#arizonacoyotes OB Daz and OB Aidan react to the end of the game in the Coyotes last game in Arizona. Support us on Patreon: / officeblokedaz Instagram: officeblokedaz Link to original video: • Video
The Arizona Coyotes had been a disaster since they moved from downtown Phoenix to Glendale, AZ in 2003. They lost money hand over foot, had a revolving door of owners, including the NHL itself, got kicked out of Glendale for not paying their bills, and having to play in 4,600 seat college rink. As sad as it is they're moving (again) it also comes with a sense of relief as this nearly 2 decade long death spiral is finally over and now that franchise can finally get some desperately needed stability going forward.
Arizona was just like Atlanta. A small diehard fan base and ownership with no plan or desire to improve or even care about the team. It was inevitable for the Coyotes, but hockey fans all over North America shed a tear at this last game. Everyone in that small arena loved the Yotes so much. It’s like the final game of Hartford Whalers, who became my beloved Carolina Hurricanes. I hope Utah has a lot of hockey fans who will welcome the former Coyotes and their staff. Edit: I’m tearing up watching this all over again. All those kids in the stands. It just sucks.
Unfortunately pro sports is a business whose owners can relocate or SELL the team to anyone at any time... The fans don't own the pro teams... This isn't the first relocation, nor will this be the last one...
Don’t forget that both teams suddenly found themselves without a suitable building to play in at a moment’s notice. That’s a death blow for any dysfunctional franchise.
The owner of the Utah jazz Ryan smith purchased the Arizona coyotes for 1.2 billion dollars. It’s a one of a kind situation, Ryan smith bought the players and personnel but not the rights to the coyotes name or history, Arizona has 5 years to build a new stadium and they can reactivate the team and start over from scratch.
It's already been established that the Coyotes farm club, The Tucson Roadrunners, will move from Tucson to Phoenix next season and will remain their farm club.
It's a sad sight to see - 25+ years of horrible ownership, but passionate fans who supported no matter what. The sad part is that their latest owner actually seemed to be trying to get things done - just a lot of potholes in the way. He at least managed to start rebuilding a really good team which Utah is really lucky to get. It's the best immediate move for the NHL - they'll be under great ownership and will have a lot of support in SLC. Just sucks for the AZ fans - but I have no doubt that they'll be back and better off than ever in the next few years.
I've been in Phoenix since 1994 and only went to 1 coyotes game. Was never into hockey until I went to a game. Coyotes should've stayed downtown. The owner still has the rights to the Arizona Coyotes name so maybe they get another team in a few years.
I would love to see an expansion team go back to Quebec. A lot of people, including myself, really enjoyed watching the Nordiques. Always a great atmosphere there.
I Iive in Utah, and even though I’m not a big fan of hockey. I’m a big fan of sports and community. This will be great for Utah, hockey fans, and our local community. The new owner is also the owner of the Utah Jazz. He’s a younger guy, but seems to have the right mindset and heart when it comes to sports. I believe he will do great things with this hockey team
Salt Lake City has a very long history of professional hockey that goes back over many teams and leagues in minor league hockey. The Salt Lake City Golden Eagles were an institution, playing in the old Salt Palace arena, winning championships in first the Central Hockey League and then the International Hockey League. Then the Utah Grizzlies came along in 1995, also in the International Hockey League. Around that time, the IHL tried to compete with the NHL, moving into larger markets and had a national cable TV contract. When the league went bankrupt, the Grizzlies moved on to the American Hockey League for 4 seasons, before leaving the AHL for the ECHL, a minor league that is one level below the AHL, where they play to this day.
European soccer teams are loyal to their town. The league does not control them and soccer owners show deep loyalty and commitment to the town/city. In the USA, the leagues have total control and authority over each team. The owners/teams have no loyalty nor commitment to a town/city.
