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Maricopa county committee formed to bring NHL back to Arizona

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Until an Actual owner with deep enough pockets steps up with the cash (and it should be someone who actually has ties to the city as opposed to a bunch of out of town mystery investor group), and an "NHL quality" arena is built and operating...or at the very least under construction....I doubt very much anything will happen.

None of that has happened in the last 15 years. Nobody local to AZ has even wanted to touch the NHL with a ten foot pole.. the only people interested in the "yotes" were liars and conmen trying to discount-bin their way into the big leagues or a sportsbook/casino.

... there is ZERO evidence anyone with the money desire and political capital with the BOG to pull it off is involved.

Just a press release from some local politician......

I could say I'm putting a committee together with the goal of bringing an NHL franchise to my grandma's care home......doesn't mean it will happen.
 
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TheLegend said:
Coming from that 50,000 foot myopic viewpoint I’m not surprised.

Nobody is selling anything to anybody at this moment. Mr. Galvin is just trying to put together a group of people from both the political and business communities to find out if something can be done.
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Is he just a guy who likes his name out there? I don't know anything about any AZ politician other than ones on Glendale Council back in the day. So is he the type who would this just to get some mentions? I don't recall the County being involved in Coyotes discussions before.
 
aqib said:
Is he just a guy who likes his name out there? I don't know anything about any AZ politician other than ones on Glendale Council back in the day. So is he the type who would this just to get some mentions? I don't recall the County being involved in Coyotes discussions before.
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As he put it..... he's a big fan of pro sports in Arizona. He doesn't need this just to "put his name out there". The Maricopa County board of supervisors has been in the news enough the last four years.

He said he reached out to Meruelo when the TED vote failed and offered to work on getting something done on a county island that could work for all parties. Did that without any public fanfare.

But Meruelo turned him down flat.
 
dj4aces said:
Technically, a return to Arizona wouldn't be "expansion". The franchise exists, it's just dormant. Or, to put it another way, the Coyotes are currently hibernating.
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I was under the impression that the franchise was suspended (or however you want to phrase it) pending Murelo's securing of a deal for the construction of a new arena; since he forfeited ownership following his failure to secure land for that deal, the franchise no longer exists. I might be wrong on that. In any case, there are still too many teams in the NHL at 32 (active) franchises. The ideal was in the mid-to-late-90s at 26-28.
 
the big nobody said:
I was under the impression that the franchise was suspended (or however you want to phrase it) pending Murelo's securing of a deal for the construction of a new arena; since he forfeited ownership following his failure to secure land for that deal, the franchise no longer exists. I might be wrong on that. In any case, there are still too many teams in the NHL at 32 (active) franchises. The ideal was in the mid-to-late-90s at 26-28.
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That dormancy, and all that came with it, didn't just go away when Meruelo threw in the towel. It just means Meruelo no longer has rights to the trademarks.

The point is, that unlike former franchises that might return soon (like the Thrashers, Nordiques, Scouts, etc), the Coyotes franchise still exists. Those arguing Phoenix shouldn't get a team because they "hate expansion" is a silly argument since we're currently at 33 franchises -- even if only 32 of them are active.
 
The NHL. wants a team back in Arizona but Arizona dose not want a team back when will the NHL. get through there thick skulls when a place says NO leave it be & don't try to shove it down there there throats when there are markets like Houston , Kansas City , Hamilton & Quebec City that do want teams .
 
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hammer42 said:
The NHL. wants a team back in Arizona but Arizona dose not want a team back when will the NHL. get through there thick skulls when a place says NO leave it be & don't try to shove it down there there throats when there are markets like Houston , Kansas City , Hamilton & Quebec City that do want teams .
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Arizona would take a team back in a heartbeat..... it just does not want a team back that relies on mountains of public funds to survive.
 
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dj4aces said:
That dormancy, and all that came with it, didn't just go away when Meruelo threw in the towel. It just means Meruelo no longer has rights to the trademarks.

The point is, that unlike former franchises that might return soon (like the Thrashers, Nordiques, Scouts, etc), the Coyotes franchise still exists. Those arguing Phoenix shouldn't get a team because they "hate expansion" is a silly argument since we're currently at 33 franchises -- even if only 32 of them are active.
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WELL AKSHUALLY...

C'mon. If the NHL reactivated the 'dormant' team in Phoenix, it'd be a de facto expansion, with a completely new organization in every possible respect moving in. You may argue that there are 33 teams in the league on paper, but for all intents and purposes there are 32. And that's still too many teams.
 
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TheLegend said:
Well considering the arena only held 4600 for NHL games all your are left is with estimates.
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I've said something like this before, but all we really know is it did not work over almost 30 years. The problem with drawing any conclusions based on that experience is those nearly 30 years is that they were almost a Petri dish of subpar to awful ownership and less than ideal (or arguably even acceptable) arenas.

