With the franchise’s future in the Phoenix area uncertain and an aggressive bidder lying in wait in Utah, the Arizona Coyotes are making the NHL pull its proverbial hair out once again.
According to an ESPN report, the league has created two schedules for the 2024-25 season: one that assumes the franchise remains in Arizona and a second calendar where the team is relocated to Salt Lake City.
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A source told ESPN that should the Coyotes fail to secure land for a new arena in the Phoenix area, the league would buy the team from Alex Meruelo for approximately $1 billion, then sell the franchise to Utah Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith for $1.3 billion.
A potential relocation would have to be approved by the other team owners, who are scheduled to meet again in June.
For the past two seasons, the Coyotes have played their home games at Mullett Arena, a 4,600-seat multipurpose venue on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe. The team ended up at ASU after essentially being evicted from Gila River Arena (now Desert Diamond Arena) when the city of Glendale chose not to renew its lease with the team.
The Coyotes have been in limbo for much of their 28 seasons in Arizona, including having played in three different arenas in three different cities, filing for bankruptcy in 2009 and undergoing five separate ownership changes (including being owned by the NHL for four years after bankruptcy).
In a special mail-in ballot-only election in November, Maricopa County residents voted against three separate propositions to create a $2.1 billion entertainment district in Tempe that would have included a new, mostly privately-funded arena for the Coyotes. Some tax dollars would have been used towards the development.
Ryan Smith has been aggressive in his desire to bring an NHL team to his native state. Smith, who founded software company Qualtrics in 2002, bought the NBA’s Jazz and the Delta Center from the Miller family in October 2020. In January, Smith formally requested that the NHL consider his bid for an expansion team. On Monday, Smith even asked fans for names for a potential team in Salt Lake.
The 18,306-seat Delta Center has not hosted hockey on a regular basis since the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League moved to the smaller 12,000-seat Maverik Center outside of Salt Lake City. (A different Utah Grizzlies franchise that’s affiliated with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche currently plays at the Maverik Center.)
In recent interviews, Smith has said that he would make the necessary renovations so that the Delta Center could house both the Jazz and an NHL team.
A Coyotes spokesperson told Sportico that the club has no comment at this time.
The $1.3 billion price tag that the Smiths would pay would represent the average NHL team valuation in Sportico’s franchise valuation rankings as of November 2023. The Coyotes, who moved from Winnipeg in 1996, rank last in Sportico’s NHL team valuations at $675 million, or just above 51% of the average team price. According to ESPN, the other team owners would split $300 million from the proposed arranged sale to Smith.
With assistance from Barry M. Bloom.
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