Coyotes want maybe-public land for arena, definitely public money, but no public vote

Don’t look now, but Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo reportedly has one more final arena site possibility in his sights, according to the ever-optimistic Craig Morgan of PHNX:

Coyotes president and CEO Xavier Gutierrez told PHNX Sports on Tuesday that the team expects to announce its chosen arena site by the end of the calendar year, or shortly thereafter.

While much speculation has centered on the northwest Mesa site on which the team executed a letter of intent in August, multiple sources familiar with the process told PHNX that the team is zeroing in on a parcel of land in northeast Phoenix, adjacent to Scottsdale.

Morgan didn’t go into specifics, but according to somebody on Reddit, the most likely parcel that Meruelo could buy is land owned by the state Arizona Land Trust, which would have to auction it off. Presumably a public auction would result in Meruelo paying something close to actual market value for the parcel, but we’re deep into speculation here, so it’s really too soon to tell.

And speaking of speculation, would there be other public money involved? Back to Morgan:

The Coyotes hope to structure the deal in a manner that will avoid a public vote, but the team would still need some tax abatements to offset the construction cost so it is unclear how they will bridge those two realities.

Ha, yes, wanting public money but not wanting to let anybody vote on it is a tricky maneuver, at least in Arizona which has strong voter referendum laws. This is the same issue that tripped up Meruelo’s last arena plan in Tempe when it turned out that voters actually really didn’t want to give him $500 million in tax breaks, but I guess he figures the umpteenth time may be the charm.

Anyway, mostly this means that Meruelo has another potential arena site to go along with the one in Mesa he expressed interest in last summer, but doesn’t yet know how to pay for one, or if he does he’s not saying. Could this be enough to get a bidding war going between Mesa and Phoenix? Probably not, but you can’t get if you don’t ask.

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25 comments on “Coyotes want maybe-public land for arena, definitely public money, but no public vote

  1. Arizona Land Trust?

    DO NOT TRUST ANYTHING that the Governor’s office may do, because the Governor’s Chief of Staff is Chad Campbell.

    And you might ask, who is Chad Campbell?

    He was a former Democratic lawmaker, political consultant and lobbyist with Lumen Strategies, which contributed to and was a lobbyist group for the failed Tempe Entertainment District.

    Follow the money, and you will find grift after grift.

  2. I can’t imagine Arizona politicians would suffer any electoral backlash for not giving the Coyotes any money. Even if the team left, would voters care?

    1. The Mayor of Glendale got reelected after voiding the deal. Council people who supported the measures to keep them lost.

  3. Not sure commissioner Bettman or the Arizona Coyotes will expand on this today. As mentioned last night on @TSNHockey, the Coyotes are finalizing the purchase of a piece of land in Phoenix for an arena build. They’re hoping to announce project plans next month.

    – Darren Dreger, via X, 12-05-2023

    twitter.com/DarrenDreger/status/1732060822313070747

    1. “Are finalizing” is a non-specific phrase there doing a lot of work.

      In general, I’ve found the Canadian NHL media very credulous of Meruelo’s plans and Bettman’s repeated insistence that something is going to happen.

      Maybe it will, but there are obviously a lot of hurdles to get over first and yet all they ever seem to hear is “this is almost a done deal.”

      1. I found that interesting too. “Are finalizing”. When there is, at least as far as I have found, not a single other source anywhere that claims the Coyotes are any further along than “having identified” a parcel of land in NE Phx.

        Is ‘thinking about making an offer’ now “finalizing in paid hack journospeak?

        From where I sit, Dreger’s comment (assuming it was his and not planted by league officials in exchange for a favour/tip to be named later…) was utterly unfounded.

        Who says “journalists” can’t create news?

        1. Are the Coyotes Trolling Their Own (Few) Fans?

          https://twitter.com/arizonacoyotes/status/1732450241381888303

          1. They post weird BS at least a couple times per week. I think they know it’s all gonna fail and the team will be shipped out this offseason or next.

  4. The City of Phoenix is going to approve, provide utilities, police and fire and traffic improvements for a third arena in the Valley that would compete with the Footprint Center? And after the Coyotes siked a hyena on Sky Harbor airport? And if a parcel of land is placed for auction along 101, there will be other bidders.

    1. Don’t be so pessimistic…

      If Meruelo can get the city of Phoenix to redraw it’s boundaries so the land is no longer in Phoenix, and then get the state to remove this parcel from the ALT, and then get Scottsdale to agree to pay for the whole development while it is still outside Scottsdale’s limits… and a few other things just nicely fall into place, the 2400 hockey fans in the Phoenix Metro area could be cheering on the Yotes in a brand new facility (another one) in just a half decade or two.

      Win win, I say…

  5. Didn’t the NHL give shady Alex a deadline of Jan 1st to have a new site and arena plan ready?

    So I think we all knew there was going to be a “plan”. So it looks like something Fisher and Kaval would have dreamed up (after announcing, naturally) on their worst day… I am not surprised. Are you?

    Queue Bettman and a presser announcing this is a stable and sustainable plan for the future of hockey in Arizona.

    oooooo there’s that phrase again! Future. Hockey. Arizona. Oh man, where’s my checkbook???

