Arizona Coyotes | 28 years, 7 owners, 1000 problems

Vacationers or retirees arriving from the north of the continent generally settle down in the sun to find peace and quiet. The exact opposite happened for the Coyotes in Arizona. A look back at three troubled decades.

1996

After purchasing the Winnipeg Jets, businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke moved the franchise to Phoenix, Arizona. The organization arrived with young club stars named Keith Tkachuk, Oleg Tverdovsky, Shane Doan and Nikolai Khabibulin, to whom they quickly added renowned veterans like Jeremy Roenick and Mark Gartner. The team is based at America West Arena in Phoenix, home of the NBA’s Suns. First pitfall: the amphitheater, designed for basketball, offers an ordinary experience to hockey fans, some of whom have partially blocked vision.

1998

First financial problems, while the team struggles to fill its arena. Richard Burke becomes the sole owner of the franchise by purchasing Steven Gluckstern’s shares.

2001

The Coyotes change hands for the first time. The franchise was sold to Steve Ellman, a real estate developer in the region, who led a group of investors including Wayne Gretzky. Mike Barnett, ex-agent of “Merveille”, is appointed general manager. Then began a painful cycle on the ice, during which Gretzky named himself head coach, a position he held for four years.

2003

The team is leaving downtown Phoenix and moving to suburban Glendale to a new municipally funded 18,000-seat amphitheater. From the Coyotes’ second season there, almost 2,000 seats were cut for hockey games, once again due to complaints from spectators who had obstructed views.

2005

The Coyotes change hands a second time. The franchise is sold to Jerry Moyes, a billionaire who notably made his fortune in the trucking industry, who is also co-owner of the Diamondbacks, in major baseball.

2009

Media reports reveal that the team’s finances are out of control and that the NHL is absorbing its losses. Jerry Moyes announces that the organization is bankrupt. His intention is to sell it to Jim Balsillie, Canadian billionaire at the head of Research in Motion (RIM), the company that created the BlackBerry. Balsillie wants the team to move to Hamilton, Ontario, an idea the NHL openly opposes. The United States Bankruptcy Court ultimately rejected his offer. It was ultimately the league that bought the Coyotes, who changed hands a third time. The same year, a few days before the start of the 2009-2010 season, Wayne Gretzky resigned as head coach. Ironically, despite the tumult off the ice, the team then had its three best sporting seasons, even reaching the Western Conference final in 2012.

2010-2012

Different groups are trying to acquire the team. The negotiations are complex, particularly with the City of Glendale, owner of the Jobing.com Arena, which will be renamed the Gila River Arena in 2014. None of the steps will go through to the end. The municipality is spending tens of millions of dollars for the survival of the team, the main tenant of the amphitheater.

2013

Canadian and American investors, grouped under the name Renaissance Sports & Entertainment (RSE), are launching an offensive to acquire the Coyotes. The NHL warns that this will be the last rescue attempt, otherwise it will relocate the franchise to another market – the name of Seattle is notably mentioned. For a transaction to be completed, an agreement must be reached with the City of Glendale on the terms surrounding the management of the amphitheater. Following a close vote, the city council gave the green light to a 15-year pact, which will see the city pay $15 million each year to RSE. This subsidy is accompanied by a system of fees linked to parking costs and the holding of shows, through which the local government is supposed to recover its money. The sale goes ahead: the Coyotes change hands for a fourth time.

2014

IceArizona, the new name for the RSE group, is selling 51% of the team to Andrew Barroway, a fund manager from Philadelphia.

2015

Noting that the royalty system developed in 2013 does not bring in the expected amounts, the City of Glendale decides to limit its losses by breaking its agreement with the organization. The municipal council finally approves a new two-year contract, at a discount.

2017

Andrew Borroway buys the entire shares of the Coyotes and becomes the sole owner. In this sense, the Coyotes officially change hands for a fifth time.

2019

The Coyotes changed hands a sixth time when Borroway sold the franchise to Alex Meruelo, a billionaire with interests in the banking, entertainment, media and food industries. He also owns two casinos in Nevada.

2021

Absolutely all the echoes coming from Arizona are negative. Finances are in dire straits and suppliers are struggling to get paid. An Athletic investigation reveals a toxic work environment. Exasperated with its relationship with its tenant, the City of Glendale announces that the upcoming season will be the Coyotes’ last at Gila River Arena. In December, the team was even threatened with expulsion if it did not immediately pay a debt of $1.3 million in taxes. The sum was quickly paid and the Coyotes concluded their season. Owner Alex Meruelo is working on building an arena in Tempe, southeast of Phoenix. The project aborted due, in particular, to the complex decontamination of the targeted land.

2022

The Coyotes are moving to Tempe, southeast of Phoenix. Their new home is Mullett Arena, a small 4,600-seat amphitheater adjoining the University of Arizona campus. The team is forced to play its first nine games of the season on the road, while necessary work is carried out so that the building meets certain standards set by the NHL.

2023

By referendum, the citizens of Tempe reject a megaproject providing for the construction of an entertainment district worth an estimated US$2.1 billion, the centerpiece of which would have been a state-of-the-art arena for the Coyotes. The project, led by Alex Meruelo and enthusiastically promoted by Gary Bettman, commissioner of the NHL, included tax breaks and was dependent on zoning changes.

2024

On the sidelines of the All-Star Game festivities, Marty Walsh, director of the NHL Players’ Association, publicly expressed his impatience with the Coyotes’ case, stuck in a university arena. A few weeks later, Meruelo announced his intention to acquire public land located in Scottsdale territory as part of an auction scheduled for June. The organization publishes models of a future arena. The project, however, faces opposition from municipal authorities, starting with the mayor of Scottsdale, who claims to have never been consulted. In the upper echelons of the NHL, it is felt that the time has come to leave the Arizona desert until an arena is built. In the spring, rumors intensified about a possible move to Salt Lake City. The rumors quickly became reality: on April 18, NHL governors approved the sale of the team to billionaire Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz in the NBA and co-owner of Real Salt Lake in the MLS. The transaction marks the end of a series that has stretched over almost three decades, during which problems have been innumerable, and good news almost non-existent.