The Coyotes were sold to Ryan and Ashley Smith, owners of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, who announced the franchise would be relocated to Salt Lake City, effective immediately. The $1.2 billion dollar selling price consists of $1 billion going to now-former owner Alex Meruelo, and $200 million being distributed to the other 31 teams in the NHL.
To be fair, this was not the fault of the fans, but equally on ownership and city legislature. When Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore, the Browns were a year removed from a playoff appearance. The Coyotes made nine playoff appearances since relocating from Winnipeg for the 1996-97 season. Their last playoff appearance will go down as a first-round exit to the Colorado Avalanche in the Covid bubble of 2020.
The Coyotes are now considered an “inactive” franchise, meaning that Utah will enter as an expansion team this fall. Meruelo retains the Coyote name, records, colors, and history. (This is colloquially known as the "Cleveland Browns Deal.") The irony is that the Coyote history retains some records from the original Winnipeg Jets, but also are attributed to the current incarnation of the Jets that came out of the Atlanta Thrashers’ relocation in 2011.
Meruelo, who purchased controlling interest in the franchise for $300 million in 2019, has the right to have the franchise reactivated if he can get a new arena built in the Phoenix metropolitan area within the next five years. The Coyotes would then re-enter the NHL as the league’s 33rd team, assuming they do not expand to Atlanta, Kansas City, Houston, or Quebec first. Should Meruelo fail to secure a new arena, he would refund the franchise back to the NHL, which would in turn officially fold the franchise.
The move to Salt Lake City is geographically convenient enough that the NHL will not need to realign divisions, although talk of going to eight divisions similar to the NFL is gaining more traction. Salt Lake City is the fourth-fastest growing market in the United States, and was host of the greatest Olympic Games of the modern era. For all the talk of moving to Quebec, Salt Lake City was the most feasible option on such short notice.
While there is talk that a name and logo may not happen until after next season, we do know where the Smith’s franchise will play, and what they will be known as. The couple announced the team would be known as “Utah,” instead of “Salt Lake City,” and the team will share the Delta Center with the Jazz. Currently the arena will seat 12,000 for hockey, but there is room for up to 17,000 with add-in seating at a later time. Part of the agreement to move the franchise consists that the Delta Center will need required improvements to make the arena hockey-friendly. We have seen this before when the Islanders moved into Barclays Center in Brooklyn for a few years before the UBS Arena was built, where renovations to the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum made the building no longer viable for an NHL franchise.
To be fair, Barclays Center was the worst arena in the NHL for amenities, travel (as there was no on-site parking), and sightlines for both players and fans. UBS Arena is now considered one of the five best arenas in the NHL after construction.
Since 2014, there have been multiple instances of the Coyotes looking for a new building. The city of Glendale terminated an agreement with the team, which a two-year deal was agreed to in July. The team announced plans to build a new arena in Tempe in 2016, but Arizona State University backed out of the deal. Glendale did not renew their lease agreement with the Coyotes and the Gila River Arena, leaving the team homeless after the close of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The team announced a new plan to build an arena in Tempe, after being locked out of Gila River Arena. This forced an NHL team to play in the 5,500 seat Mullet Arena, on the campus of Arizona State for the past two years.
The sudden move forced the Coyotes to start the 2022-23 season on the road for more than two weeks, while formal hockey locker rooms were built. The NHL quickly grew tiresome of losing out on revenue, and uncertainty of the franchise’s home base.
With the youth programs that have flourished in Arizona, including Arizona State holding an NCAA Division I hockey program, sometimes the best laid plans necessitate change. I hope that Arizona can get a team back in the next few years, but killing Bettman’s long standing idea of forcing this version of hockey in the desert needed to be done.
-JC24