limited to just the revenue from their games. From what we currently have in the NHL, no NHL operates as a tenant to an NBA controlled arena. Only to one run by the city.

So, NHL to get into those markets are pretty much dependent on the NBA wanting an NHL team, plus pay the price that the NHL wants for it. Unless, of course, someone else wants to look into building another arena in a different county or something (which would involve other real estate) to make it viable.

 

[dj4aces]

Given that the next 3 markets that the NHL wants are NBA cities, ATL, Hou, AZ (even Utah that they just got to). Thus, the first expectation would be that the purchase of an NHL team would have to be by the NBA owner. Arena management agreement as they would be the primary tenant and thus have control. If they don't own the NHL club, then unlikely to see an NHL team owned by a different owner in the same arena as they are limited to just the revenue from their games. From what we currently have in the NHL, no NHL operates as a tenant to an NBA controlled arena. Only to one run by the city.

In HOU and PHX, yes. This thought is aided by the various arena situations in HOU and PHX, as well as the interest both Fertitta and Ishbia have shown for bringing the league in.

In ATL, no. The two main competing groups here have their proposed arena sites ~30mi north of the city for a reason. Tony Ressler, owner of the NBA's Hawks, isn't one of them. He may be one of the unnamed entities the league alluded to this past summer, as Daly told the AJC there's more than just the two seeking a franchise here. At the end of the day, it seems far more likely that the path to the NHL coming back to Georgia goes through Alpharetta, not into downtown.

 

[StreetHawk]

In HOU and PHX, yes. This thought is aided by the various arena situations in HOU and PHX, as well as the interest both Fertitta and Ishbia have shown for bringing the league in.

In ATL, no. The two main competing groups here have their proposed arena sites ~30mi north of the city for a reason. Tony Ressler, owner of the NBA's Hawks, isn't one of them. He may be one of the unnamed entities the league alluded to this past summer, as Daly told the AJC there's more than just the two seeking a franchise here. At the end of the day, it seems far more likely that the path to the NHL coming back to Georgia goes through Alpharetta, not into downtown.

Yep, outlined ATL in the 2nd paragraph. It's not a cheap venture as you are building an entire entertainment district in addiiton to the arena. So the potential owner has to have interests in real estate. Saw an interview with Mark Cuban and he said that one of the main reasons he sold the Mavs was because a lot of other owners are building up real estate around the arena and that's not his comfort zone, so best for the franchise that he sell to someone who had more interests/expertise in doing that.

NHL/NBA can share an arena. While not 100% ideal for an NBA team as their setup is more rectangular vs the NHL which is more oval shape for the seating. But, it does work much better vs MLB/NFL back in the day. MLS/NFL does work fine, but seating capacity is a massive difference with MLS only needing roughly 25K, with only a couple of exceptions like ATL/SEA who get over 40K vs the NFL's 70K. Lose that intimacy when 60% of the stadium is empty. Unless the NFL opts to build smaller stadiums and eliminate most of the upper decks to drop capacity down to 50-55K, but with Ten, Buf stadiums approved that doesn't appear to be the case in the near future.