Opinion: It seemed inevitable that the Arizona Coyotes would skate off to more profitable digs. Only don’t expect the hard sell to create another hockey-entertainment complex to stop.
Arizona Coyotes lay out plan for north Phoenix arena
Arizona Coyotes President and CEO Xavier Gutierrez says the plan for the over-$3 billion project in north Phoenix would call for a 17,000-seat arena and include a restaurant and retail center, hotel, office space, a theater and residential units.
Provided by the Arizona Coyotes
The Arizona Coyotes prepare to skate out of town later this week, not even a week after the team owner was trying to sell us on a shiny new $3 billion hockey-entertainment complex in northeast Phoenix.
This, after having been unable to convince voters to approve a $2 billion hockey-entertainment complex on what’s now a landfill in Tempe.
And after having left taxpayers on the hook for a hockey complex in Glendale.
Which was built after trying to win a taxpayer-supported arena in Scottsdale, having fled a basketball arena in downtown Phoenix.
Coyotes’ move to Utah isn’t surprising
Now, the team is Salt Lake City bound and all I can think is that we likely dodged yet another shiny sales pitch.
Really, how many hockey arenas does one city need?
I don’t blame the players or the sport. Hockey has its diehard fans, even here in the desert.
But in Arizona, this itinerant team has been cursed with a series of exceptionally bad owners. The threats to leave have been coming for well over a decade.
Since being purchased in 2019 by billionaire Alex Meruelo, this team has jumped from one hot pot to another, which is never a good thing when your business is ice hockey.
Maybe that’s why this week’s news isn’t all that chilling …. even as the team just a week ago was on social media teasing a potential name change to the Phoenix Coyotes.
Sure, it was nice to have all four major professional sports teams in the Valley. But the day is over when we feel the need to hand over future tax revenues to pay for these palaces. Not when we can build something else there and use the tax proceeds for actual public purposes.
Glendale is still paying for the last stadium
I remember the old days when the Coyotes set their sights on what was then the old Los Arcos Mall, at Scottsdale and McDowell Roads. How city voters in 1999 gave the go-ahead to the Scottsdale City Council to negotiate a deal to create a tax-subsidized sports and entertainment complex at Los Arcos Mall.
How the…
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