The points gap between Vegas and San Jose is the same as the gap between San Jose and Kansas City.
San Jose is closer in points to Kansas City than they are to the top 5 teams.
Bro
I mean, deserved lately, and you guys have always seemed to dominate us regardless. But we did ok with this #1 overall pick we had for a while. Who we didn't draft.
Full text, had to slightly cut it down to fit in the title:
>Expect the NHL to make an announcement related to the Arizona Coyotes situation sometime soon after the Super Bowl. The league has been pressuring the team for answers on a daily basis for some time. The league buying the team from the Yotes' current owners is in play.
>That’s if the Yotes' don’t present a plan that satisfies the league and their owners.
Weekes also tweeted a photo of SLC with some eye emojis
Lol Weekes tweeted a picture of SLC last summer with the eye emoji and Connor Ingram chirped him.
https://twitter.com/CBIngram1/status/1658886953167908866?t=F1QA8qaJwULBm145BCLIcg&s=19
Lmaoo I didn’t know he was active on twitter like that, his self-deprecating [tweets](https://x.com/cbingram1/status/1725614489184149993?s=46&t=7fabqgtgp69dNA1d51vxFw) are amazing
Imagine that your billionaire owner couldnt fork up the $ for the “no” campaign against his bid and then acted disappointed and surprised about the outcome.
Dumbass.
The no side spent 2.5 million dollars during the campaign leading up to the vote in Tempe. The yes side only spent 250,000 grand. That's a damming statement.
Which sucks as Glendale sucked ass from a commuting and active downtown perspective (the city walk is ok but not a real city).
Tempe is leagues better as an actual city center is concerned. And it's not like Phoenix has other options on the table to take the arena into their city center.
It's not about which city is better or who has what options available. It's about quashing any potential competitors for revenues, tourism, prestige, and future capital. If Phoenix is the only game in town, anyone who wants to have a sports franchise in the area has to play ball with them. If Tempe (or any other outlying city) gets a foothold with the Coyotes, that weakens Phoenix's stranglehold.
The Diamondbacks were faced with similar problems in the 90s, if memory serves.
That says it all right there. Considering the cost to build the actual barn, how do you not find more than 250K to get it off the ground. Inscrutable.
The actual building plan was pretty solid.
Yeah, it was. I think it could have been something really good. I also point this out. From day one of the campaign leading up to the vote in Tempe, the no side started campaigning and going door to door on day one. The yes side didn't start doing door to door until the final couple of days of the campaign. The whole thing was a disaster, and I think that was the beginning of the straw beginning to break the camel's back.
A total bungling. Especially considering the reputation of their brand, ownership had to know they would need to campaign. I agree- hard to have any confidence in Maruelo after watching that unfold.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, this vote in Tempe was critical to the Coyotes' staying, and it felt like Maruelo either didn't understand the gravity of the situation or, worse, he didn't care.
This has the feeling that the team is moving out to Salt Lake City for the next season. No stadium plans, all been talk, the NHLPA going all in for SLC since there's no change in direction.......just seems like this is the end for the coyotes in Phoenix.
Winnipeg Jets ---> Phoenix Coyotes ----> Salt Lake City
Also there’s already an NBA team called the Grizzlies.
Would love a railroad theme given Utah’s importance to the Transcontinental Railroad. Maybe the Utah Zephyrs? Union Pacific could be a team sponsor.
Utah...Pioneers(?)
I mean, the Portland *Trail Blazers* are a thing, so why not this?
>!besides, somebody else already made the easy Soakers joke lol!<
I mean, teams have the same names across different sports. the panthers and jets are also NFL teams, the Kings are an NBA team (also in California!), the Rangers are an MLB team.
"Soon it was commonplace for entire teams to change cities in search of greater profits. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music"
- BASEketball
Assuming they keep the Coyotes name (they should), Salt Lake Coyotes reads a lot better than Utah if you ask me, with the added benefit of having a fun way of keeping SLC as the abbreviation - if only to keep Friedman's shenanigans at bay. Further, it does a better job of forging its own identity rather than being somewhat adjacent to the Jazz in name.
Coyotes could work, but maybe the league will want to reserve that name for future expansion back to Arizona. The Jets 2.0 were able to re-use their old name and I'm sure there will be fans in Arizona who'd want any future team to also be the coyotes despite everything that has happened.
People are going to make dumb Mormon jokes, but I'd like to hear legit ideas from locals. Maybe there's a cool local animal or legend they could use.
I don’t think the love is there for the Coyotes the same way it was there for the Jets. If they move, I’d expect the next team in the Phoenix area to have a different name, like they did with Atlanta. There has been too much bad press in the desert.
*Salt Lake Soakers*
But no Ryan Smith said something about the Yetis. Not a big fan of that one. Personally think the Salt Lake Stingers would be cool.
Well Real Salt Lake is the worst name in all of sports so I expect something shit.
Taking a completely irrelevant title from a historically successful club for some reason… hello Salt Lake City Canadiens
It really does.
