Glendale threatens to evict Coyotes mid-season if they don’t pay their damn taxes already

access_time personNeil deMause

If you, like me, were hoping when the city of Glendale announced it was evicting the Arizona Coyotes after the 2021-22 season that this would end with the city padlocking the doors and parking a zamboni at center ice, you may be in luck sooner than you expected: Glendale city manager Kevin Phelps just sent Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo a letter declaring the team to be $1.3 million behind in state and city taxes, and giving him until December 20 to pay up, or else be locked out.

This is all part of a long-running dispute about Meruelo not paying his bills to the city on time, but it looks like Glendale is now playing hardball. The Coyotes have a home game coming up on December 23, and, reports The Athletic, “If they do not settle up the remaining debt by that time, the City of Glendale has instructed ASM to deny team employees access to the arena and the offices within the arena used as administrative space.”

Before you get too excited about the prospect of the Coyotes having to play in roller skates in the parking lot, it sounds like it won’t come to that: The Coyotes front office issued a statement last night blaming the delinquent payments on “an unfortunate human error” and promising to “make sure that by tomorrow morning, the Arizona Coyotes are current on all of our bills and owe no state or local taxes whatsoever.” If they make good on that promise, we’ll all just have to wait until next fall to see where the Coyotes will play once their Glendale arena is off-limits. Maybe they’ll find a city eager to audition for a sports team by hosting one temporarily, like Oklahoma City did with the New Orleans Hornets after Hurricane Katrina? Move to two cities at once, and hope to start a bidding war? The possibilities are endless when you’re an owner in a league with a limited supply of teams — not that many of the possibilities are good, mind you, but there sure are a lot of them.

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33 comments on “Glendale threatens to evict Coyotes mid-season if they don’t pay their damn taxes already”

  3. This would be fantastic (especially if they waited until 3 minutes before puck drop of an actual game to park the zamboni on the centre circle so we could all watch it happen on tv).

    As you say, though, I don’t imagine it’s actually going to come to a lockout of the team and it’s employees.

    But we can dream, can’t we????

  4. I think this is grandstanding. The Coyotes will pay what the owe or work out a deal. In the end, If the rumors are true and the lease is not renewed for next season, Portland would be an interesting place to go. Seattle and Portland could benefit for being relatively close to each other and something both teams can build upon. Oh I forgot this is the NHL so if there is a move, it will be to another place which will lose interest in a short period of time.

    1. I think Houston could work, provided they get ownership and staff on hand that turn around and make the team competitive, cause when the team’s garbage or the owner doesn’t give a shit, and we have a lot of documented history in Houston with the Oilers, Astros, Rockets, and even the Texans, they turn fair-weather in a hurry.

      1. That’s true of lots of markets though, Johnathan. Sure, for whatever reason New Yorkers go to the garden to support Dolan owned teams no matter how horrifically they are managed. And Leaf fans are legendary for their ability to keep paying top dollar to watch crappy hockey (often from 15″ wide seats, in the Ballard era… that’s why Leaf crowds tend to be so quiet… they learned years ago that even and odd number seated patrons have to breathe in shifts…)

        But most markets support winners well, support competitive teams reasonably, and stay away in droves when the team is lousy.

        1. I’ve heard a thousand discussions on this topic and the bit that seems to always get lost is that Gary Bettman can’t just move teams around like he’s playing SimHockeyLeague.

          Bettman, for better and worse – mostly worse – is just a symptom of the owners’ short-sightedness and greed. Getting rid of him will not, on its own, change much about the NHL. It’s the same with the other commissioners. Their job is to be hated by the fans so the fans don’t notice it’s the owners – and, to some extent the players and their agents – that are doing all these things that fans hate.

          For an NHL team to move to – or, in this case, stay in – a market there has to be an arena and owner that wants to put them there. Then at least 2/3 of the owners have to agree with it (as I understand it. There seems to be some disagreement on whether an owner can just move a team unilaterally).

          But as of next year (or next week, depending on how this current bill-paying screw up turns out), there is no owner-arena combo that works for the Coyotes anywhere in the known universe.

          They have an owner that wants to keep them in Arizona (or at least, says he does), but only just a proposal for a long-term arena situation and no good temporary options.

          There are theoretically arenas in other potentially viable markets, but I’m not aware of any concrete proposals from anyone who could put them in Houston or Portland or SLC or KC.