Ryan Smith who just bought the team, and also owns the Jazz proves that isn't always the case. He's committed to Utah, and purchased the Jazz with the agreement that he would never move them. Unfortunately, he might be the exception, and not the rule
The ironic thing is they're moving because of the arena situation they couldn't get sorted, but the arena they're now moving to in Salt Lake wasn't built for hockey and it's still going to be an issue, just not as bad of one.
yea but they also have a horde of tax funds in SLC to renovate with that AZ hasn’t given the Coyotes. Coyotes as of right now would be in Mullet for the foreseeable future whereas the renovations in SLC will be done within the first year or two. Not to mention the ownership in SLC already has a proven track record of productive team management with the Jazz, whereas current AZ ownership is why the Coyotes were even in this situation in the first place. By all accounts the NHL has done everything in its power to make AZ work despite continual piss poor ownership, the only realistic way they were staying was if the league purchased the team and foot the bill themselves for a while and there’s just no way owners were going to go for that when relocation to an eager market is also an option. SLC has been hounding the NHL for expansion for a while, they had all the infrastructure and money in place in preparation for a moment like this. It really won’t be an issue in the long term. They have already started to begin this process with the MLB now too. It’s a family centric market, sporting events do very well and are heavily subsidized and supported by the state there.
From what I heard, the Coyotes have been playing outside of Phoenix, in an arena that only seats 5k & tickets were really expensive. The owners have been trying to get a new facility but government red tape between border neighborhoods. The owners wanted to buy $68 million dollar state land to build in one area but since it borders a different municipality, that town won’t get the benefits but will have to pay extra for road repairs & other stuff. NHL also said that as soon as they have an expansion, Phoenix is allowed to get a new team.
The league doesn’t really need to initiate an official expansion period to go back to Phoenix. The Coyotes are still technically based in Arizona as a dormant franchise. If Alex Meruelo is able to get an arena built in the next five years, a draft will be triggered and the Coyotes will restart again. No board of governors approval is needed.
@@nathanviebranz9111 So does that mean that they can just have a new team next year in Phoenix? I know very little about the NHL (I’ve been to few Flyers games) but it seems they move their teams more often than the other 3 pro sports leagues. So is it because of low attendance or greed?
@@lovesgucci1 theoretically they could, but the arena has to be built for that to happen and there’s no telling how long it would take. You just can’t keep asking NHLers to keep playing at a college-level facility. The last two NHL relocations happened due to dysfunction in the franchise and being suddenly left without suitable facilities to play in.
@@nathanviebranz9111 What I meant was, if they were able to have a a standardized hockey arena, could they theoretically start back up in the league & not wait for expansion?
@@lovesgucci1 yes, in a theoretical sense. The Coyotes are still technically an NHL franchise located in Arizona, so there is no need to go through the formal expansion process, but they are dormant; it was negotiated that the players and staff would go to Utah while the logos, history, etc. would stay behind. If an arena was to be acquired and is ready for play during the off-season, then a draft with expansion rules would trigger to replenish the roster and the Coyotes would be reactivated to bring the total number of teams to 33.
The Coyotes were an original franchise in the World Hockey Association, a rival league to the NHL from 1972-79 as the original Winnipeg Jets. The NHL absorbed 4 WHA teams in a merger. This will be the second move in franchise history.
When it comes to the WHA, 3 of those 4 teams have moved, the Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado in 1996, The Winnipeg Jets moved the following year, The Hartford Whalers moved to Carolina in 1999. The Edmonton Oilers are the only former WHA team that hasn't moved but even then they came close to moving to Houston in the late 90s.
@@marcpower4167 Yes. I was working at ESPN when the Jets and Nordiques moved. I edited a numerous stories on that and I worked the live broadcast when the Jets played their final home game before moving to Phoenix. I was living in the area when the entire Hartford saga was taking place. The owner called hockey "a little niche sport" as he insulted the fans going out the door. There was all this talk about a new arena that was never going to happen...at the same time Robert Kraft threatened to move the Patriots to Hartford.
