What's next for the Arizona Coyotes? (Tempe vote vs. Relocation) 

What no one ever tells you about the renovations to the Astrodome in 1987 was that they were necessary. Because of the American's with Disabilities Act, the Astrodome was required to construct four cylindrical ramps outside of the stadium. That's what ate up the majority of the renovation funding. By the mid-1990's, the Astrodome was obsolete and needed to be replaced, especially during an era where suites were a big deal because of the NFL's newly implemented salary cap. Houston told Bud Adams no and he took his team to Nashville. (They were always slated for Nashville. They were supposed to play two seasons in Memphis because the only viable option in Nashville, Vanderbilt Stadium, didn't sell alcoholic beverages.) It's funny, not only did Houston agree to build a new stadium just two years later for the expansion Texans, but they also agreed to build a new baseball stadium (the Astros threatened to move to Washington D.C.) and the Rockets got a new arena built after threatening to move to Louisville. Houston constantly whines about Tennessee having all rights to the Oilers name, colors, and history, but they literally agreed to build a new stadium TWO YEARS after the Oilers left.

@@owengambardello6485 trying to read this is giving me a very bad headache.

@@owengambardello6485 are you mentally impaired?

The biggest mistake they made was moving away from downtown Phoenix, they can correct this right now if they move back downtown into the Footprint Center as the Suns have new ownership now and he might be willing to help them move back into his new building.

nhl wasn't letting any owner re-locate to minnesota. nhl was saving minny for expansion $$$$'s and foolishly chose phx. Same reason they told karmanos to stay away from minny and sent him south to nc.

Well this should squash rumors of Auston Matthews going there.

​@steven bauer not true. The reason the Jets didn't end up moving to Minneapolis wasn't the NHL. It was the Metropolitan Sports Commission in Minneapolis that prevented the Jets from moving to Minneapolis. The Jets needed some help with the move and issues with the Timberwolves and Target Center. The Sports Commission wouldn't lift a finger to help the Jets, just like they wouldn't help the Northstars. So the Jets headed to Arizona

@@danbratten3103 Re-read what I wrote, Dan. I can see why you misinterpreted what I wrote there, though. You're correct of course. But when the Minnesota deal fell through? Colangelo was ready, willing, and able to pay the same amount and get the team. Sadly, either way the original Jets were flying elsewhere. And sadly, in the Phoenix market, hockey simply didn't work with this team.

You really think Glendale is more desirable than mostly anywhere on the east side? I know lots of people that won't set foot in Glendale, me one of them and I live in the Phoenix area.

Nah. Not sentimental. Not “sentimental.” /

Nah. Not “Some regions don’t do certain sports well.” A lot of regions don’t do certain sports well. /

Quebec failed twice to keep an NHL team. Won't happen. Market too small.

They will go to Houston if they leave. They are already in the same division as Dallas.

@@MrTAFSIYNOT wrong Quebec lost only one team, and it wasn’t because of low attendance. It was because of the Canadian dollar.

This should happen but won't. The league wants the team in a big market. Houston or Atlanta would be my guess

Quebec had their chance, and they failed

You just miss the Brass Bonanza.😊 I’m not even a Whalers fan and I miss hearing it. So iconic. Whalers also had IMO one of the greatest NHL team logos ever.

difference is the Jets came back

@@splashnskillz37 Jets sure returned to Winnipeg, but the it's been a train wreck since in AZ. Meanwhile, there's over 18000 in attendance for les Remparts in Québec. When are they getting their team back? Why didn't Bettman spend more effort to save the Jets & Nordiques back in the 90's?

@@mathewlee5712 Jets did not return. The Atlanta Thrashers moved there and they rebranded them as the Jets.

@@willp.8120 Read my original post. The Jets should've NEVER moved to AZ. The Coyotes should've moved back to Winnipeg to repair the mistake. It didn't make sense to have an eastern team move west. The Jets were forced to play 2 seasons in the east, outside their time zone. Atlanta should've moved to Québec. After losing the Flames, Knights, and Thrashers, I can't believe Atlanta is still in discussion to have another franchise.