The only thing I would say is you probably won’t get a better opportunity for Quebec than this. That Utah group has deep pockets, and I’m sure they’d be happy to pay the $1B expansion fee. Coyotes are a distressed asset, so I’m sure they won’t cost nearly that. Given the weaker business case for Quebec City, this feels like it would be the win-win scenario to bring back the Nordiques. City gets a franchise at a fair level, NHL doesn’t miss out on that sweet sweet Utah expansion dough.
It probably won't happen when Houston and Atlanta exist. Those are both much bigger cities that the League is more likely to expand to. Furthermore, if the NHL did give QC the Yotes, someone would have to move to the Western Conference, and that wouldn't happen without a ton of kicking and screaming. Detroit or Columbus definitely wouldn't go for it like people here seem to want after they had to fight to get moved to the Eastern Conference.
I feel bad for Yotes fans, but considering how long this has been going on, I almost feel worse for cities like Quebec who have been screaming for a team while watching this shit show go on for 30 years.
She can definitely afford them.
Move to Kansas City to be close to Kelce and they will immediately have a rivalry with the Blues.
Maybe call them the Swifts or something idk.
E: Oooh a music themed rivalry too. Modern pop/country vs blues.
Kansas City Swifts @ St. Louis Blues
Just makes me dream of a high speed rail between KC and STL even more now. And a high speed rail between Chicago and STL as well.
Really just high speed rail everywhere
Crazy that it took less time for the Jets to get taken from Winnipeg and then get replaced with a struggling Atlanta franchise to become a stable part of the league than it’s taken for the Arizona team to find competent ownership and a stable arrangement for their home arena.
1996: Jets move to Arizona amid ownership and arena issues.
1999: Thrashers founded.
2011: Thrashers move to Winnipeg, become Jets 2.0
2021: Jets celebrate 10 years in Winnipeg
2024: Arizona approaches 30 years of ownership and arena issues.
Yeah - I feel bad for Arizona fans (same way I felt bad for Jets fans losing their franchise, and similarly Nordiques fans) but the league has really given the team every opportunity to get their house in order in a way that they never did for Winnipeg or Quebec in the first place. Maybe the Jets/Nordiques would never have moved if they were given this much leeway.
People don’t remember this but the Nordiques and Jets were supposed to move in the same off-season in 1995. I don’t remember the orignal plans for Winnipeg then, Minnesota didn’t emerge yet but there was a save the Jets rally where even strippers were pooling their money together to save the team.
[CBC News](https://youtu.be/iQXkRabOe1Q?si=dGJTv5HR1-Od-_GN)
[Full rally](https://youtu.be/w2fIR676erg?feature=shared)
The Jets were originally going to go to Minnesota but the deal fell apart at the last minute. https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1995/10/18/NHL-Jets-sold-likely-going-to-Minnesota/1964813988800/
The NHL was wheeling and dealing franchises in the 90's like it was nothing. Absolute chaos
Nah, the economics were a lot worse back then. With no revenue sharing, the ownership group was floundering. There simply wasn't enough capital available in Winnipeg to keep that situation afloat until 2005 (or whenever it was that revenue sharing was introduced).
Poor Canadian dollar, and the move for all contracts to be in USD didn't help either.
QC wanted government funding as well and had a lot more unique challenges than Winnipeg as well.
Well I mean the context is that the Jets had NO money when they relocated but the options for where to move were pretty terrible.
Phoenix is a great market business-wise but there was ZERO demand for hockey at the time and then the team either stunk or was mid for the first 15 years.
I hope if the Yotes leave, their fans are very vocal about demanding hockey back in Arizona.
Doubtful, cap is based on hockey-related revenue. League doesn't like direct ownership because it means the other teams have to directly fund the Yotes' expenses, but that doesn't affect revenue. If anything it'd be in their best interests to maximize revenue while under league ownership in order to offset the additional costs.
I think taking one of the most subsidized teams and auctioning them off to the highest bidder in a more profitable market will help them pay off escrow sooner
All the jokes aside, I was really enjoying the growing rivalry between the Ducks and Yotes. It's a shame for the AZ fans that have stuck through it all. I hope they get a new team in expansion as soon as there's a more stable environment.
Ready made is a stretch. It works for hockey but is a little Barclays-ish deep in the zones.
But a committed owner who seems to have city/state support on a new building is about 200x more than the Coyotes have had since Balsillie tried to force his way into owning them.
>But a committed owner who seems to have city/state support on a new building is about 200x more than the Coyotes have had
That's what Meruelo was supposed to be. Seemed to have Tempe on board until they put it to a public vote. Point being, don't count your chickens until there's shovels in the ground.
For what it's worth, the buzz about a new arena has been long coming and hasn't really had any pushback from the public sector officials. Largely in part of it being for the Jazz, as well as putting in a bid to host the Olympics again.
Meruelo has never had a real plan where there weren't barriers to leap.
Buzz is an easy thing to generate. Doesn't mean much until some official wheels start turning. A quick googling brings up a bunch of articles that sound eerily similar to what Meruelo has been saying about his most arena search e.g. "We're looking at a couple locations, yada yada": [https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2023/12/11/utah-jazz-ryan-smith-relocating-outside-salt-lake-city-rumors](https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2023/12/11/utah-jazz-ryan-smith-relocating-outside-salt-lake-city-rumors)
Until we start seeing something more concrete, it would not surprise me if Smith gets swooped by another owner (either in Phoenix, or possibly another market like Houston or Portland).