My little brother grew up with 3 older brothers that played basketball and went his own way and became a hockey goalie. He had been a Coyotes fan since the beginning of his life (he's now 22) and has been absolutely beside himself these last few weeks over losing the team. Just imagine if your hometown soccer club up and left because they couldn't find a stadium to play their games in. Absolutely tragic, as far as sport goes
The reality is that the team was not as popular in the Valley or elsewhere in Arizona. They were always behind the Cardinals in football, the Suns in basketball, and even the Diamondbacks in baseball. They left Glendale and tried to move to Tempe and that failed. Tempe didn’t want them, and they tried to move to Scottsdale, and they rejected them too. So they are leaving for Salt Lake. No city in Arizona wanted to give the Coyotes taxpayer money for a new arena or the infrastructure costs to build them one.
There already was a large great hockey arena they had been playing in, but declined to sign a new lease when the original lease expired, deciding to play in a smaller college hockey arena instead. The renewal lease amount on the old arena was raised because the city wished to stop losing money on the arena, and the team then failed to pay the new lease amount. So the team was expelled from that arena, and the team moved into the smaller arena. Well, 5,000 seating capacity in a league requiring at least 15,000 fans in attendance for a team to earn a profit is not sustainable. Therefore, until Phoenix has an affordable large arena in place to sustain the hockey team, it is better to sell it to another owner to play in another city. Fans across Canada and the USA have seen their hockey teams leave their city in the past, and probably more will in the future.
Unfortunately pro sports is a business whose owners can relocate or SELL the team to anyone at any time... The fans don't own the pro teams... This isn't the first relocation, nor will this be the last one...
The reason why they left is that they couldn't get a stadium and this season were forced to play at a college level stadium by far the smallest In the NHL they have been trying to get a stadium over the years but the NHL have forced them to move and just so you know there not going to be the Utah coyotes it's basically going to be a new franchise and if Arizona gets a stadium these next few years they get an expansion team and will probably get the name and history of the coyotes
Don't worry. If their North Phoenix arena proposal and land auction goes through, then in 5 years, they'll return as an expansion team, and the possibility of 36 teams in the NHL
9:28 it's funny how he said that because that's exactly how I feel. It sucks Phoenix is losing their NHL team, but they still have 3 other teams to fall back on. Utah has only ever had the Jazz (if you're not counting the MLS team)
There is quite a bit of hate in this comment section. Yes, the team had several bad owners. Yes, the team even had to be run by the league for a few years, which is bizarre. Yes, it seems to this outsider that the politicians could have been more helpful. But the team did have fans. The number of people who live in Arizona almost guarantees another team in the future, once they FINALLY build a new arena.
The Coyotes never finished higher than 18th in average annual attendance, and that was back in 97-98 when they were still a novelty. In fact, that was the only year that they cracked the top 20 in average annual attendance. Over the past 14 seasons they have been in the bottom 3 in attendance every year (save one year where they were 4th from last). That is not hate, just facts. Yeah, they had "fans", enough for a minor league team, not an NHL team.
@@japcar84 You make a reasonable argument about their poor attendance. A bad team caused by mismanagement didn't help. But putting "fans" in quotation marks is the hate I was referring to. Why disrespect their genuine fans just because their numbers are relatively low? Also, a larger arena would be filled because Phoenix has a large population and plenty of potential corporate sponsorships. People who are not fans will be in attendance because they were given tickets at work or somewhere else, and some of them will become fans.
@JPMadden I apologize for putting fans in quotes. It wasn't meant to diminish the die-hard fan base that I know exists. I was trying to bring attention to the low attendance numbers. All I've been trying to do here is interject that low attendance and low tv ratings had a lot to do with this team's demise. However, most people on here want to say that it is 100% the owners fault, and the fans had nothing to do with it. But that is not true. I know the previous owners were stupid, but the last one was at least decent.
3:48 The Coyotes' owner, Alex Meruelo, did NOT show up to the team's last home game... and apparently he has an EXCLUSIVE deal with the NHL to bring the Coyotes back to Arizona if a new arena is built within the next 5 years. As much as we hockey fans would love to see the Coyotes back in action, Meruelo is not the kind of owner that their fans deserve.
