Eklund: Crowdsourcing? The Salt Lake Coyotes> Yea or Nay? Be heard.

Arizona's arena situation is the most unprofessional arrangement in North American sports. The seating capacity is embarrassing to a professional sports team and the camera angles on TV are unwatchable. It's a disgrace to the league and needs to be corrected ASAP. Salt Lake City and Utah as a whole supports their sports franchises well and should get the team. Phoenix can maybe be considered in the future IF they have the arena setup in advance.

Leave Arizona and never go back. They are an embarassment.

Bettman will not move a franchise to Quebec. Rabid fanbase but not enough corporate money and TV revenue.

Houston and New Orleans will be no better than Arizona. Salt Lake is ready now so the urgent need to get out of Arizona works in their favour. Also doesn't require any division re-alignment.

Congrats on being one of the most read hockey websites in the world. I didn't know that. Good stuff!

Arizona's arena situation is the most unprofessional arrangement in North American sports. The seating capacity is embarrassing to a professional sports team and the camera angles on TV are unwatchable. It's a disgrace to the league and needs to be corrected ASAP. Salt Lake City and Utah as a whole supports their sports franchises well and should get the team. Phoenix can maybe be considered in the future IF they have the arena setup in advance.
- jfkst1

My guess is that they’ve pretty much guaranteed Muerela an expansion team if he gets an arena. No way the league or PA was going to let things at Mullet stretch out.

Leave Arizona and never go back. They are an embarassment.

Bettman will not move a franchise to Quebec. Rabid fanbase but not enough corporate money and TV revenue.

Houston and New Orleans will be no better than Arizona. Salt Lake is ready now so the urgent need to get out of Arizona works in their favour. Also doesn't require any division re-alignment.

Congrats on being one of the most read hockey websites in the world. I didn't know that. Good stuff!
- Cooleus

Spoiler , Coyotes move to Utah, then , Atlanta is getting a third chance, plus there's a second chance clause to bring a team back to Arizona, so the league is further watered down to 34 teams....

Portland NO New Orleans No Houston Yes SLC Yes Quebec Hell NO

Selling the team and getting a new roster via current expansion draft rules is the fastest way to get a competitive roster in quite a few markets. If the league allows Arizona do it, you're going to have fans in other cities clamoring for the same.

Leave Arizona and never go back. They are an embarassment.

Bettman will not move a franchise to Quebec. Rabid fanbase but not enough corporate money and TV revenue.

Houston and New Orleans will be no better than Arizona. Salt Lake is ready now so the urgent need to get out of Arizona works in their favour. Also doesn't require any division re-alignment.

Congrats on being one of the most read hockey websites in the world. I didn't know that. Good stuff!
- Cooleus

50 people refreshing every minute to see new comments can make a huge difference

Move them to Quebec. Put Detroit back in the west. Done. Fack Utah

Quebec. No questions asked. More hockey in hockey towns.

Leave Arizona and never go back. They are an embarassment.

Bettman will not move a franchise to Quebec. Rabid fanbase but not enough corporate money and TV revenue.

Houston and New Orleans will be no better than Arizona. Salt Lake is ready now so the urgent need to get out of Arizona works in their favour. Also doesn't require any division re-alignment.

Congrats on being one of the most read hockey websites in the world. I didn't know that. Good stuff!
- Cooleus

If you actually believe that I have some snake oil to sell you

Well you gotta understand Arizona before you get weather relocating the Coyotes is a good idea or not. Regionally it is important for hockey to be in Arizona. The market is to Big to ignore. It provides a footprint for youth hockey in a growing market. The Coyotes also provide a rivalry to other Southwest markets. Like I don't think there would be a team in Vegas if the Coyotes didn't already blaze the trail for desert teams to exist.

But the problem to me if if stated it in a simple way is to say that Phoenix is a new city. There not much civic identity there. Most people who live in Phoenix are transplants from other states who already have teams they root for. And Phoenix is growing. And they're having alot of infustructure problems to to that massive growth. Traffic, utilities, crime, immigration are big problems. And building another arena just isn't on top of the list of priorities in Arizona. So it's hard for me to be critical of the State or city. There in a pinch.