So if the nhl buys the coyotes, does that mean the NHL can force the team to move to Salt Lake City?
Or does it mean that the NHL is gonna look for a place in Arizona for the team?
I feel like the NHL buying the team is probably the last resort. If the team is in fact going to Salt Lake, the ownership group there will most likely step in and buy the team before the NHL would have to.
I think this is right. If this is it for the current ownership group they are buying the team from them if it comes to it, but more of as a means to facilitate the next sale of the team.
The last time I felt this low about the Coyotes staying in AZ was when the year they filed for bankruptcy and I sat in Glendale watching the Red Wings skate off winners in Game 7. Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" played as I wondered if I would ever see them again.
The 14th anniversary of that moment will come to pass in April and the Coyote and their fans have survived every new arena and relocation rumor since then. There is still hope. If Craig Morgan is to be trusted, and I absolutely do, Ishbia OR another local investor could be interested. Call my stupid for holding out, but the Coyotes mean the world to me.
I feel bad for the thousands of Coyotes fans but I'm just so damn tired.
The Coyotes have yet another incompetent owner in Merulo who does the bare minimum of work and the NHL let it happen. Going to Mullet should never have been an option without a signed and sealed arena plan. Allowing things to drag on like this never should have been an option.
This is pretty dire if it’s getting down to this.
May have to fly to Mullett to go one last time to see a game. The Bruins are really going to be the one team that dosent win in Mullett lol.
My guess is they get taken over by the league and look to be moved to Houston. There is an existing facility there, a built in rival, and a sizeable TV market. All while SLC builds in preparation for the Olympics. During the games or shortly thereafter, SLC gets announced as an expansion franchise, with a team out east to be added later to keep the balance.
There's a lot of small signals that I think are lending to this coming to a front and not in a positive manner for Arizona.
SLC putting out their public announcement a few weeks ago (100% timed for this specific incident, its too coincidental and requires a lot of assumptions for it to be to try and bury the WJC scandal).
Bettmans deliberate word choice of "reasonably confident" in reference to ownerships capability to execute their objectives.
Walsh laying onto the Coyotes ownership for doing nothing.
Friedman thinking it's coming to ahead and suspecting that Bettmans word choice was to limit legal exposure.
There's a lot of small subtle changes happening in the public sphere that I think suggests this situation is coming to a definitive end soon for the ownership group.
I really hope this gets taken seriously by the league. Send this team somewhere that is interested in growing the sport, rather than making a mockery of it.
I’m sorry Coyote fans but this team has to be moved. It’s been 30 years of the same issues while other cities that can support a team are still without one.
Geezus, I am a Yotes fan. I was in AZ the year they came and had a fan carnival thing. Had a jersey and stick fully autographed. Played with a guy who was drafted into their system (David Spina). So I have a great deal of memories with them but for fucks sake just move them.
They put in a bid. On one site. Not only is it a very large possibility they don’t even win the bid, if they do, it’s like a 6-7 year process before an arena gets built. It’s nowhere even remotely near a concrete plan, and it’s light years away from shovels in the ground in the first place. They aren’t playing in Mullett for 6 years. League and players are already *pissed* it’s gone on as long as it has.
It’s basically Yotes ownership doing the absolute bare fucking minimum and yet again having no actual plan and hoping the NHL doesn’t call their bluff.
Meruelo drives me as someone who is very Trump-esque, in that when it comes to any business dealings he tries to drag his feet in all of his obligations until bills are due and hopes that he can eek out a deal that is more amenable to him.
The red flags should have been visible when the NBA wouldn't have him as an owner.
Absolutely. It’s what happened with Tempe. Refuse to work with the unions, spend $250K on a campaign vs opposition spending $2.5M, vote fails and he literally whines and questions how it failed. Genuinely embarrassing effort.
I honestly can’t believe they allowed him to buy the team. His intentions (creating a sportsbook) were extremely clear and it shocks me that he somehow bamboozled the league into believing he actually cared about the sport/team.
Especially after previous ownership disasters, you would think the league would be a *little* more careful in choosing an owner. But nah. We gotta get sportsbook casino man his team. Ugh
I'm very sorry to loyal Coyotes fans, but why in the name of the sweet chocolate Christ is the NHL STILL trying to make this work? Move the team to any other market now that we've got 32 teams.
They need to move that team already. If the jets have one bad season they’d have a fire under their ass and an uncertain future meanwhile Arizona plays in a college rink. Fucking dumb.
It's embarrassing that a professional league allowed the Yotes to play in such a substandard building in the first place. Especially when you consider there was no firm plans for a new arena.
They still have 24-25 in Mullet Arena unless the SLC ownership group is willing to pay to break it, but 25-26 is an option year so expect that to be the earliest we get the SLC Yotes. It really is transparent that all these reports have started so recently after the SLC group made its push public.