If those two issues are resolved, we have no idea what would happen. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, those nearly 30 years provide no insight at all. That means the onus is on the league to ensure that any new ownership group sets itself up for success. Just cashing an enormous check and saying "here's your franchise" will not work, not only in Phoenix, but anywhere.

I think Atlanta is much the same in that respect, BTW, albeit closer to having those answers.

You probably can confirm something for me that I have thought for years. It always seemed that the Coyotes were more of an excuse for the owner to launch into a massive development project, rather than an entity that would be the centerpiece of that. Am I warm? Obviously, not every owner was like that, but it seemed like the majority of the years were.
 
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Sgt Schultz said:
I've said something like this before, but all we really know is it did not work over almost 30 years. The problem with drawing any conclusions based on that experience is those nearly 30 years is that they were almost a Petri dish of subpar to awful ownership and less than ideal (or arguably even acceptable) arenas.

If those two issues are resolved, we have no idea what would happen. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, those nearly 30 years provide no insight at all. That means the onus is on the league to ensure that any new ownership group sets itself up for success. Just cashing an enormous check and saying "here's your franchise" will not work, not only in Phoenix, but anywhere.

I think Atlanta is much the same in that respect, BTW, albeit closer to having those answers.

You probably can confirm something for me that I have thought for years. It always seemed that the Coyotes were more of an excuse for the owner to launch into a massive development project, rather than an entity that would be the centerpiece of that. Am I warm? Obviously, not every owner was like that, but it seemed like the majority of the years were.
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That's what Steve Ellman wanted when he bought into them in 1999.

His entire goal was to use the Coyotes as a hook for a billion dollar sports entertainment development and then sell it all off when it was done. Buying an NHL team was strictly a means to an end for him and he and Jerry Moyes treated it that way.

We'll have to see what develops over the next 4-5 years. I'm expecting it to take at least that long.
 
My belief is it will happen as soon as Ishbia and his Player 15 Group are ready for it to happen, and not a moment sooner.

Galvin is the gatekeeper. Ishbia is the keymaster. Shane Doan is Gozer. Bettman is Rick Moranis, asking "Ok, who brought the (Desert) dog?"
 
MayDayMayDay said:
My belief is it will happen as soon as Ishbia and his Player 15 Group are ready for it to happen, and not a moment sooner.

Galvin is the gatekeeper. Ishbia is the keymaster. Shane Doan is Gozer. Bettman is Rick Moranis, asking "Ok, who brought the (Desert) dog?"
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Don't think Ishiba is interested. Not at the price the NHL is going to ask for.

But crazier things have happened.
 
the big nobody said:
WELL AKSHUALLY...

C'mon. If the NHL reactivated the 'dormant' team in Phoenix, it'd be a de facto expansion, with a completely new organization in every possible respect moving in. You may argue that there are 33 teams in the league on paper, but for all intents and purposes there are 32. And that's still too many teams.
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With the explosion of media outlets due to streaming the rights fees become more valuable. More teams = more games to sell. So expect expansion to happen shortly. How many teams and when TBD.
 
Sgt Schultz said:
I've said something like this before, but all we really know is it did not work over almost 30 years. The problem with drawing any conclusions based on that experience is those nearly 30 years is that they were almost a Petri dish of subpar to awful ownership and less than ideal (or arguably even acceptable) arenas.

If those two issues are resolved, we have no idea what would happen. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, those nearly 30 years provide no insight at all. That means the onus is on the league to ensure that any new ownership group sets itself up for success. Just cashing an enormous check and saying "here's your franchise" will not work, not only in Phoenix, but anywhere.

I think Atlanta is much the same in that respect, BTW, albeit closer to having those answers.

You probably can confirm something for me that I have thought for years. It always seemed that the Coyotes were more of an excuse for the owner to launch into a massive development project, rather than an entity that would be the centerpiece of that. Am I warm? Obviously, not every owner was like that, but it seemed like the majority of the years were.
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Correction

It's 60 years of Pro hockey...multiple levels, various locations, lots of owners......Every single team folded...every single one.

no ticket sales, no merch sales, no TV views.

Member the "save the Coyotes" rally in Glendale? They had dozens of fans show up.....DOZENS. That's it. not thousands, not tens of thousands...a few dozen people....

the market has spoken. Loud and clear. over and over and over. and Over.

AZ doesn't want to pay go to hockey games. or watch them on TV.....and NOBODY FROM ARIZONA in the last 30 years has wanted to own a team. the NHL has foisted a bunch of liars and conmen onto the market the rest of the fans and the AZ taxpayers for the last 15 years hoping and still nothing.

the market has spoken. Loud and clear. over and over and over. and Over.
 
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