After 27 largely ignominious and nomadic seasons in the desert, the Arizona Coyotes are about to make it official: the team is moving on.
Players have been told, and the league has reportedly agreed that the team will leave its current home in Tempe, Arizona, and relocate to Salt Lake City for next season. Wednesday’s NHL season finale against the Edmonton Oilers will be the last game the team plays as the Arizona Coyotes.
The woebegone organization will be reportedly sold by current team owner Alex Meruelo to Utah Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith. The sale is being orchestrated by the league, with Meruelo being promised an Arizona-based expansion team soon — contingent on a new NHL-ready arena being built.
The move is expected to be approved by the NHL Board of Governors with a rubber-stamp vote before an official announcement is made.
Arizona Coyotes Never Found an Agreeable Home
The Arizona Coyotes came into being after the Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix with the full blessing of the NHL after the 1996 season. At that time, the Jets were bought by a pair of Minnesota businessmen in order to move the team to Minneapolis after the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993.
However, an arena deal could not be struck for the franchise to play in the Minneapolis-St. Paul and the team instead went to Arizona to play as the Phoenix Coyotes.
The team made the playoffs in five of its first six seasons in Phoenix, playing at the Phoenix Suns‘ arena. However, it was a house built for basketball with poor sightlines for the NHL.
In 2003, finding the situation in Phoenix no longer tenable, the team moved to a new arena in suburban Glendale and rebranded itself as the Arizona Coyotes.
It wasn’t a good fit. The arena with a seating capacity of over 17,000, regularly saw average attendance numbers sinking to a level at or below 13,000. Arena ownership did not see eye-to-eye with the team, with arena managers accusing the team of falling behind on taxes and payments owed to play on the rink.
In 2021, Glendale evicted the Arizona Coyotes after attendance averages fell to an all-time low of 11,601. With team ownership still trying to secure funding for a new, permanent home, the Arizona Coyotes made the move to Tempe to play in the new Mullett Arena.
Mullett Arena Became Arizona Coyotes Lifeboat
Mullett Arena is a state-of-the-art stadium. However, it was built for the upstart Arizona State hockey program, as well as other Sun Devils athletic events. Hence, the seating capacity for NHL games is just 4,600.
While the Arizona Coyotes did manage to fill the tiny space for every game, it remained highly unsuitable for the long term. With news that the organization was still coming up empty in a search to start building a new home in the Phoenix metro area, word began to filter out that Utah may look to lure the team north.
Talk of Arizona Coyotes Move Escalated Quickly
The Utah Jazz have had a largely successful go of it since a destitute New Orleans franchise moved to Salt Lake City in 1979. Utah’s largest city has also been home to an MLS franchise since 2004 and is reportedly in the running for an MLB expansion team.
However, Utah has not been able to pin down an NHL team in previous attempts until now. The Arizona Coyotes will reportedly be sold to the Smith family for approximately $1 billion and play in the Jazz’s Delta Center with the caveat that the facility receives agreed-upon hockey-specific upgrades.
Meruelo was reportedly convinced by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that a sale and move was the best scenario for everyone involved. Merulo’s ownership group will retain the team’s name and history — much like Cleveland did with the Browns when the organization moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens.
An expansion team will be awarded to Meruelo at the price of $1 billion to carry the Arizona Coyotes name should he be able to build a new arena within five years.