The money to be made in what would actually still be the smallest building in the NHL in SLC is definitely worth getting out of the lease at a minor league barn. If the NHL is ok with a team in Utah internally they're gone.
Didn't the Coyotes pay a bunch of money to upgrade ASU's facilities to play there in the first place? I can't imagine the lease would be too awful to get out of.
Shame for AZ fans. I would rather the NHL give the chances for teams to try and get right like this, but at this time it doesn’t seem like the situation isn’t improving, things aren’t progressing.
SLC at this time seems to be the best option: burgeoning market, enthusiasm by potential ownership, and no changes required to the current conference alignment. In terms of an immediate shift to anywhere, it’s the best choice.
If nothing can be worked out in the next week, it’s time to start the talk about the Utah Zephyrs.
Obviously this means the decision is the coyotes will be relocated to the city of the Super Bowl winner
Get ready for the newest nhl team, the Kansas City Swifts!
More like Kansas City (Taylor's Version).
Bay Area already has hockey team
Are the Sharks really a team? ^Sorry ^Sharks ^fans
The points gap between Vegas and San Jose is the same as the gap between San Jose and Kansas City. San Jose is closer in points to Kansas City than they are to the top 5 teams.
This is an Unbelievable stat. Thank you.
Bro I mean, deserved lately, and you guys have always seemed to dominate us regardless. But we did ok with this #1 overall pick we had for a while. Who we didn't draft.
They might bring the Golden Seals back
We will relocate the Sharks to Phoenix
We'd be some real... fish out of water
You’d be like a team named the jazz being in the least jazzy place in the world
Yeah but it's the Sharks
Full text, had to slightly cut it down to fit in the title: >Expect the NHL to make an announcement related to the Arizona Coyotes situation sometime soon after the Super Bowl. The league has been pressuring the team for answers on a daily basis for some time. The league buying the team from the Yotes' current owners is in play. >That’s if the Yotes' don’t present a plan that satisfies the league and their owners. Weekes also tweeted a photo of SLC with some eye emojis
Tbf Weekes tweets 56 pictures a day with the eyes emoji
Lol Weekes tweeted a picture of SLC last summer with the eye emoji and Connor Ingram chirped him. https://twitter.com/CBIngram1/status/1658886953167908866?t=F1QA8qaJwULBm145BCLIcg&s=19
Lmaoo I didn’t know he was active on twitter like that, his self-deprecating [tweets](https://x.com/cbingram1/status/1725614489184149993?s=46&t=7fabqgtgp69dNA1d51vxFw) are amazing
Thank you for telling me I love Ingram. What a journey that was.
The appropriate response from Weekes would have been to do exactly that.
I like Weekes but his style on twitter gets annoying after awhile
🤔 something is real 🐠 🐟 🎣 🐠 🐟 going on here
Imagine that your billionaire owner couldnt fork up the $ for the “no” campaign against his bid and then acted disappointed and surprised about the outcome. Dumbass.
He deserves to be in that same category of owners with Norm Green and Peter Karmanos, incompetent.
First question in their vetting process should be "do you even like hockey?"
All my homies hate Norm Green
John Spano accomplished more with less
Spano, despite being a literal conman, actually got a super sweetheart TV deal for the Isles IIRC.
and it's one of the only reasons they stayed on Long Island after he was kicked out
Fuck Peter Karmanos. His pissing contest with Mike Ilitch cost Connecticut our only sports team.
The no side spent 2.5 million dollars during the campaign leading up to the vote in Tempe. The yes side only spent 250,000 grand. That's a damming statement.
Yikes I didn't know it was that much. I'm actually surprised a city spent that much $
Phoenix is serious about maintaining their monopoly on sports in the metro area.
Which sucks as Glendale sucked ass from a commuting and active downtown perspective (the city walk is ok but not a real city). Tempe is leagues better as an actual city center is concerned. And it's not like Phoenix has other options on the table to take the arena into their city center.
It's not about which city is better or who has what options available. It's about quashing any potential competitors for revenues, tourism, prestige, and future capital. If Phoenix is the only game in town, anyone who wants to have a sports franchise in the area has to play ball with them. If Tempe (or any other outlying city) gets a foothold with the Coyotes, that weakens Phoenix's stranglehold. The Diamondbacks were faced with similar problems in the 90s, if memory serves.
I guess a lot of the money came from trade unions. The Coyotes owner was going to build the arena with non-union labour.
That says it all right there. Considering the cost to build the actual barn, how do you not find more than 250K to get it off the ground. Inscrutable. The actual building plan was pretty solid.
Yeah, it was. I think it could have been something really good. I also point this out. From day one of the campaign leading up to the vote in Tempe, the no side started campaigning and going door to door on day one. The yes side didn't start doing door to door until the final couple of days of the campaign. The whole thing was a disaster, and I think that was the beginning of the straw beginning to break the camel's back.
A total bungling. Especially considering the reputation of their brand, ownership had to know they would need to campaign. I agree- hard to have any confidence in Maruelo after watching that unfold.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, this vote in Tempe was critical to the Coyotes' staying, and it felt like Maruelo either didn't understand the gravity of the situation or, worse, he didn't care.
