Surprising Franchise Relocations

[bonarae]

... I didn't see any thread on this specific concern at all.

Do you think the reports are true on this? Arizona Coyotes moving on north to Salt Lake City and join the NBA Jazz there.

https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/arizona-coyotes-players-informed-nhl-franchise-will-be-moving-to-salt-lake-city-per-reports/

[Laker]

... I didn't see any thread on this specific concern at all.

Do you think the reports are true on this? Arizona Coyotes moving on north to Salt Lake City and join the NBA Jazz there.

https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/arizona-coyotes-players-informed-nhl-franchise-will-be-moving-to-salt-lake-city-per-reports/

I don't understand how this franchise is such a mess, playing in a small arena. There are so many snowbirds living in Arizona. They have already moved from Winnipeg in the NHL's lust to create hockey in the southern venues. Another reason why I pay less and less attention to pro sports.

[Gil Dobie]

Players have been told they are moving to SLC.

[bonarae]

Jazz owner is supportive, as Coyotes to SLC is now official.

https://www.nhl.com/news/utah-is-ready-for-an-nhl-hockey-team-jazz-owner-ryan-smith-says

[clenz]

I don't understand how this franchise is such a mess, playing in a small arena. There are so many snowbirds living in Arizona. They have already moved from Winnipeg in the NHL's lust to create hockey in the southern venues. Another reason why I pay less and less attention to pro sports.
The issues down there recently are very very similar to those of the Oakland A's and Brewers for a bit with a league takeover.

The Yotes actually have a damn strong fan base. Been there for 30 years now. The issue is the old owner and the inability to do anything to get any facilities at all. They've been yanked all over down there with many failed arena measures because the owner couldn't get his own **** straight. They've been yanked all over the greater Phoenix area for 20 years. I understand Glendale isn't "that far" from Phoenix, but in terms of something like the NHL you want/need that to be in the entertainment district to make it easier for more fans to get to. Moving to Glendale like they did cut out almost the entirety of the Phoenix metro from going given how far west it was. You need it central. Arizona has a very strong hockey community. It's not like Atlanta in that regard. Many NHLers played youth/aau/whatever it's called hockey in Arizona. Their college programs are strong as hell with a ton of support - thus the arena Arizona State has that the Yotes used this year.

Played at American West (now the Footprint Center) in downtown Phoenix until 2003. That arena wasn't good for hockey, so they moved the team all the way out to Glendalein 03 and the entire time they were promised a new downtown arena was coming and solutions were coming. The old owner never gave a **** to get a good deal for anyone.

The OG owners that moved them out of Phoenix and ran it to the ground by 2009 when they had to file for bankruptcy and the league took over control of the franchise. Within 2 years of the old owners being gone they were in the western conference finals. That entire time the league was running them. Sounds a lot like the Brewers? Both times the league commissioners running them aren't considered great leaders - Bettman and Selig. The old owner tried to avoid bankruptcy by selling to the team to a guy who wanted to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario. The league said no and stripped him of authority. Bankruptcy hearings were a mess and the court ordered the league to buy the team. The league then negotiated a temporary lease with another arena in Glendale. There were about 8 other attempts for the team to be purchased in 2010-2013. Finally because of losses the NHL gave up and was ready to move them to Seattle but at the last minute a group agreed to buy the team and set up a 15 year lease in Glendale.

That wasn't profitable and terms of deals were breached or whatever and there was years of more lawsuits over costs not being paid, fraud, sponsorship issues, etc.

In 2019 the franchise was sold to it's current owner. They've been active trying to get new areans in places but never found anything to work. They looked downtown Phoenix, Tempe, Glendale, etc. but there were/are issues all over with it. The lease ran out and they needed somewhere to go so they hooked up with ASU.

The all assets were sold to Utah - which is an expansion team. The Arizona owners keep all stats, logos, names, etc. in Arizona (See Cleveland Browns when moving to Baltimore). The NHL has granted them a new team in the next 5 years assuming he can get an arena built, and he released a statement yesterday outlining the commitment to get a deal done to get the Coyotes back in Arizona.

Utah will be a complete different franchise, just using the players and most of the staff that was in Arizona this year.