Just to be fair to the ownership of the Yotes, they're not completely incompetent or as moronic as they are being made out to be by posters. The goal for ownership has been quite clear for a long time, it's just people have a lot of assumptions about people's goals in business. There is a good reason the Coyotes slashed all of their expenditures and worked to actually profit for the first time in recorded history during 2021-2022. They actually pulled in a several million dollar profit despite being one of the worst teams in the league. Their motivation for years has been to slowly build the case for relocation and sell to another ownership group. However, they had to save face in this matter. Bettman has made it clear for years that he doesn't want Arizona to leave, and the owners of the Yotes had to make a somewhat credible attempt to stay in Arizona. They didn't want to win this vote. From an investment standpoint, they have done an interesting job of making the team attractive to investors. If you purchase the Coyotes you get a better deal versus expansion ( an estimated 450m vs 650m). You have an active revenue stream from licensing and possibly selling the rights to the old Jets back to the new jets. Coyotes have a better financial situation (because the Coyotes stripped assets and reduced cap-costs), have more draft capital versus an expansion franchise. The end goal was always the same regardless of whatever they will publicly state: sale + relocation.
NHL is not in a position to expand the league even more right now and no team besides Arizona is in a position where they need to relocate. Coyotes can sit back and wait for the bidding war, knowing that regardless of what the end price is and where the team goes, they've probably made a hundred to two hundred million in profit.
This has been the plan for a very long-time, and to a degree I have to admire a group who are so motivated by money that they are willing to sabotage their own reputation and sink the Yotes ship.