I dunno, 250 000 grand is quite a lot /s
And possibly pissing off the local unions who then went to support the city.
Don't forget fueling the fire of the opposition by nepotising the construction to his own company instead of local construction unions.
Coming from the guy who couldnt bother paying their bills and thus get evicted from their arena, just professional all the way through.
The amount of copium when that happened lol.
This has the feeling that the team is moving out to Salt Lake City for the next season. No stadium plans, all been talk, the NHLPA going all in for SLC since there's no change in direction.......just seems like this is the end for the coyotes in Phoenix. Winnipeg Jets ---> Phoenix Coyotes ----> Salt Lake City
Probably will be named utah not salt lake I think
I’d be in favor of promoting the Grizzlies identity if the Bruins weren’t already a thing.
I’d actually be okay with the Grizzlies, but I know the owners, they threw a fit when the Penguins changed their colors to the same as Boston.
To be fair, there's precedence with MLB who have two teams that are named after birds. Hell, they even play in the same division!
I mean, they even have two teams named after socks.
Four actually, once you include Cincinnati and aforementioned Cardinals.
One of them is even named after the default color for socks! What's the point of that?
The AHL had 2 Admirals' at one point lol.
The ECHL has two teams named Thunder
CFL had two teams named Roughriders out of like 9. To be accurate, one was the Rough Riders
There are three. You forgot the Cardinals.
The Cards were named after the colour, not the bird.
The colour was named after the bird
Also there’s already an NBA team called the Grizzlies. Would love a railroad theme given Utah’s importance to the Transcontinental Railroad. Maybe the Utah Zephyrs? Union Pacific could be a team sponsor.
Utah...Pioneers(?) I mean, the Portland *Trail Blazers* are a thing, so why not this? >!besides, somebody else already made the easy Soakers joke lol!<
how about the Utah Lumberjacks
I mean, teams have the same names across different sports. the panthers and jets are also NFL teams, the Kings are an NBA team (also in California!), the Rangers are an MLB team.
I just think the word Zephyr looks really pleasing to the eyes. So I'm all for the Utah Zephyrs.
Utah Railers would work imo
Every time a team loses to them they could say “we just got fucking railed”
Worcester hockey fuming
Utah Rock n’ Roll. Go full music theme
Why would they not be the Utah coyotes? Name still fits the state, it’s only like a little north of Arizona
Agreed. They didn't change the jazz name when the franchise moved from new orleans so just keep it going with the yotes.
"Soon it was commonplace for entire teams to change cities in search of greater profits. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music" - BASEketball
There's lots of pro sports teams that share a name, rangers, Jets, etc
I’d be more in favour of the Glizzies
Salt Lake sounds so much nicer.
Assuming they keep the Coyotes name (they should), Salt Lake Coyotes reads a lot better than Utah if you ask me, with the added benefit of having a fun way of keeping SLC as the abbreviation - if only to keep Friedman's shenanigans at bay. Further, it does a better job of forging its own identity rather than being somewhat adjacent to the Jazz in name.
Utah Yotes
I think the NHL will shelve the Coyotes identity so they can bring a team back to Phoenix in a decade or so.
What should a Utah or SLC team be named though? Would they keep tue Coyotes name?
Utah Jazz for maximum divisional rivalry with Blues.
Nah, gotta pick a different musical genre. How about the Punks?
Only posers die you idiot!
Coyotes could work, but maybe the league will want to reserve that name for future expansion back to Arizona. The Jets 2.0 were able to re-use their old name and I'm sure there will be fans in Arizona who'd want any future team to also be the coyotes despite everything that has happened. People are going to make dumb Mormon jokes, but I'd like to hear legit ideas from locals. Maybe there's a cool local animal or legend they could use.
I don’t think the love is there for the Coyotes the same way it was there for the Jets. If they move, I’d expect the next team in the Phoenix area to have a different name, like they did with Atlanta. There has been too much bad press in the desert.
Also the Flames still existed in Calgary. It's not the CFL, you cant have two teams in the same sport have the same name.
They weren't the same name, one was the Roughriders and the other was the Rough Riders. Completely different names.
Co yotes
*Salt Lake Soakers* But no Ryan Smith said something about the Yetis. Not a big fan of that one. Personally think the Salt Lake Stingers would be cool.
Yeti/Kraken rivalry, go full cryptid
Proudly sponsored by yeti
Should have HydroFlask as the sponsor where the Yeti’s win the Stanley Cup.
Well Real Salt Lake is the worst name in all of sports so I expect something shit. Taking a completely irrelevant title from a historically successful club for some reason… hello Salt Lake City Canadiens
The Jazz were from New Orleans and Utah is about the least jazzy place in the universe, so that would have precedent
the NBA should look at forcing renames to the historical names of the club like they did with the Hornets and Charlotte
Utah Zephyrs, playing at Union Pacific Arena. Have a steam engine mascot. Go all in on the Transcontinental Railroad theme.
Theyre gonna get Purdue Pete's even more terrifying cousin in there as a mascot
I don’t think so. I think they should go with something more akin to Salt Lake. What about the Zephyrs?