This is a weird situation. Essentially the Hockey operations department (players, coaching staff, and front office) of the Arizona Coyotes have been moved to Salt Lake City where they will be absorbed into a new expansion team. The Arizona Coyotes franchise itself has gone inactive pending the construction of a new arena in Arizona. If they can get an arena built within the next five years they'll be reactivated and an expansion draft will be held to fill out the new roster. The team was moved because they didn't have any concrete plans to move out of their temporary arena on the campus of Arizona State University. It only holds 4,600 fans for NHL games and the league didn't want players stuck there for another 3-4 seasons. The league still believes in the Arizona market and wants a team there they just can't be playing at Mullet Arena anymore.
I love how sports crazed this country is but I doubt you’d see a Premier FC move hundreds of miles away because the original town wasn’t able to pay for a billion dollar arena/stadium!! Definitely check out these other sport franchises that moved from their city: Baltimore Colts 🏈 Cleveland Browns 🏈 Seattle SuperSonics 🏀 Montreal Expos ⚾️ Oakland/LA Raiders 🏈 San Diego Chargers 🏈 Clippers 🏀 And what is occurring in Oakland with the A’s! (Eerily similar to the Expos & the comedy movie, Major League) The list is way too many!
I personally don’t remember (way, way before my time) but Philly would definitely welcome the A’s, minus John Fisher, back to Philly! It’s the 4th largest tv market & and it can support 2 teams; National & American Leagues! The A’s were also Philly’s most successful sports team, with the most championships. They only moved because the owner Connie Mack was a million years old & lost all the money to support the team
Actually it has happened. Wimbledon FC relocated from Wimbledon (south London) to Milton Keynes, a city 50 miles north of London, back in the 90s The club was renamed Milton Keynes Dons FC
It's the cycle of life with this franchise. Winnipeg to Phoenix to Utah. I didn't watch the NHL for 15 years after the Jets moved to Phoenix. I didn't care what happened to the yotes during that period, and I didn't care what happened to them when the Jets came back in 2011. Once a team leaves it's just natural to hope they fail I guess.
I used to live in arizona and the 7 years I was there they just talked about how the coyotes were bankrupt basically with rumors of always leaving. There were some fans but didn't really compare to the other professional teams in the area. The owner also sold the team in over a billion and the nhl said if he builds a new stadium within 5 years they will give him a expansion team. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Utah will welcome the Coyotes full bore! We already have a minor league team (The Grizzlies) who are well supported in their own building. it will be an interesting fit to see where the Coyotes end up playing. I don't think it will be in the Jazz's building (The Delta Center) because it was not built for hockey sight-lines. It is more likely that a new venue will be built as Utah is getting ready to bid for the 2034 Winter Olympics after having hosted them previously in 2002. Wherever they end up they are likely to find a raucous and rabid fanbase who will support the team through thick and thin. Cheers! Scott L Ritchie
They will be at the Delta Center. It will undergo renovations to house both hockey and basketball. A new arena is not being built. This was covered in great detail at the press conference last week.
The main reason behind the relocation is that they don't have a Arena that is a NHL approval standard to play at in long term because of mismanagement from the owners who did made bad choices that reached to a point of failure after failure to build a new Arena forced NHL to make this decision in the end to relocate the club to a new place and give them opportunity to develop under new owners that have the resources to maintain that League standards from a NHL team city
a couple things, the teams in Utah have to be called “the utah ___” if they receive any amount of public funding. Utah state legislators are very strict about this, and you can see with Real Salt Lake how they don’t have “Utah” in the name as thus far everything they’ve done has been privately funded. The new owner of the team is also indeed the owner of the Utah Jazz, and they’re called the Utah Jazz as opposed to the Salt Lake City Jazz for the aforementioned reason. The Coyotes haven’t played in Phoenix proper for a while, and this actually is one of the major reasons why the franchise has failed. They played in Glendale for a while which is a nightmare to get to from the Phoenix area and as such attendance suffered a lot. The arena in this video is Mullet Arena, which is a college hockey arena not a NHL arena, and is not even 1/4th of the size, that’s why it’s sold out and full. The coyotes have had sub 6k in attendance for a WHILE. The Coyotes have failed to secure a new stadium location multiple times and their ownership group has had many issues with different municipalities in AZ, so like the Thrashers they have been forced to move. The Coyotes technically aren’t defunct, they’re considered inactive, and if current ownership can secure land and a new stadium within the next 5 years they will be allowed