@@mathewlee5712 Atlanta has a large population (nearly six and a half million people). Atlanta has more white people than any other non-NHL market. It has nearly 300 thousand more whites than Houston. It has about 1.2 million more whites than Salt Lake Valley. It has about 1.5 million more whites than San Diego and Kansas City, and nearly 2 million more whites than Milwaukee. None of the teams left on account of fan support. It was ownership every time. I'll give you the low-down. 1. Atlanta Flames. The Flames left because the owner was a real estate developer by the name of Tom Cousins. He owned a business named Cousins Properties. It was a major commercial real estate business in Atlanta, particularly in high rise and office construction. During the late 70s, during the Jimmy Carter Administration, interest rates were raised insanely high. This increase in interest rates was so bad it led to a recession because it impeded the flow of capital amongst businesses. This meant that Mr. Cousins had trouble securing tenants for his properties because those potential tenants were less able to qualify for loans on account of the higher interest rates. This meant fewer customers and less development. It nearly put him out of business, and it would have had he not sold the Flames. In the sale, Cousins was looking for who would give him the most money for his NHL franchise. It so happened that the individuals who bought the team took the Flames to Calgary. There were many other offers that would have kept the team in Atlanta, but because they offered less, Cousins did not sell to them. The Flames were a mid-range attendance team. During their eight seasons in Atlanta, they outsold in attendance the Pittsburgh Penguins six times, the Chicago Blackhawks six times, the Detroit Red Wings four times, and the Los Angeles Kings four times. The move had nothing to do with a lack of fans, as you can see. It had to do with the impact of an increase of interest rates on the owner's real estate business. Cousins properties is still around and has expanded their development to many other American cities. 2. Atlanta Knights. The Knights were Atlanta's International Hockey League (IHL) team between 1992-1996. During this time they had terrific attendance, boasting the highest attendance amongst the IHL, and they also won a Turner Cup in 1994. The team was well-supported by fans. It became a thing that when they sang the Star Spangled Banner, the fans would yell "Knights" when the line came up that said, "gave proof through the KNIGHTS that our flag was still there". The Knights left Atlanta in 1996 because the venue in which they played, Omni Coliseum, had to be imploded to make way for the construction of a replacement arena, Philips Arena, on the same site as the Omni, that was to be used by the city's new NHL franchise, the Thrashers, that had been recently awarded to Atlanta. The team moved to Quebec City and became the Rafaels, as this was Quebec's replacement team after the Nordiques moved to Denver. 3. Atlanta Thrashers. The Thrashers story is a bit complicated, but you need to know the story if you don't. In 1996, Atlanta was awarded a franchise to begin play in 1999. This team became known as the Thrashers, a name related to the Georgia State Bird, the Brown Thrasher. It was the second choice in a survey that the public wanted, but the owner of the team, Ted Turner, chose the name Thrashers instead. Anyhow, Ted Turner did not own the team for very long. In fact, before the team ever began play, he sold all of his sports' teams. He had already sold the Braves shortly before selling the Thrashers. With the sale of the Thrashers, he also sold his other sports franchise, the Atlanta Hawks. In the sale, Time Warner was the company that acquired Turner Sports (Thrashers, Hawks, Philips Arena). The first few years went off without much of a problem, but Time Warner made one fatal error in the early 2000s for the fate of the Atlanta Thrashers. They merged with America Online (AOL), the dial-up Internet service company and became known as AOL-Time Warner. Within a few years of the merger, cable Internet and DSL began to take customers away from dial-up. AOL-Time warner did not move quick enough into the cable and DSL market, continuing to focus their attention on dial-up service. However, by 2004, AOL dial-up service was already seeing a lot of losses of customers, that they'd continue to see up through 2011. During this time, in 2004, AOL-Time Warner was losing money and it put the company in a bad financial position. As part of restructuring, the company decided to sell its sports franchises and Philips Arena as a measure to acquire capital and secure the company (In fact, it wasn't too long after they sold the teams that AOL and Time Warner went their separate ways.) This is where the problems come in, because AOL-Time Warner bundled the teams and arena rights, again, just as Ted Turner had, but the ownership group that purchased the Thrashers did not want a hockey team. They were a group of guys from multiple cities around the country who wanted to own a basketball team. Their primary tprimary purchase target was the Atlanta Hawks. Yet, because the sale included the Atlanta Thrashers, they went ahead and purchased the team as a way of getting the Atlanta Hawks. From the get-go, most of the ownership group did not want the Thrashers. They were intent on selling the Thrashers shortly after they acquired them, but not all owners within the group wanted to do that. Some owners were set on selling the team, so in order to prevent that, two of the owners, if I remember correctly, namely one, decided to sue the other owners to prevent them from selling the team, given that a majority of the group was all that was needed to override the decision of those who wanted to keep the Thrashers. For a number of years, lawsuits were brought between different owners within the group known as Atlanta Spirit Group, LLC. These lawsuits had a significant impact on the amount of capital funds available to use on their franchises, and because they by and large preferred the Hawks, what funds they did have, most were used on the Atlanta Hawks. At the time, they signed Joe Johnson to some insane contract that was like a record contract. Joe Johnson wasn't even worth that much as a player, and he wasn't that good to demand such a contract, but they gave it to him, anyhow. During this time, the Thrashers suffered because the ownership group chose to use the bare minimum on the team. The only time when they didn't was for two seasons when Atlanta Spirit Group was going through litigation and they decided to go ahead and fund the team well and acquire some good players alongside Ilya Kovalchuk so that the value of the team would rise so that when the court cases were resolved and they were given the go-ahead to sell the team, they could demand a higher price. This is when the Thrashers had some good players that led them to their only Division championship and only playoff series. Players like Marc Savard, Ilya Kovalchuk, Marion Hossa, Keith Tkatchuk, "Slava" Kozlov, etc. However, the court cases dragged on longer than they had anticipated and as a result their funding became inadequate to maintain lots of these good players. As a result, they sold them off to other teams. Even Kovalchuk left in 2009, and from that point on Atlanta Spirit Group's only purpose, it seems, was to maintain the bare minimum funding and wait it out to sell the team. Of course, this impacted the franchise and they again became a "losing team". The court cases had dragged on for about six years and a court decision gave the go ahead to sell the Thrashers in 2011. Shortly after that, around January of 2011, it was leaked out that Atlanta Spirit Group was going to sell the team, perhaps to someone else in a different city. This had the "Oakland A's" effect, as attendance plummeted, and the lack of fans in the seats from January 2011-April 2011 had a big impact on naysayers saying, "see, nobody goes to their games", "Atlanta isn't a hockey market", "Nobody in Atlanta cares about hockey". The facts, however, speak for themselves. Atlanta was never last in attendance, and all but a few years they were mid-range in attendance. In their eleven seasons, they outsold the New York Islanders eight times, the Phoenix Coyotes eight times, the Nashville Predators six times, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks five times, the Chicago Blackhawks five times, the Washington Capitals five times, the Boston Bruins three times, and the New Jersey team five times.