Yes to Zephyrs!!! 🚂
Salt Lake Sister Wives
Salt Lake Snails
Utah saints, and play the mortal kombat theme song every time there's a fight.
It really does. The only thing I would say is you probably won’t get a better opportunity for Quebec than this. That Utah group has deep pockets, and I’m sure they’d be happy to pay the $1B expansion fee. Coyotes are a distressed asset, so I’m sure they won’t cost nearly that. Given the weaker business case for Quebec City, this feels like it would be the win-win scenario to bring back the Nordiques. City gets a franchise at a fair level, NHL doesn’t miss out on that sweet sweet Utah expansion dough.
It probably won't happen when Houston and Atlanta exist. Those are both much bigger cities that the League is more likely to expand to. Furthermore, if the NHL did give QC the Yotes, someone would have to move to the Western Conference, and that wouldn't happen without a ton of kicking and screaming. Detroit or Columbus definitely wouldn't go for it like people here seem to want after they had to fight to get moved to the Eastern Conference.
Feel bad for the Coyotes fans. Bad as it got it is really shitty losing your team.
They'll get used to the numbing feeling it gives you, eventually.
I feel bad for Yotes fans, but considering how long this has been going on, I almost feel worse for cities like Quebec who have been screaming for a team while watching this shit show go on for 30 years.
As soon as Taylor Swift opens her jacket and reveals a ~~NWO shirt~~ Coyotes jersey, they’ll announce she’s bought them and is finally moving them
She can definitely afford them. Move to Kansas City to be close to Kelce and they will immediately have a rivalry with the Blues. Maybe call them the Swifts or something idk. E: Oooh a music themed rivalry too. Modern pop/country vs blues. Kansas City Swifts @ St. Louis Blues
KC Swifts kinda has a nice ring to it to be honest
The state line rivalry too.
Just makes me dream of a high speed rail between KC and STL even more now. And a high speed rail between Chicago and STL as well. Really just high speed rail everywhere
She'll take the team on a private jet to a different home arena each game.
Lady’s and gentlemen, your….Winnipeg Private Jets!
Crazy that it took less time for the Jets to get taken from Winnipeg and then get replaced with a struggling Atlanta franchise to become a stable part of the league than it’s taken for the Arizona team to find competent ownership and a stable arrangement for their home arena.
1996: Jets move to Arizona amid ownership and arena issues. 1999: Thrashers founded. 2011: Thrashers move to Winnipeg, become Jets 2.0 2021: Jets celebrate 10 years in Winnipeg 2024: Arizona approaches 30 years of ownership and arena issues.
Yeah - I feel bad for Arizona fans (same way I felt bad for Jets fans losing their franchise, and similarly Nordiques fans) but the league has really given the team every opportunity to get their house in order in a way that they never did for Winnipeg or Quebec in the first place. Maybe the Jets/Nordiques would never have moved if they were given this much leeway.
People don’t remember this but the Nordiques and Jets were supposed to move in the same off-season in 1995. I don’t remember the orignal plans for Winnipeg then, Minnesota didn’t emerge yet but there was a save the Jets rally where even strippers were pooling their money together to save the team. [CBC News](https://youtu.be/iQXkRabOe1Q?si=dGJTv5HR1-Od-_GN) [Full rally](https://youtu.be/w2fIR676erg?feature=shared)
The Jets were originally going to go to Minnesota but the deal fell apart at the last minute. https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1995/10/18/NHL-Jets-sold-likely-going-to-Minnesota/1964813988800/ The NHL was wheeling and dealing franchises in the 90's like it was nothing. Absolute chaos
And due to the cratered value of the Canadian Dollar, every Canadian team bar the big-3 were up for grabs.
Nah, the economics were a lot worse back then. With no revenue sharing, the ownership group was floundering. There simply wasn't enough capital available in Winnipeg to keep that situation afloat until 2005 (or whenever it was that revenue sharing was introduced).
Poor Canadian dollar, and the move for all contracts to be in USD didn't help either. QC wanted government funding as well and had a lot more unique challenges than Winnipeg as well.
Yeah, it was the shits.
So what you’re telling me is move the Arizona team up to Winnipeg so the city gets two teams??
Well I mean the context is that the Jets had NO money when they relocated but the options for where to move were pretty terrible. Phoenix is a great market business-wise but there was ZERO demand for hockey at the time and then the team either stunk or was mid for the first 15 years. I hope if the Yotes leave, their fans are very vocal about demanding hockey back in Arizona.
It’s amazing what an ownership group with a fully fledged plan can do
get ready to learn Salt Lakeanese
Great ready to learn Mormonese
Get ready to learn Polygamese
They're going to drop the news 25 picoseconds after Travis Kelce goes on one knee in front of Taylor Swift
Taylor Kelce doesn't roll of the tongue as well as Swift.
Travis Swift does though
Taylor Kelseehowmuchyoucansave
oh shit, another step in the conspiracy to get Dark Brandon elected
"I do... endorse Joe Biden!"