to reactivate the team and be back in the league. As far as fan reception, AZ fans are upset understandably and most sports fans in NA think it’s a shame, and people tend to not support the team anymore once they move as like you said, they don’t represent the area anymore and usually the fans feel betrayed. There’s exceptions but by and large that’s the case, and people tend to pick up the new team if a new one comes to town. Baseball in NYC is a good example of this, the Dodgers and Giants who now play in california used to play in NYC and when they left most fans didn’t migrate to the yankees, and didn’t continue to follow the giants or dodgers either, but when the mets came to town a few years later many became mets fans. Utah is excited but most people understand that getting a team via another moving sucks and acknowledge that. Best case scenario AZ ownership secures the bid for new land gets the new stadium, and the team gets reactivated. Ideally ownership sells also but i don’t think we would see that happen. Really sucks for AZ fans as their team was on the cusp of being a legitimate contender in the west and now even if they get their team back they will be starting from scratch with a whole new roster. This is a weird moving case as the intellectual property of the coyotes hasn’t been sold, just its assets have, so technically the coyotes still exist and Utah is an expansion franchise but it’s not really entirely expansion either as they’re purchasing another teams entire roster and like staff. it’s weird.
Been a disaster of a team for years. Got booted from their arena in Glendale, AZ. Forced to move in and share a 5,000 seat arena at Arizona State University. They never shared an arena with the Suns.
@@japcar84Phoenix is one of the largest markets in the United States. Metro population ranks 10th overall. The problem has always been bad ownership. And moving the team to Glendale killed them.
The owner who just sold the franchise was actually a good guy and did everything he could to keep them in Arizona. He tried to build a new arena in Tempe, and tried in Glendale, and tried in Phoenix. The citizens and government officials shot down every one of his attempts. He worked out the deal with ASU just to keep them there one or two more years while he tried yet again for a new arena. The fanbase just was NOT there. Not enough people cared. It's a miracle that they lasted that long in Arizona. Now everyone is acting like they were a die-hard fan. 😅😅😅
I don't think you stay with the team if they leave where you are. My brother was a Rams fan when they left for St Louis. He changed to a Steelers fan then.
I watched this and I started to tear up and I'm from Chicago. I'm a huge white sox fan(even tho they're the laughing stock of the league as of now). They might end up leaving and that breaks my heart just thinking of it. I'm with OB Daz, I'd be pissed at ownership I wouldnt watch them or anyone else. Hope that doesnt happen after 123yrs on the south side of Chicago😢
After several ownership groups the Coyotes have failed to build a sound financial base for the team, losing money every year... Its not as if none of the owners haven't tried to be successful...
I feel bad for the small number of coyotes fans that actually cared, but the fact of the matter is that franchise has been a failure since it moved to the desert 30 years ago. It’s had a revolving door of owners, including the league itself when literally nobody wanted to own the team, it has not ever secured a permanent facility, it’s currently playing at a college hockey arena, They routinely never paid the bills or their players, ownership has ran the team into the ground to get monetary breaks, the regularly playing in crowds of 25 to 33% capacity, they couldn’t even sell out a college hockey arena that holds less than 5000 people this season, It’s just been a disaster and I’m glad it’s over. Salt Lake City deserves a team and they finally got one.
Great points about lack of attendance and not being able to sellout a 5,000 seat college arena. The Coyotes never finished higher than 18th in average annual attendance, and that was back in 97-98 when they were still a novelty. In fact, that was the only year that they cracked the top 20 in average annual attendance. Over the past 14 seasons they have been in the bottom 3 in attendance every year (save one year where they were 4th from last).
Looking at these comments and just the overall vibe of casual/non-AZ hockey fans has been funny. A lot of people want to have strong opinions about this when it's clear they have zero connection to AZ, have likely never been to AZ in their life, but all of a sudden they're an expert on the situation lol. What's done is done, but AZ will have a team again at some point. Maybe not soon, but when the NHL comes backs here, if they do it right, it will be a success. This is a fantastic market. I just don't like seeing how happy people are about this when it doesn't affect them at all. This impacts a lot of people whose jobs are tied to the AZ Yotes + the youth programs and such tied to the org. Great hockey players like Auston Matthews who grew up in the valley got into hockey because of the Coyotes. Them leaving is a big loss. I don't like seeing any team relocate. Hell, I still feel bad Seattle lost the SuperSonics and I have no connection to that area.