          Quebec has a building and perhaps a willing owner, but I’m not sure they’ve actually made an offer, have they? It looks like NHL team valuations, even the Coyotes, are inching toward $1bn. Can Quebecor swing that?

          If they do, the question will be whether or not the other owner are willing to do what they did for the Thrashers/Jets again – give up on the fantasy of a huge southern market accepting hockey in favor of a smaller northern market that is more reliable, but has a much lower ceiling. Also, the other owners – well, mostly MLSE and Mike Illitch and maybe the Preds’ ownership – don’t want to move a team from west to east. But that’s a relatively minor issue, I’d think.

          Will the owners try to own the Coyotes again hoping to once again find a greater fool willing to buy them and build them an arena somewhere? Seems like enough owners would say they’d rather not do that again. I don’t know.

          Bettman is blamed for the southern migration, among many other things. But he’s really just the owners’ lawyer. He doesn’t decide big strategic things like that on his own. Certainly, he helped oversee it, but he’s not king of hockey. It was something that the owners as a whole wanted to expand their TV deals, etc.

          And, to be fair (to be faiirrrrrrr….) it has worked at least as often as it hasn’t. At least on paper. The NHL is doing fairly ok in Tampa, Dallas, LA, Vegas, and even Raleigh. It’s hard to see how those teams would be making more money in Hartford, Quebec, Saskatoon, Halifax, etc. (Putting another team in the GTA is a whole other thing).

          And he also oversaw a “Canadian Assistance Plan” which is a big reason why there are more than three teams left in Canada. He also “allowed” the Thrashers to become the Winnipeg Jets 2.0.

          So this idea of “he’ll never let the Coyotes move!” isn’t true. He certainly doesn’t want them to, but it’s ultimately not under his control.

          1. Did you reply to the comment you intended to?

            Because I didn’t mention Bettman once while your reply was entirely about Bettman and league relocation rules, which I also did not mention.

            Not offended… just wondering?

          2. Sorry.

            I think I lost the plot somehow and was thinking of something else I read somewhere else. Very tired.

          3. FWIW I agree with you about Bettman… some fans act like he is some sort of svengali with a sinister plan for the NHL.

            He is an employee of the owners, albeit well paid, and paid to set the league’s overall course.

            He’s been great for the business (which is what he is paid to do). Whether he has actually been good for hockey is a very different subject.

  5. I find it interesting that Meruelo is blaming this on an unfortunate human error… yet your linked article from Sept 2020 shows that they were “already late” then.

    I think we need a little more info from Mr. Meruelo on what exactly this “human error” was and why it has taken 15 months after notification to address (or not address, which seems to be the case).

    Warm up the Zamboni, Phelps, it may be going it…

    1. I think the Sept 2020 late payments were lease payments, whereas the current issue is over tax payments. Either way, though, not sending out the checks on time has been a Coyotes trademark for a while.

  6. The Arizona Coyotes just wired $1.4 million to the State of Arizona Department of Revenue for back taxes.

    https://twitter.com/Gambo987/status/1469002187208413184

  7. Best news story all year!

    FYI. Just because the billionaire franchise owner puts your city’s name before the team’s name, doesn’t make it your city’s team. For better or worse, the sporting public of this nation has bought into that nonsense.

    In Japan, Korea and Taiwan, corporate owners don’t play that. The corporate name comes before the team name. The Fubon Guardians just so happen to play in New Taipei City.

    Fubon Financial Holding Company owns the team lock, stock and barrel. It comes with an understanding the corporate owner has placed the team in your city for your viewing pleasure. Never was, is or will be Taipei city’s team.

    My point. All fine and dandy to speculate when or where the next city this franchise will be dropped into. The Yotes aren’t Phoenix, or Glendale’s for that matter, team. The current franchise owner, Alex Meruelo, just so happens to have pasted “Arizona” in front of Coyotes.

    1. Yeah, other cultures – Japan and Korea in particular – are a bit more frank about who really owns what in sports.

      But it’s a bit different though in that North American sports teams are “franchises” that get exclusive territories. Another team can’t set up shop in their turf, no matter how expansively defined, without a big payment/lawsuit/fracas.

      That is not the case in most European sports, with relegation/promotion, a city that Americans would think could barely support one team might have two or three in the same league.