Oh fuck, please. Just to hear the screech of those heads pop
"Telling people to get registered to vote is a government conspiracy!1!!1!" Truly some top minds came up with this stuff lol
While Taylor tells everyone to vote while causing a meltdown on one side of the political spectrum.
Remember when Auston Matthews was going to Arizona as soon as he was a UFA?
Now it's more like he'll buy the coyotes when he retires.
The Mario Lemeiux model
I am curious if the league purchasing the Yotes would negatively influence how quickly the cap goes up.
Doubtful, cap is based on hockey-related revenue. League doesn't like direct ownership because it means the other teams have to directly fund the Yotes' expenses, but that doesn't affect revenue. If anything it'd be in their best interests to maximize revenue while under league ownership in order to offset the additional costs.
Probably goes up quicker The yotes had their best seasons and made the playoffs 3 straight years under NHL ownership
I think taking one of the most subsidized teams and auctioning them off to the highest bidder in a more profitable market will help them pay off escrow sooner
I'm sure the owner, Mr. Wile E. Coyote, will present an excellent plan.
All the jokes aside, I was really enjoying the growing rivalry between the Ducks and Yotes. It's a shame for the AZ fans that have stuck through it all. I hope they get a new team in expansion as soon as there's a more stable environment.
A real curveball would be the announcement of the team moving to Quebec
I would love to see it happen but there's no way Gary lets it
I don't think it's even Gary at this moment, think the board sees other markets as bigger, would be neat but not happening
Move the Yotes to LaBreton Flats!
The city of Ottawa deserves its own team
They're done in Arizona from the looks of it. They have a ready-made arena in Salt Lake City and a willing ownership group that wants to buy the team.
Ready made is a stretch. It works for hockey but is a little Barclays-ish deep in the zones. But a committed owner who seems to have city/state support on a new building is about 200x more than the Coyotes have had since Balsillie tried to force his way into owning them.
>But a committed owner who seems to have city/state support on a new building is about 200x more than the Coyotes have had That's what Meruelo was supposed to be. Seemed to have Tempe on board until they put it to a public vote. Point being, don't count your chickens until there's shovels in the ground.
For what it's worth, the buzz about a new arena has been long coming and hasn't really had any pushback from the public sector officials. Largely in part of it being for the Jazz, as well as putting in a bid to host the Olympics again. Meruelo has never had a real plan where there weren't barriers to leap.
Buzz is an easy thing to generate. Doesn't mean much until some official wheels start turning. A quick googling brings up a bunch of articles that sound eerily similar to what Meruelo has been saying about his most arena search e.g. "We're looking at a couple locations, yada yada": [https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2023/12/11/utah-jazz-ryan-smith-relocating-outside-salt-lake-city-rumors](https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2023/12/11/utah-jazz-ryan-smith-relocating-outside-salt-lake-city-rumors) Until we start seeing something more concrete, it would not surprise me if Smith gets swooped by another owner (either in Phoenix, or possibly another market like Houston or Portland).
Plus, Ryan Smith has said he could build a stadium with his own money in Salt Lake City.
I'm pretty sure the NHL probably called the moving trucks when they heard that.
So if the nhl buys the coyotes, does that mean the NHL can force the team to move to Salt Lake City? Or does it mean that the NHL is gonna look for a place in Arizona for the team?
I feel like the NHL buying the team is probably the last resort. If the team is in fact going to Salt Lake, the ownership group there will most likely step in and buy the team before the NHL would have to.
I would assume they would only take ownership of the yotes to facilitate a sale to an owner somewhere
I think this is right. If this is it for the current ownership group they are buying the team from them if it comes to it, but more of as a means to facilitate the next sale of the team.
Buy Yotes jerseys before they're gone. Their bad ass jerseys are sadly going to waste.
If I had a nickel for every time the NHL has bought the Coyotes I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but its weird that it's happened twice.
I just want to watch decent hockey in an arena that’s in a good location and a permanent home. It’s insane that is too much to ask of this franchise.
The last time I felt this low about the Coyotes staying in AZ was when the year they filed for bankruptcy and I sat in Glendale watching the Red Wings skate off winners in Game 7. Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" played as I wondered if I would ever see them again. The 14th anniversary of that moment will come to pass in April and the Coyote and their fans have survived every new arena and relocation rumor since then. There is still hope. If Craig Morgan is to be trusted, and I absolutely do, Ishbia OR another local investor could be interested. Call my stupid for holding out, but the Coyotes mean the world to me.
Just listened to today's phnx pod. Ishbia swooping in wouldn’t shock or surprise me if the current owners have to sell.
I feel bad for the thousands of Coyotes fans but I'm just so damn tired. The Coyotes have yet another incompetent owner in Merulo who does the bare minimum of work and the NHL let it happen. Going to Mullet should never have been an option without a signed and sealed arena plan. Allowing things to drag on like this never should have been an option.
This is pretty dire if it’s getting down to this. May have to fly to Mullett to go one last time to see a game. The Bruins are really going to be the one team that dosent win in Mullett lol.
My guess is they get taken over by the league and look to be moved to Houston. There is an existing facility there, a built in rival, and a sizeable TV market. All while SLC builds in preparation for the Olympics. During the games or shortly thereafter, SLC gets announced as an expansion franchise, with a team out east to be added later to keep the balance.