I'm asking the same thing. There's other teams that share the same arena with the NBA teams like Boston, Toronto, Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas, Colorado, Detroit, New York, Chicago, Minnesota, and even Philadelphia.

Sharks aren’t going anywhere

@@deanwille334 lol I wasn't saying about the sharks. The video was on the coyotes. If they moved to SLC I could see the sharks here. When they play the SLC team

@@BonicBebop82 I know I was just kidding! I live in San Jose and love the Sharks

Phoenix is one of the nicest metropolitan areas in the USA, in my opinion. It, along with Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington DC, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay area are pretty nice in many aspects.

Rumor has it Snoop Dogg and The Weeknd are planning to be the faces of two separate ownership groups looking into the possibility of buying the Senators and keeping them in Ottawa. Ryan Reynolds (from Vancouver) was also interested in being part of a third ownership group, but apparently no longer. I can see The Weeknd being interested as he's from Toronto and is apparently a hockey fan, but Snoop? - I know he's a big hockey fan (LA Kings naturally), but Ottawa is a long way from LA.....

Not going to happen. Houston or Atlanta

@@ronnieimburgia4986 Houston maybe Kansas City is also another option and they already have an NHL size arena but Atlanta no. They've had two chances already with the Flames and the Thrashers and lost both I doubt the NHL is interested in returning for a 3rd time.

@@michaelmarkowski204 right up until recently I didn't even know the Ottawa Senators could move I know they have an arena planned in Downtown don't know the status of that though.

@@joecostantino3684 It's highly unlikely they'll move. There is actually a short-list of ownership groups that want to buy the Senators and keep them in Ottawa, so it may be just a matter of picking the one that will put the most money into the surrounding area as I understand Bettman wants more development around the arena.

?

“Let’s keep the dump..!”

@@TylrVncnt Davis and Fisher said "F U" to the people of Oakland. But in this case, it was the voters who said "F U" to the owner. I like that.

I agree that downtown Phoenix is their best option to keeping them in Arizona and I believe they will work out something with the Suns to renovate Footprint Center so that Ice Hockey can work there properly.

@@Itshadow306 Exactly bro, downtown Phoenix is their best option. It gives them the best chance for decent attendance as well. They have to do too much to move into other location and get voters approval. I believe they will workout something with the Suns too especially with the Suns having new ownership, they might be more open to doing business with the Coyotes than previous ownership who was not interested in helping the Yotes. I believe this option is the most realistic and will happen.

Exactly and realistically this is their best option too is to just move back into the Suns arena again that way they'll share the arena and be back in the downtown Phoenix area where attendance can improve.

Coyotes used to play in the arena with the Suns. That arena needs major construction in order to host a hockey team though. Would be great if they could come to an agreement to modify that arena for hockey and move in there.

that was their original home. Gary Bettman said that there was no chance that a hockey team would make it to the valley so when they were building the suns arena they made it just for basketball. So they put it downtown and it had horrible sight lines and horrible attendance. if you were on one end of the arena you could not even see the goall Then said that the horrible attendance is due to its not a dedicated arena they got one and it half ful most of the time. They burned their bridges and no one really cares about the franchise.

