I feel for the fans that live there who have been supporting this team, but they should’ve relocated 5 years ago, nevermind going through the dumbass charade they’ve been doing since
CurbYourNewUrbanism
Salt Lake City is a small metro area though (under 1.3 million). If they go there Raleigh will become only the 4th smallest metro area in the league (Winnipeg 835,000, Buffalo 1.15 million, Salt Lake City 1.27 million, Raleigh 1.51 million). We used to be the smallest before Winnipeg got a team back and we grew past Buffalo.
Utah is a massive winter sports area though.
It really sucks for Coyotes fans but at the end of the day they just haven’t been able to get it done. I’m shocked it has been allowed to go as far as it has. The current arena situation is embarrassing.
Zoidburger_
At the end of the day, Phoenix/AZ is a fantastic market that the owners of the Yotes have squandered. I mean look at ASU hockey if you just want proof of the hockey market. But then look at the NFL, the MLB, and the NBA. The key difference is that the Yotes ownership have been on some worse-than-Karmanos bullshit and have done almost everything they can to make the team as unsuccessful as possible. I feel for Yotes fans because their team has failed them, not the other way around. I’m amazed that the NHL hasn’t tried to intervene more until it got to this point because the owners should have been forced out ages ago.
That being said, SLC also has great potential as a market. I mean just look at the Jazz right now. What it comes down to is the ownership of the team. If the new owners can take advantage of the opportunity, then the franchise will do just fine in SLC.
oooriole09
I hate when folks only take the population of the city itself.
The combined statistical area around SLC is the 22nd largest in the US with 2.8m people. CSAs are good to look at because it better encapsulates the surrounding area. For instance, Raleigh and Durham are two different metros despite being the designed market for the Canes. Both are part of the same CSA.
That’s bigger than the CSAs including Pittsburgh, Columbus, Vegas, Raleigh, and Nashville. The NHL (and MLB for that matter) isn’t just blindly picking SLC. It’s a wide open market with a growing population.
Yes, smaller than Phoenix. Yes, that doesn’t matter because of the situation the Yotes are in.
ludicrouspeedgo
Their last sentence pretty much discredits why any of us should care about his hot take.
Imo, if you aren’t simply feeling bad for yotes fans, you’re likely overthinking your role in the universe.
Jonlaw16
👏They 👏 don’t 👏 have 👏 an 👏 arena 👏
Plain and simple. It’s not about city population or metro population. It’s not about fan support. It’s about not having an acceptable place to play.
This ownership group couldn’t get it done and they’ve been given every opportunity. If the current owner builds his entertainment district then by all means bring them an expansion team. But the league needs to stop squandering seasons hoping to eventually catch a break.
SympathyForTheDevil5
Why didn’t you just respond with that to the original comment instead of reposting to a sub for a completely different team?
FailureToExecute
A recap of the situation for anyone who’s out of the loop:
After the Coyotes lost the Tempe vote on a new arena a few months ago, that seems to have been the final straw on keeping them in Arizona as far as the league office was concerned. It probably didn’t help that Coyotes ownership didn’t have a clear plan B and dragged their feet on what they’d do next.
Back in January, Salt Lake City approached the NHL about getting a team there as soon as possible. They’ve already approved construction of a new arena as part of their bid for one of the upcoming Winter Olympics. Given the dire straights the Coyotes were in, relocating them was the most obvious solution, but you obviously can’t do that in the middle of a season. Flash forward to this past Monday and Ryan Smith (the owner of the Utah Jazz) steps up with an offer the league basically can’t refuse: $1.3 billion dollars to buy the team and move them to Salt Lake. He’s ready to sign the check as soon as next Thursday, pretty much the minute that the Coyotes’ season ends.
Now, Alex Meruelo (the current owner of the Coyotes) announced a couple of weeks ago that they’d be bidding on a plot of land in northeast Phoenix. The problem is that this auction isn’t taking place until some time in June or July – while it’s overwhelmingly likely that they’ll win, it’s not 100% guaranteed. The Players’ Association is already very unhappy about the Mullett Arena situation, and the NHL is tired of the Coyotes continuing to hemorrhage money. Neither of them want to put up with the status quo for a minimum of three more years (and potentially longer if Meruelo gets outbid).
So, all the pieces come together like this: The NHL is going to buy the Coyotes from Meruelo for $1 billion, then immediately sell the team to Smith for $1.3b. In return for agreeing to sell the team, Meruelo reportedly gets to retain the branding rights to the Coyotes for five years and also has right of first refusal for the same amount of time if the NHL wants to put another team there (which they do, because the Phoenix metro area is one of the largest markets in America and is still growing every year). Personally, I imagine he’d also get a healthy discount on the usual expansion fee as a gesture of good faith. Supposedly both of these hinge on Meruelo being able to hit certain milestones, such as winning the auction and/or completing the arena project, but that’s less clear at the moment.
As an aside, the mayor of Scottsdale recently came out and said he doesn’t want the Coyotes anywhere near his city, but this doesn’t matter for two reasons: the land being bid on is zoned by Phoenix and any property developments there would be connected to Phoenix’s utilities (water/electricity/etc), and about a year ago he talked about how much he’d love to have them. It’s NIMBY bullshit mixed with sour grapes over being rejected.