    1. I think it was mid-season (which would be January 14). I have also heard first quarter. The move to Winnipeg was difficult even though they already had a hockey operation set up there, so I am guessing it will need a couple of more months if they are going to Salt Lake City, Houston, or QC

      1. Other than Meruelos’ persistence and inertia, the main thing keeping the Coyotes in Arizona right now is that there really isn’t an alternative out there that the other owners are thrilled about.

        All of the other possible markets have significant hurdles and uncertainties, just like Arizona.

        They either don’t have an arena or they don’t have a viable owner, or both. Or they’re small markets that the owners just aren’t excited about like Quebec.

        1. I think that’s true, Reed. As many other sports are realizing, there aren’t any ‘very good’ markets out there that don’t already have teams in one or more of the major leagues. There are some quite marginal ones that do not have any professional franchises that could be used as an experiment.

          But do expansion owners really want to try that?

          The recently announced salary cap number for next year ($87m) suggests that the NHL calculates it’s total HRR at just over $5bn.

          And they are saying Seattle ownership got a bargain on their expansion team ($650m) and the next franchises will have to pay significantly more?

          There may well be (almost certainly are…) stupidly rich people out there who just want a plaything and to be ‘in the club”. But if you have to pay $800m-$1Bn for an NHL franchise, shouldn’t you really be looking at one of the big three leagues instead? The upside is much greater in any of the others…

          1. The franchises in the MLB, NFL and NBA cost a lot more.

            NHL has a hard salary cap, which is appealing to owners.

            And some billionaires just like hockey. Michael Andlauer does.

          2. An NFL franchise in any market, say Mobile, Alabama (bigger than Green Bay) is a much better deal at $5 billion than an NHL franchise in all but the best markets for $650 million. Glendale officials point out that the top 2 TV events of all time were in Glendale, the last 2 Superbowls in Glendale drew over 130 million viewers. Football is king in the US, and in the sunbelt hockey falls below NASCAR and PGA. The next 4 months are outdoor season in Phoenix, car shows, golf, hiking, spring training and on and on. Maybe if the hockey season is moved to June to September, hockey will become the most popular sport in Phoenix, just to get the air conditioning and forget about the 115⁰ weather outside.

          3. That would be true if you could still get an NHL franchise for $350-500m, Reed. At approx $1bn the math gets much more shaky. We don’t know what expansion franchises in the other three leagues will go for because there hasn’t been one sold in years (the Bobcats paid $300m in 2004 and neither of the other leagues has expanded since 2002… unless I’m forgetting something very obvious…).

            Franchises in most of the other leagues generate a net $100m-200m in annual operating profit – there are a few exceptions (the Bucks – economically vital – new arena had them losing $36m last year. And, well, Ballmer… and the Nets…), but for the most part you can count on turning an $80-130m profit with any NFL, MLB or NBA team no matter how badly you manage it.

            That is not true of the NHL. When the entry price to that league was 1/5th or 1/8th of the others, it still made sense. But now it is 1/2 or 1/3rd? I’m not so sure.

            Maybe the lower bar to entry is all that matters to some of these guys (toys are toys, after all), but given a choice between $2-4bn for an NFL/MLB/NBA team and $1bn for the NHL, it would be no choice at all for me personally.

        2. There are a bunch of markets that could support an NHL team right now. In alphabetical order: Hamilton, Houston, Quebec, and Salt Lake City could all support a team and the first 3 have NHL-ready arenas. SLC would need to renovate or replace the current arena because it wasn’t built with NHL in mind.

          1. Bettman won’t allow Quebec, and Hamilton only over his dead body (good idea). The Toyota Center may have been designed for hockey and hosted the Aeros for 10 years, but why would an NBA owner of a team worth $5 billion want to clog 50 plus dates with an NHL team that would probably result in less total revenue from the arena. Salt Lake is a marginal market that would compete with the Jazz and all the alpine winter sports.

          2. Ryan Smith owns the Delta Center, wouldn’t he want an NHL to help keep the arena busy? If someone else owned the arena or someone else was going to own the NHL team, then sure I could imagine Ryan doesn’t want to share, but if he owns all both teams and the arena there seems to be value in bringing all that together. His business team would optimize dates across the two teams – if the NBA always got dibs on the best dates, then so be it.

  6. YOU’RE SAN DIEGO (whatever they decide to rename Coyotes after upcoming relocation to proposed Midway arena)!!!!!!

    1. I think a San Diego NHL team would do well actually. Need a few hundred million dollars for a new arena first though. The Sports Arena is not up to NHL standards.

  7. Arizona Coyotes on the hunt for state trust land north of Loop 101 in northeast Phoenix

    “The Arizona Coyotes are looking to buy state trust land north of Loop 101 and west of Scottsdale Road for a new arena in the team’s continuing quest for a permanent home.

    Phoenix City Councilmember Jim Waring, in whose district the land is located, said his office and team officials had a preliminary meeting about the prospect nearly two months ago. He said he hadn’t heard updates since and was unsure how certain the deal was.

    For the Coyotes to purchase state land, the team would need to ask the state to put it up for public auction. If the state agreed, it then would sell the land to the highest bidder.

    City Councilmembers Waring, Kevin Robinson, Laura Pastor and Debra Stark indicated they were open to the Coyotes coming to Phoenix but not particularly willing to offer incentives to attract the team.”

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2023/12/07/arizona-coyotes-looking-at-northeast-phoenix-for-new-area/71803365007/

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