@@deankruse4491 This is true bro, NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman confirmed this that the Coyotes best option is moving into the Suns arena Footprint Center and using a couple of offseasons to construct it back for hockey. It might be possible because the Suns have a new owner, the previous ownership didn't want to help out the Coyotes and it's likely the biggest reason why they're in this situation right now.

that land is extremely valueable and they won't have to give it away for that land to be developed. In something valuable.

@@DavidWilliamsaz So valuable it's a trash pile. Well played, Tempe voters. Arenas provide jobs, sales tax revenue, and parking income all without any retail or hotel space added to it. Way to show off the exact ignorance I was pointing out.

No, this is just a relationship between a sports franchise and its market that was broken from the honeymoon, has limped along for a quarter century for sake of not wanting to admit that it's a failure, and the market finally deciding it's had enough.

nope, mesa just financed the cubs spring training facility for $75 million, i doubt the voters have a stomach for $740 million in tax breaks.

The site lines are not good for hockey is what I've heard

They did. The hockey team was the "second tenant" and couldn't generate enough revenue to make it work.

They left the Suns arena due to poor sightlines. Why would they share with the worst team in NHL history?

...what?

@@29Texan he literally comments the same thing on all replies 😂

i hope they go to houston

That’s my vote

I think there's an announcement scheduled for tomorrow: San Diego gets an expansion MLS franchise, bringing the MLS up to 30 teams.

Or what about Chase Center and they can be the San Francisco Seals!

@@MiaCollinsNeighborhood no I said Oracle Arena and Oakland Seals.

​@@MiaCollinsNeighborhood I heard Chase Center is designed for basketball only so I don't think it's designed for hockey... 🤔🤔🤔

Sharks would likely be against it.

Oracle & Chase are not built for hockey

Fake News

Forget Atlanta when they lost a team only in 2011 , the return of the Houston Aeros, Coyotes won't be the name in Houston

@@michaelleroy9281 Atlanta for hockey is like LA for 🏈, just because one time doesn’t work , it doesn’t mean they aren’t willing to give another shot , Atlanta support and well all their profesional teams , with a decent owner , a decent deal with the city , a nice building . Atlanta is an interesting option , a few weeks ago they presented an entertaining district with an NHL arena proposal . Don’t count Atalanta out .

@@michaelleroy9281 also Houston isn’t quite interested in profesional hockey anymore , at least not the Rockets owner .

I don't think the Arizona situation is done until they've exhausted all avenues as Elliotte Friedman just confirmed this today. Their biggest option is moving back into downtown Phoenix and asking the Suns new owner if they are willing to move back into the Footprint Center. This is something they should've done a long-time ago, but previous Suns ownership did not want to help Coyotes at the time.

@@michaelleroy9281 Atlanta is likely getting a team with that billionaire owner and you gotta remember something too. Back when the Thrashers were down there, the NHL didn't establish their southern markets too well like they all ended up becoming in the 2010s with the Preds, Canes, Lightning, and Panthers. It's different now and Atlanta will support another team they've done it with the Atlanta United. I think it's different now and hockey will finally work in the Atlanta market this time. Atlanta is not getting the Coyotes though because of the Eastern Conference as the NHL wants to keep a western team, so Atlanta will have to go through expansion again. Houston ain't happening because of the Rockets owner. I think Utah is their biggest threat because the NHL is interested in Utah and if they get the 2030 or 2034 Winter Olympics, they'll build a new hockey arena there. Coyotes need to jump on the Suns move before the IOC makes their decision.

Eh... not really. Or at least, it wouldn't be the same story. The Phoenix market is huge, but it's also competitive for discretionary incomes: the Coyotes have to compete with the Suns, Cardinals and Diamondbacks for ticket sales, for corporate sponsorships, etc. The NBA (Oklahoma City, Sacramento) and NHL (Raleigh, Columbus) are learning that being the only dog at the bowl in a market, or at least the first dog, tends to work out better for them. If you have 100% of the market in Kansas City, it may be better than 20-25% of Phoenix when all's said and done.

Atlanta didn't fail. Ownership did. Atlanta is far bigger than any of those other cities, except Houston.

Houston would also give the Dallas Stars franchise what it really doesn't have: a true natural rival.

@@owengambardello6485 tool

I saw that. If that had worked 20 years ago, we wouldn't be having this situation today.

Thanks Gumby. But I hope the Coyotes can go to Chase Center

@@MiaCollinsNeighborhood SF Chase Center? As in built for basketball and presumably with thousands of obstructed-view seats for hockey. And there is no way the Sharks let another team move within 100 miles of them. Not happening. Anybody in SF who wants to see NHL hockey can hop on CalTrain and be in San Jose in an hour.

I assume he’s referring to Chase Field, where the D-backs play. Obviously that would also be a poor solution.

@@letsgowalk Wrong pronoun!