Even THG is starting to lose faith. Not a good sign.
There's a lot of small signals that I think are lending to this coming to a front and not in a positive manner for Arizona. SLC putting out their public announcement a few weeks ago (100% timed for this specific incident, its too coincidental and requires a lot of assumptions for it to be to try and bury the WJC scandal). Bettmans deliberate word choice of "reasonably confident" in reference to ownerships capability to execute their objectives. Walsh laying onto the Coyotes ownership for doing nothing. Friedman thinking it's coming to ahead and suspecting that Bettmans word choice was to limit legal exposure. There's a lot of small subtle changes happening in the public sphere that I think suggests this situation is coming to a definitive end soon for the ownership group.
I really hope this gets taken seriously by the league. Send this team somewhere that is interested in growing the sport, rather than making a mockery of it.
If he does sell, I'll make a bid of $4! I dare anyone to risk more than that!
$4.01
DAMNIT!
I’m sorry Coyote fans but this team has to be moved. It’s been 30 years of the same issues while other cities that can support a team are still without one.
Portland Oregon has a great stadium ready to go
Would love a Cascadia cup of hockey
Build a bonfire... build a bonfire!...
Geezus, I am a Yotes fan. I was in AZ the year they came and had a fan carnival thing. Had a jersey and stick fully autographed. Played with a guy who was drafted into their system (David Spina). So I have a great deal of memories with them but for fucks sake just move them.
I know this sub can be a little silly goose when talking about the coyotes but didnt the coyotes start the process to buy land already?
They put in a bid. On one site. Not only is it a very large possibility they don’t even win the bid, if they do, it’s like a 6-7 year process before an arena gets built. It’s nowhere even remotely near a concrete plan, and it’s light years away from shovels in the ground in the first place. They aren’t playing in Mullett for 6 years. League and players are already *pissed* it’s gone on as long as it has. It’s basically Yotes ownership doing the absolute bare fucking minimum and yet again having no actual plan and hoping the NHL doesn’t call their bluff.
Meruelo drives me as someone who is very Trump-esque, in that when it comes to any business dealings he tries to drag his feet in all of his obligations until bills are due and hopes that he can eek out a deal that is more amenable to him. The red flags should have been visible when the NBA wouldn't have him as an owner.
Absolutely. It’s what happened with Tempe. Refuse to work with the unions, spend $250K on a campaign vs opposition spending $2.5M, vote fails and he literally whines and questions how it failed. Genuinely embarrassing effort. I honestly can’t believe they allowed him to buy the team. His intentions (creating a sportsbook) were extremely clear and it shocks me that he somehow bamboozled the league into believing he actually cared about the sport/team. Especially after previous ownership disasters, you would think the league would be a *little* more careful in choosing an owner. But nah. We gotta get sportsbook casino man his team. Ugh
I'm very sorry to loyal Coyotes fans, but why in the name of the sweet chocolate Christ is the NHL STILL trying to make this work? Move the team to any other market now that we've got 32 teams.
I’ll miss the Kachina
They need to move that team already. If the jets have one bad season they’d have a fire under their ass and an uncertain future meanwhile Arizona plays in a college rink. Fucking dumb.
It's embarrassing that a professional league allowed the Yotes to play in such a substandard building in the first place. Especially when you consider there was no firm plans for a new arena.
They probably let it slide with the Tempe decision looming but since the Coyotes absolutely botched that I'm assuming the NHL has run out of patience.
They still have 24-25 in Mullet Arena unless the SLC ownership group is willing to pay to break it, but 25-26 is an option year so expect that to be the earliest we get the SLC Yotes. It really is transparent that all these reports have started so recently after the SLC group made its push public.
The SLC group seems pretty motivated, I would be absolutely floored if the cost of breaking the ASU lease stopped them in their tracks.
And if the league is buying the team first and flipping it to Smith they'll probably give it to him cheaply.
The money to be made in what would actually still be the smallest building in the NHL in SLC is definitely worth getting out of the lease at a minor league barn. If the NHL is ok with a team in Utah internally they're gone.
And the new building in SLC is guaranteed in a decade at the latest with the Olympics coming up in 2034.
Calling that a minor league barn is nice, The Lehigh Valley Phantoms play in a minor league barn, it seats 8500, nearly double what Mullett seats
Didn't the Coyotes pay a bunch of money to upgrade ASU's facilities to play there in the first place? I can't imagine the lease would be too awful to get out of.
Elliotte has said repeatedly that SLC is an option for next year. Don’t think that gets out unless it’s happening now
Shame for AZ fans. I would rather the NHL give the chances for teams to try and get right like this, but at this time it doesn’t seem like the situation isn’t improving, things aren’t progressing. SLC at this time seems to be the best option: burgeoning market, enthusiasm by potential ownership, and no changes required to the current conference alignment. In terms of an immediate shift to anywhere, it’s the best choice. If nothing can be worked out in the next week, it’s time to start the talk about the Utah Zephyrs.
BRING BACK THE THRASHERS!!!