Coyotes plan to announce something about arena plans someday

Here’s Arizona Coyotes owner Anthony LeBlanc talking about his plans for a new arena in Phoenix or Tempe or someplace that’s not Glendale, because screw those guys for not wanting to pay him to play there:

“I’m very positive that we will have something out in the community if not in the next month or two but certainly by the end of the regular season,” LeBlanc said. “We need to partner with a community or institution that wants to be a partner and that’s the first and foremost thing. The good news is that all of the discussions we have had have been pretty open as have other organizations — be it the city of Phoenix or Tempe or Arizona State. Everybody has been pretty open that we have had discussions with and they have all been positive.”

So the owner of the Coyotes is hopeful that by April he’ll have “something out in the community” about partnering with somebody on building something somewhere, and everyone he’s talked to is “positive.” Got it. My only concern is that the English language may need a new verb tense for this — may I suggest the hyper-subjunctive?

 

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15 comments on “Coyotes plan to announce something about arena plans someday

  1. That’s one way to put it, Anthony. Another would be: “The suckers in Glendale have figured it out. We need some new suckers.”

  2. They definitely need to build a fourth arena in Phoenix. That way each area team will have one spare arena. You need the peace of mind.

  3. Well, the Suns are looking to replace their arena as well. That’s who the partner needs to be. Instead of building multiple arenas, they need to demolish the current downtown arena, build ONE for both the Coyotes and Suns downtown then use Glendale as a backup.

  4. @Trueblood, I’ve heard others say that as well. Why do the Suns (or anybody else) “need” to demolish the existing arena? Why does Phoenix or any other city “need” to build a new arena?

    Since neither the Suns nor the Coyotes are proposing to pay for a new arena, the assumption should be that they don’t “need” one, but they would “like” one if somebody else is paying.

  5. I found the mention of Arizona State interesting. Starting this autumn they will be joining the ranks of NCAA Division 1 hockey programs. I don’t know where the team plays or how big their current arena is, but the mention of the university caught my attention.

  6. Arizona State’s arena, the Wells Fargo Arena, hold just over 10,000 people but that’s for basketball. You can reduce that number noticeably if you want to figure out its hockey capacity.

  7. Mark – ASU hockey plays at Gila River Arena. ASU basketball plays at Wells Fargo Arena which holds 14,227 for basketball. Apparently LeBlanc thinks he can make a deal with ASU and the Sun for and arena in Tempe for all of them. The problem is ASU doesn’t need a venue big enough for pro-teams (very few colleges have them). Secondly, the Suns can’t leave for a few more years. If the Coyotes go to an arena elsewhere in the Valley, Gila River would still be standing and would be competing for events. If the Suns go to Tempe then Phoenix has no incentive to tear down the current arena and therefore it will compete for events. Now there already is a shortage of events and a whole lot of arenas in the Valley (even the Suns old arena is still open) so adding arena capacity doesn’t make sense. If ASU needs to replace Wells Fargo something around 14K for basketball will meet their needs just fine. Also colleges don’t need all the extra bells and whistles that pro-teams demand.

  8. This will all be much easier to work out once Arizona runs out of water and is completely depopulated.

  9. “We need to partner with a community or institution that wants to be a partner”

    Translated:

    “We need some political suckers to throw some money at us and make sure we have a free place to play that we manage and get keep all the revenues.”

  10. On (Phoenix) Arizona running out of water:
    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PYt0SDnrBE?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]

  11. I don’t think the Suns are looking at replacing their arena. I think they are looking to have someone else pay to replace the arena that the Suns didn’t pay for in the first place.

    No doubt the club would say this is splitting hairs….

  12. I think we all know what that something is… that his perpetual money losing club is moving to Las Vegas, or Seattle, or someplace else that might build an arena someday and hopefully pay them to play in it.

    The only question is when, and whether a relative lightweight like LeBlanc will still be involved when this walking dead franchise does move.

  13. That King of the Hill clip is great, but I was thinking more along the lines of this:

    http://www.learner.org/interactives/collapse/chacocanyon.html

  14. Arizona St Hockey plays at a Public IcePlex type of Arena, I think it may hold about 450 people. They had a few games at Gila River, but that nor Wells Fargo Arena is their home arena. A new Arena will be built, but like mentioned above, they do not need an NHL size Arena. I think a donor has already pledged money to the University for their project.

  15. Being a helpful person, let me try to parse the paragraph to help everyone translate Ownerese into English,

    “I’m very positive that we will have something out in the community if not in the next month or two but certainly by the end of the regular season,”

    Translation – “We will eventually release something.”

    “We need to partner with a community or institution that wants to be a partner…”

    Translation – “We need a partner” (could also be translated as “We need a dog that wants to be a dog”)

    “…and that’s the first and foremost thing.”

    Translation – “that’s important to me.”

    “The good news is that all of the discussions we have had have been pretty open as have other organizations — be it the city of Phoenix or Tempe or Arizona State”

    Translation – “We only hid a little bit of information when we talked to a bunch of groups who weren’t really interested in our terms.”

    “Everybody has been pretty open that we have had discussions with and they have all been positive.”

    Translation – “Nobody actually wants us and they’re positive they don’t.”

    Overall translation, “We will eventually release something once we find someone who actually wants to be our partner. Right now everyone is positive they don’t want to be our partner and that’s not fair!”

    OK, I added the “that’s not fair!” part.

    Andy

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