And speaking of spin:
The Arizona Coyotes are actively researching plans for a new home in downtown Phoenix or in the city’s East Valley, Coyotes co-owner and president Anthony Leblanc said Monday at the Board of Governors meeting.
The Coyotes’ lease with Gila River Arena in Glendale expires after the 2016-17 season.
“We’re in very progressed talks with the city of Phoenix and as well we forged a tight alliance with Arizona State University and we’re having discussions with them about the potential for a facility,” Leblanc said. “We’re exploring those pretty aggressively.”
That’s from an NHL.com article that exclusively quotes Leblanc. So what do less-interested sources say about the possibility of a new Phoenix home for the Coyotes (and Suns and Mercury, presumably)? Hello, anyone?
It’s possible, of course, that Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is ready to offer the Coyotes the moon in order to get the money-hemorrhaging NHL franchise to move back to the city it left 12 years ago, by replacing the arena that it built in 1992. But as economist Victor Matheson has memorably noted, “‘Negotiations’ could mean ‘I talked to a guy once at a party.'” Once somebody flashes some actual money, then we’ll have something to talk about.
Well, where exactly does it say they are getting a new arena in Phx, “For Sure”? I would also check you facts on the money “Hemorrhaging” part of your comments. Seems that could be more than inaccurate.
http://www.forbes.com/teams/arizona-coyotes/
And that’s *after* getting several million dollars a year in cash from Glendale.
Come on Neil, They lost $4.5M. The several millions you speak of is bogus and you know it. It was a net of about 1M last year from their deal with Glendale.
By the way, I still dont see the part in the story where it says…….For Sure” they will be moving downtown. Did I miss that?
The 1980s, apparently.
Just a heads up. IMO, they will end up in Tempe. A building can be built with on the campus of ASU with no tax payer money or a vote for approval. Keep in mind that ASU has D-1 NCAA hockey now.
There is a 3rd party that will be involved that seals the deal.
You got a source for that?
Not a source I will share, but do some homework. Find out how ASU is rebuilding the football stadium with NO tax payer money ($256M). Also, do some homework and see where ASU wants/needs to replace if Basketball arena, Wells Fargo. Do some homework and see that ASU wants an arena for the hockey team to play in.
Check all the commercial building around the Football and where a new basketball arena would be.
One other thing. Last Friday was the deadline for bids to run the arena in Glendale. That date was extended another week. No reason given, but speculation is no one bid. The Cardinals bid last time but announced they wouldnt bid this time. Without the Coyotes, the arena in Glendale is a white elephant. Its like a dead man walking.
James,
The Phoenix numbers for a professional team with a national TV contract are terrible, no matter how you slice it. $20 million in ticket revenue for a city/metro the size of Phoenix is not sustainable. Even at the bottom of the league, Arizona and Florida are well below what other below-average teams are doing. This is what requires the large, overt subsidy–whether in Glendale or elsewhere.
A move to Tempe would be delightful for a number of reasons. However, it really isn’t the arena that is the problem, it is paying to run it and what the team makes from it. If the team doesn’t control all the revenues from their games (and probably some others) it makes little sense for ASU to let the team play there. So the Coyotes still have their lousy revenue problem.
As a counterpoint–the Vikings are playing to nice crowds and great atmosphere in the University of Minnesota’s new, state of the art stadium (which could be easily expanded for an NFL team). But for some reason they have to build their own place not too far away. I think the Coyotes will end up with the same perspective.
Gdub. Must disagree. The loses last year were $4.5M. As is being reported in many places, ticket sales are no longer the revenue driver they once were. A move of the Coyotes downtown or to Tempe will result in both a severe increase in ticket sales, suite sales, advertising sales and an increase in the price of tickets.
Teams share arenas and revenue. The amount of new revenue available to ASU and the Yotes with a new arena is more than enough to work for both parties. The key to a Tempe building is a 3rd party that will be a huge financial driver to the area. An arena in that area will be the Crown Jewel of arenas. The amount of events it can attract is far more than what will be done downtown and Glendale’s arena will just close the doors.
It will take a lot of planning and cooperation but its the right spot at the right time.
Glendale makes sense for the Cardinals Dome because of the space needed but I never understood why they put the arena way out there.
Hockey in Arizona is a complete joke. The building is more than half-empty, unless the Red Wings, Blackhawks or Canadian teams are in town…then the snowbirds show up. The Coyotes franchise has NEVER made a profit in it’s entire existence. How much longer will Bettman and his cronies allow this charade to go on?
Having 2 separate arenas for the NBA and NHL in areas that a) have both and b) don’t have multiple major population centers is idiotic beyond words.
James J.
The financial discussion is disingenuous. The losses were $4.5m after subsidies, which means the lost a lot more.
One of the reasons for low tickets sales throughout the Coyotes existence in Arizona seems to be that people don’t want to see hockey, either live or on TV. Presumably, Australian Rules Football, Jai Alai, and Curling teams would all have to convince an audience to see them to make money–and hockey is no different.
Right now a “third party” is already involved–the City of Glendale. If there’s a better “third party” out there to shower even more money on an unloved team in a market not interested in hockey, I’m sure the Coyotes will consider themselves lucky!
The arguments Mr. Jerome is putting forward are very familiar.
“The Coyotes are not losing anything like the amount of money that has been reported”.
Those were the words of Gary Bettman, speaking on a national hockey broadcast in 2010 in response to a reporters statement that the club would lose $36m that year. The league’s view at the time was that with better management and responsible governance, the club would be ‘fine’. They further suggested that the numbers thrown out in the forthcoming bankruptcy court case were exaggerated by their former franchisee for political gain.
When the league finally bought the club back out of bankruptcy court, they began operating it themselves. And lost in the neighbourhood of $35m in each of the seasons they did so.
As GDub notes, with approximately $33m in subsidies from their league partners (revenue sharing) and the city, the club managed to lose only $4.5m net last year.
How has the picture improved again?
There are southern markets that “work” for the NHL. Phoenix is not one of them. For anyone thinking that a downtown arena is the answer, please recall the words of Richard Burke (the man who bought the franchise from Barry Shenkarow and moved it to Phoenix in 1996). When he sold the club to Ellman and Co, he admitted that he would have lost less money if he’d kept them in Winnipeg… where the Jets lost approximately $20m (according to the owner) in 1996.
This is the definition of a non-viable business