Arizona’s Road Back To The NHL

It’s been just over a year since the Arizona Coyotes moved north to Salt Lake City, and with NHL expansion now back in the forefront with the league’s new collective bargaining agreementn in place, it seems like a return of the league to the Grand Canyon State could happen in the next few years – but with a pretty narrow path forward.

Of course, a series of missteps of various owners created the void in the sport in the nation’s 12th-largest market, and one that the league essentially paid former owner Alex Meruelo $1 billion to correct. After fruitless years of trying to get a new arena for the Coyotes, he sold up franchise to Ryan Smith and allowed them to move to Utah, and despite having an exclusive right to bring back the name and franchise within five years, Meruelo quickly gave up on that within three months of the sale and any potential owner could put a team in the market

Having an arena to play in is the biggest obstacle to the NHL’s return, and one the Coyotes never solved, in part thanks to a distrust of the team’s ownership and the league itself.

The Coyotes’ last years in Arizona saw the team essentially paint themselves into a corner in terms of just having an arena to play in, and not being able to persuade either voters in Tempe or other municipalities around the region that the team could be a reliable partner on a new arena project, dooming the franchise.

The franchise left downtown Phoenix in 2003 to move to suburban Glendale, but the venue didn’t draw fans as well as the team had hoped, and eventually the franchise slipped into bankruptcy in 2009. The league itself ran the team for several seasons and opted not to relocate the Coyotes during this period, despite the allure of other potential markets such as Winnipeg (which got the Atlanta Thrashers in 2011 instead of the return of the original Jets franchise) or Seattle (which eventually landed an expansion team in 2021).

Glendale, who saw revenue from the arena fall short of promises amid the team’s attendance and financial woes, began a process in 2015 to terminate the team’s lease – despite not having another major tenant, and the situation became untenable for the arena and led to them essentially to be booted from the building that was built to draw them from downtown.

Eventually, the Coyotes became unwanted tenants in the western suburbs, so they focused their sights on another suburb, Tempe, and getting an arena built there, leaving for what were thought to be temporary digs at Arizona State’s Mullett Arena in 2022.

The arena was small – seating less than 5,000 – but meant to be temporary with the new building coming after three seasons. But that plan fell apart in the voting booth.

The Coyotes’ long-term success was dependent on a vote in Tempe in May 2023, and despite the high stakes for the team, they were outgunned and outmaneuvered by local opposition, and their proposed building was defeated at the ballot box in a special election. With the issues surrounding the Coyotes’ ownership and a lack of trust with Meruelo, as well as a seemingly misreading of the voters’ mood on the proposal, less than 45 percent of the voters cast their ballots for the three amendments needed to make the proposal a reality.

Stunned by the rejection by the voters, Meruelo tried to quickly shift gears and look for a Plan B, pitching several different potential sites for a new NHL arena, but in the end, despite nearly a decade of trying to make this version of the Coyotes work, the league essentially bought out the franchise and moved them north.

Meruelo briefly held the option to reactivate the franchise within five years but failed at gaining any traction, even with the promise of a new potential franchise, so he quickly gave that right up, meaning any ownership group is now eligible to bring hockey back to Arizona.

Partnering With The Suns On A Downtown Arena

There is only one ownership group that would make sense long-term for the return of NHL hockey to the Valley.

Mat Ishbia, who owns the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, expressed interest upon the Coyotes departure in returning the NHL back to the city, and with the basketball franchise looking to eventually move out of PHX Arena – the original home of the Coyotes from 1996 to 2003 – it seems natural that part of any new building the Suns want would be boosted by the presence of an NHL franchise.

Ishbia wasn’t interested in partnering with Meruelo for a potential home downtown as the Coyotes were desperately looking for a new venue, leaving the two former arenas in the market that hosted NHL hockey in the past not being viable options.

Ishbia’s potential push for a new building would be well-served by having the Suns involved, as the team is the city’s oldest pro franchise, dating back to 1968, and certainly would have a lot more clout in getting an arena approved than simply another group pushing for just a new hockey venue. While any ownership group wouldn’t have ties to the old ownership groups that failed in the past and damaged the sport’s reputation in the local community, clearly the Coyotes’ history with local jurisdictions wouldn’t have a positive effect in trying to push for approval of a new arena for a replacement.

In all likelihood, with the NHL adding two teams in the next few years should sufficient ownership step up and pay the $2 billion expansion fee, a new team in Phoenix would be brought on line with a new building, as the current venue has limited sightlines for hockey – one of the reasons the Coyotes originally looked for a new home after moving to Arizona from Winnipeg in 1996.

Atlanta and Houston are likely the two favorites to land teams in the next round, but it has been clear that the NHL placed a lot of value in having hockey in Phoenix, judging by the elaborate steps the league took to just keep the franchise in place from 2009 to 2024, and clearly it’s a market the league would like to be in.

However, it seems like their options for ownership would almost assuredly be limited to Ishbia – or any other group that took over the Suns and Mercury – simply because it’s unlikely a new NHL team on its own could get an arena built following the league’s dealings with the local communities.

The question is if Ishbia would want to pay the expansion fee, something that more than likely would come as part of building a new arena to help the franchise values of his properties. At this juncture, it doesn’t make sense to have them play in the current home of the Suns, simply because of the logistics, but a new NHL franchise at some point could be a valuable tool to get a new downtown arena built.

It’s possible Phoenix lands another team under different ownership, but really the city’s return is in the hands of Ishbia since he has the clout to get an arena built – something the NHL and several ownership groups hadn’t been able to do in over 20 years.