      I don’t think baseball works like that in Japan, but as far as I can tell, Japanese baseball has a lot of teams crammed into a pretty small space, so “exclusive territory” is not as important to how their league works.

    2. Tim:

      As a long time Doosan Bears, Chibe Lotte Marines and Yakult Swallows fan, I thank you for pointing this out.

      How long before the sponsor logos become larger than the team logos on North American sports uniforms (as they have been in Europe for many years)?

    3. John. All good with it. Appreciate the fact there’s no pretense (in Asia, Europe or even Liga MX. Enjoy going to Tijuana Xolos matches when I’m able to especially if against Chivas, Club America, Cruz Azul or Tigres). As opposed to this nation, “Let’s make some noise for your __________,” fill in the blank with your city and team’s name. Not your city’s team. Now back to the rollerball championship ….. rooting for Houston Energy versus New York Finance!

      2. Original, not remake.

        Of course, it’s pure fantasy. No correlation to today’s sports landscape.

        1. Ultra wealthy billionaires, sports owners, living a lifestyle inconceivable to and beyond the reach of the average citizen (and to which the average citizen pays for in one way or another).
        2. The average citizen distracted from the issues of the day via sports (namely number 1). How many times have I read FoS comments against politicizing sports. Commenters see sports as an escape from politics, don’t want to read about it with their sports news (sports by its very nature is inherently political).
        3. No athlete my transcend sport. Athletes are products, to be used, the empty container thrown out (of course, that is the athletes choice. The sports owner bears no responsibility in any of this). Okay, maybe this last part hasn’t come to fruition.

  8. “an unfortunate human error”

    Oh, to be the ice cube vendor on this here Titanic ….

  9. Coyotes say they paid $1.3M in back taxes after threats

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/glendale/2021/12/09/arizona-coyotes-say-theyve-paid-1-3-m-after-city-threatened-lockout/6448074001/

    But,

    Arizona Coyotes just forgot to pay a $1.3 million tax bill? Anybody buying that?

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2021/12/09/arizona-coyotes-just-forgot-pay-1-3-million-tax-bill/6448958001/

    1. Nope. Not buying it at all. And human error shouldn’t take more than a year to correct.

  10. The details in the letter on the amounts that Mr Meruelo owes to the City of Glendale are shocking.

    https://twitter.com/CraigSMorgan/status/1469114863158894597

    1. Nice! The gift that keeps taking… I can understand why the team is late in making these kinds of payments. They are likely hemmoraging money elsewhere as well. That does not, of course, make it right. But compared to covering payroll or other major obligations, these charges may be seen as a lower priority by the team.

      Pleased to see the arena manager is holding their feet to the fire. If they leave the building next June still owing money, it’s unlikely the manager/city will ever see the money they are owed.

  11. Glendale City Manager: Coyotes Still Haven’t Paid Rent for Arena, Remain Skeptical of ‘Human Error’

    https://thehockeynews.com/news/glendale-city-manager-coyotes-still-havent-paid-rent-for-arena

    1. NotMyGlendale. You’ve made my whole year, if not decade, with all you’ve provided!

      Cut to scene.

      Glendale City Manager (to Alex Meruelo): If I were you, I’d go to my luxury box and take one last look around, because in about 5 minutes, I’m going to give you the boot, but good!
      Alex Meruelo: This is simply a human error, and I … you cannot
      Glendale City Manager: I can and I will. Now get your … (looks to NotMyGlendale) What did you call it?
      NotMyGlendale (sheepishly): Boney ass …
      Glendale City Manager: Right. Boney ass out of my sight!

      1. Appreciate the sentiment, Tim and rj.

        Neil deserves most of the credit in providing his expertise and insight, not only for his website, but for his community engagement in exposing the pro sports ‘schemes’ for what these public subsidies truly are – a shakedown of taxpayers.

        Please consider supporting his website with a contribution, I know I do.

      2. Faithfully until it hurts.

        Thank you as well, NdM (please forgive my rudeness).

        I believe NdM understands how much I appreciate investigative journalism especially FoS journalism. Somedays it’s all I can do to read the schadenfreude that is the sports world of this nation. Now back to today’s movie!

        Alex Meruelo: Kevin, Kevin, if you send me away, where will I go, what will I do?
        Kevin Phelps: Frankly my dear sir, Glendale doesn’t give a damn!

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