8 Comments
I feel for the fans that live there who have been supporting this team, but they should’ve relocated 5 years ago, nevermind going through the dumbass charade they’ve been doing since
Salt Lake City is a small metro area though (under 1.3 million). If they go there Raleigh will become only the 4th smallest metro area in the league (Winnipeg 835,000, Buffalo 1.15 million, Salt Lake City 1.27 million, Raleigh 1.51 million). We used to be the smallest before Winnipeg got a team back and we grew past Buffalo.
Utah is a massive winter sports area though.
It really sucks for Coyotes fans but at the end of the day they just haven’t been able to get it done. I’m shocked it has been allowed to go as far as it has. The current arena situation is embarrassing.
At the end of the day, Phoenix/AZ is a fantastic market that the owners of the Yotes have squandered. I mean look at ASU hockey if you just want proof of the hockey market. But then look at the NFL, the MLB, and the NBA. The key difference is that the Yotes ownership have been on some worse-than-Karmanos bullshit and have done almost everything they can to make the team as unsuccessful as possible. I feel for Yotes fans because their team has failed them, not the other way around. I’m amazed that the NHL hasn’t tried to intervene more until it got to this point because the owners should have been forced out ages ago.
That being said, SLC also has great potential as a market. I mean just look at the Jazz right now. What it comes down to is the ownership of the team. If the new owners can take advantage of the opportunity, then the franchise will do just fine in SLC.
I hate when folks only take the population of the city itself.
The combined statistical area around SLC is the 22nd largest in the US with 2.8m people. CSAs are good to look at because it better encapsulates the surrounding area. For instance, Raleigh and Durham are two different metros despite being the designed market for the Canes. Both are part of the same CSA.
That’s bigger than the CSAs including Pittsburgh, Columbus, Vegas, Raleigh, and Nashville. The NHL (and MLB for that matter) isn’t just blindly picking SLC. It’s a wide open market with a growing population.
Yes, smaller than Phoenix. Yes, that doesn’t matter because of the situation the Yotes are in.
Their last sentence pretty much discredits why any of us should care about his hot take.
Imo, if you aren’t simply feeling bad for yotes fans, you’re likely overthinking your role in the universe.
👏They 👏 don’t 👏 have 👏 an 👏 arena 👏
Plain and simple. It’s not about city population or metro population. It’s not about fan support. It’s about not having an acceptable place to play.
This ownership group couldn’t get it done and they’ve been given every opportunity. If the current owner builds his entertainment district then by all means bring them an expansion team. But the league needs to stop squandering seasons hoping to eventually catch a break.
Why didn’t you just respond with that to the original comment instead of reposting to a sub for a completely different team?
A recap of the situation for anyone who’s out of the loop:
After the Coyotes lost the Tempe vote on a new arena a few months ago, that seems to have been the final straw on keeping them in Arizona as far as the league office was concerned. It probably didn’t help that Coyotes ownership didn’t have a clear plan B and dragged their feet on what they’d do next.
Back in January, Salt Lake City approached the NHL about getting a team there as soon as possible. They’ve already approved construction of a new arena as part of their bid for one of the upcoming Winter Olympics. Given the dire straights the Coyotes were in, relocating them was the most obvious solution, but you obviously can’t do that in the middle of a season. Flash forward to this past Monday and Ryan Smith (the owner of the Utah Jazz) steps up with an offer the league basically can’t refuse: $1.3 billion dollars to buy the team and move them to Salt Lake. He’s ready to sign the check as soon as next Thursday, pretty much the minute that the Coyotes’ season ends.
Now, Alex Meruelo (the current owner of the Coyotes) announced a couple of weeks ago that they’d be bidding on a plot of land in northeast Phoenix. The problem is that this auction isn’t taking place until some time in June or July – while it’s overwhelmingly likely that they’ll win, it’s not 100% guaranteed. The Players’ Association is already very unhappy about the Mullett Arena situation, and the NHL is tired of the Coyotes continuing to hemorrhage money. Neither of them want to put up with the status quo for a minimum of three more years (and potentially longer if Meruelo gets outbid).
So, all the pieces come together like this: The NHL is going to buy the Coyotes from Meruelo for $1 billion, then immediately sell the team to Smith for $1.3b. In return for agreeing to sell the team, Meruelo reportedly gets to retain the branding rights to the Coyotes for five years and also has right of first refusal for the same amount of time if the NHL wants to put another team there (which they do, because the Phoenix metro area is one of the largest markets in America and is still growing every year). Personally, I imagine he’d also get a healthy discount on the usual expansion fee as a gesture of good faith. Supposedly both of these hinge on Meruelo being able to hit certain milestones, such as winning the auction and/or completing the arena project, but that’s less clear at the moment.
As an aside, the mayor of Scottsdale recently came out and said he doesn’t want the Coyotes anywhere near his city, but this doesn’t matter for two reasons: the land being bid on is zoned by Phoenix and any property developments there would be connected to Phoenix’s utilities (water/electricity/etc), and about a year ago he talked about how much he’d love to have them. It’s NIMBY bullshit mixed with sour grapes over being rejected.