Seravalli: NHL Back to AZ Within 5yrs ?!?

[AKL]

Neither city should be getting a team back. Stop going back to failed markets. They dont deserve teams.

Agreed. No more teams in Quebec, Kansas City, Hartford, Hamilton.

Winnipeg, Minnesota and Colorado should have never gotten teams back.

 

[Mr Positive]

It makes sense. Phoenix is a major sports market and regionally important for TV deals. At least that's what HF tells me

 

[tucker3434]

Neither city should be getting a team back. Stop going back to failed markets. They dont deserve teams.

Well, it's happening. The NHL likes money.

 

[Maple Leaf]

They have fungus in the soil that can infect you

 

[Viqsi]

Agreed. No more teams in Quebec, Kansas City, Hartford, Hamilton.

Winnipeg, Minnesota and Colorado should have never gotten teams back.

G-ddamn, I knew I was forgetting an important one or two.

 

[piqued]

The whole Utah thing was just a mechanism to get rid of Meruelo. That said, I believe SLC will embrace the team.

The issue for Arizona remains the same as it ever was -- show me the building in the city of Phoenix. Until then....

 

[Vegan Knight]

If they're serious about expanding to Houston and Atlanta (and by all accounts they are). then they need two more cities. to balance the Conferences/divisions. 17 teams each in the Eastern/Western conferences doesn't really work for nice clean divisions. If on the the other hand you add four teams, you'd have 18 in each conference and could do two divisions of nine teams each or three divisions of six (which, actually, I kind of like).

And with a four team expansion, yes a return to Arizona makes complete sense. I hope for Arizona's sake they get a management team that actually knows what they're doing this time.

Atlanta (East)
Houston (West)
Arizona (West)

Real question is, who would be the 4th team? Should be a team that would slot naturally into the Eastern conference. Another western team would push Chicago or Nashville east and result in them being the only team in that conference not in the Eastern Time zone -- something which they would really hate.

I guarantee you neither Chicago nor Nashville would hate being in the Eastern Conference.

 

[Mr Positive]

The whole Utah thing was just a mechanism to get rid of Meruelo. That said, I believe SLC will embrace the team.

The issue for Arizona remains the same as it ever was -- show me the building in the city of Phoenix. Until then....

The state of the arena is often a major factor in relocation. It was for Atlanta. For the Coyotes, they needed to get back to the main population center in Phoenix.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Maybe this time try a high school arena.

 

[LuckyDay]

Arizona is just Hockey crazy, there are hundreds maybe even thousands of Hockey fans there. Bettman is just speaking for all us hardcore Hockey fans that loved #HockeyInTheDessert

 

[LuckyDay]

Arizona is a market the NHL wants. They need a proper building and strong ownership group. Bettman and the league are dancing right now that they will have Meruelo out of the picture. A clean slate when they return there eventually just as they will to Atlanta.

This, exactly.
Sometimes the devil is in the details. If the Barons weren't so far out of town they might have been successful. It was the same for Les Expos in Montreal.
Getting good ownership in the right area with the right arena would make the difference. And from what I followed, keep the crooked politicians away from it too.

 

[Voight]

I'm surprised he didn't hold the rights hostage. Meruelo had 5 years to play smoke and mirrors.

Yea, I fully expected that charlatan to do such a thing. Maybe he was grateful for the hundreds of millions he pocketed despite being the worst owner in the league.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the Phoenix area this past year working and just don’t talk to many people who care about hockey. It’s baseball mad, for sure, but I met more hockey fans in central / southern Indiana than I have here.

When I saw Blackhawks vs Coyotes during the Bedard tankathon, the guys sitting behind me said with a straight face "wow I'm surprised Tie Domi is still playing......"

 

[Voight]

The land auction had been canceled, and that spurred the action to move to Utah

The auction wasn't cancelled until mid June, well after the Coyotes were sent to Utah.

 

[GKJ]

The auction wasn't cancelled until mid June, well after the Coyotes were sent to Utah.

That’s been covered