Mesa native here and couldn’t agree more I’m tired of Canadians and others who have never even been here telling me that I’m not a true fan of this team because I was not able to routinely drive from the East Valley to Glendale multiple nights per week to watch very subpar hockey
Do I have to live in Arizona in order to understand the following facts? The Coyotes never finished higher than 18th in average annual attendance, and that was back in 97-98 when they were still a novelty. In fact, that was the only year that they cracked the top 20 in average annual attendance. Over the past 14 seasons they have been in the bottom 3 in attendance every year (save one year where they were 4th from last).
@@coyotelong4349Nobody is saying that there isn't a die-hard base of a few thousand fans like yourself. Unfortunately, it takes more than that, much more, to support an NHL team long term.
The owner did everything he could to keep them there. But the people of Glendale/Tempe/Phoenix shot down every attempt to build a new arena. The interest just wasn't there, so he had to sell the franchise.
@curmudgeonaf They couldn't pay their bills because the revenue from ticket sales, tv contracts, merch, etc. were deadlast or close to that almost every year. Arizona has a large enough fan base for a minor league hockey team, not an NHL team. Big difference. And I'm only talking about the owner who just sold, not all the previous ones.
@@bobzyurunkelNonsense? Look at the average attendance rankings for the Coyotes over the last several years: 21-22, 30th 19-20, 28th 18-19, 29th 17-18, 30th ...and I could go on. What a great fan base!
Teams don't move in Europe because every city worth anything has a team, there's multiple levels and one big system that all these teams play in. Crappy teams just end up being relegated and eventually settling where they probably deserve. Phoenix will have some minor league hockey team come in that is more successful than probably most tier 3+ English soccer clubs but no one really cares cause it's not the NHL. There's 32 NHL franchises. There's nowhere for fiscally bad teams to go but bankrupt or move to another market, either scenario would mean the loss of the team for the city. Feel bad for the fans that they did have but relocation is almost always exclusive to newer franchises (28 years is young for a big 4 sports team) that perform poorly financially. Moving the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix was dumb to begin with. NHL in the 90s had a hard-on for trying to put NHL teams in the southwest (Dallas, Phoenix, Anaheim, San Jose, and Denver though that makes a bit more sense). Salt Lake City is much better market and has grown like crazy in the last 20 years. I'm a Michigan native. Red Wings have been in Detroit since 1926, Tigers since 1901, Pistons since 1957 (moved from Fort Wayne, Indiana) and the Lions since 1934 (moved from Portsmouth, Ohio). There's no chance any of those teams leave Detroit in my lifetime or my sons lifetime (he is 1) and that's despite the Lions being one of the worst franchises in North American sports history. Detroit loves the Lions.
All these Arizona fanboys coming out of the woodwork on this thread is hilarious. 😅 They should have been buying tickets and telling their friends to buy tickets over the last two decades. The Coyotes have been in the bottom 3 teams in average attendance every year for the past 14 years (except for one season where they were 4th from last), coming in dead last for several seasons. And all these people on here saying that it's 100% the owners fault? 😅 The owners were far from perfect, but the last one did everything he could. But some people on here acting like it's a GREAT hockey market, but it's actually a crappy one. Look at the numbers.
Exactly, there's no doubt that the Coyotes had a dedicated fanbase, but people in Phoenix didn't go to their games when it mattered. Of course, fans have no control over lawmakers refusing to grant the team the money for a new arena, but people only showed up as soon as they found out the team was leaving, lmao
Hahaha! None of the fans even seemed to really care. Most places give loud standing ovations to the players usually with some sort of chant. All these fans were just standing around like nothing happened, at least cheer that they won the game. I bet 90% of then didn't even know there are only 3 periods and were standing around waiting for the 4th.