Now as far as the team goes. This would be so sad for Coyotes fans. They finally got a decent owner. There team is young and upcoming with more talent to come. Basically Yotse fans finally have hope but the league is just gonna rip it from them.
All this for what. More money. Salt lake won't make the league that much more revenue than Phoenix. And starting new doesn't always guarantee success. Most what I believe is happening with the yotes is this: Northern hockey Bias. Nobody believed in the Yotes from the start. To make ot worse most Big market hockey fans tend to look down on small market teams. They have no love or patience for other markets. They don't even try. As a Ducks fan I know this feeling. When the franchise started the called the Duck a Mickey Mouse Organization. I've read articles about how the Ducks should have been folded. It's was like other hockey fans said we didn't deserve to have a franchise. And it's given me a pretty big chip on my shoulders when it comes to hockey fan bias. I never feel sorry for big markets that never win cups. They deserve what they get. Where as small markets have to claw and scratch for every little thing they get in hockey.
So in closing I'd like to say " Hockey belongs in the Desert"

The NHL has been supporting Arizona, like no other team has been supported! Why? Atlanta, Hartford, Winny the first time, Quebec, yadda yadda yadda, nothing like Arizona. At some point in the future we may find that Bettman had some frame of personal interest. No other explanation.

The NHL has been supporting Arizona, like no other team has been supported! Why? Atlanta, Hartford, Winny the first time, Quebec, yadda yadda yadda, nothing like Arizona. At some point in the future we may find that Bettman had some frame of personal interest. No other explanation.
- Bullot

Because Arizona is one of the largest television markets in North America and having that many potential viewers helps to sell TV deals.

Hope that makes sense.

The NHL has been supporting Arizona, like no other team has been supported! Why? Atlanta, Hartford, Winny the first time, Quebec, yadda yadda yadda, nothing like Arizona. At some point in the future we may find that Bettman had some frame of personal interest. No other explanation.
- Bullot

I feel that the owners' belief that having a presence in that region would be financially beneficial to league over the long-term future is a quite credible alternate explanation. In fact I find that much more believable than Bettman having a conflict of interest, which I find farfetched.

Well you gotta understand Arizona before you get weather relocating the Coyotes is a good idea or not. Regionally it is important for hockey to be in Arizona. The market is to Big to ignore. It provides a footprint for youth hockey in a growing market. The Coyotes also provide a rivalry to other Southwest markets. Like I don't think there would be a team in Vegas if the Coyotes didn't already blaze the trail for desert teams to exist.

But the problem to me if if stated it in a simple way is to say that Phoenix is a new city. There not much civic identity there. Most people who live in Phoenix are transplants from other states who already have teams they root for. And Phoenix is growing. And they're having alot of infustructure problems to to that massive growth. Traffic, utilities, crime, immigration are big problems. And building another arena just isn't on top of the list of priorities in Arizona. So it's hard for me to be critical of the State or city. There in a pinch.

Now as far as the team goes. This would be so sad for Coyotes fans. They finally got a decent owner. There team is young and upcoming with more talent to come. Basically Yotse fans finally have hope but the league is just gonna rip it from them.
All this for what. More money. Salt lake won't make the league that much more revenue than Phoenix. And starting new doesn't always guarantee success. Most what I believe is happening with the yotes is this: Northern hockey Bias. Nobody believed in the Yotes from the start. To make ot worse most Big market hockey fans tend to look down on small market teams. They have no love or patience for other markets. They don't even try. As a Ducks fan I know this feeling. When the franchise started the called the Duck a Mickey Mouse Organization. I've read articles about how the Ducks should have been folded. It's was like other hockey fans said we didn't deserve to have a franchise. And it's given me a pretty big chip on my shoulders when it comes to hockey fan bias. I never feel sorry for big markets that never win cups. They deserve what they get. Where as small markets have to claw and scratch for every little thing they get in hockey.
So in closing I'd like to say " Hockey belongs in the Desert"
- Eman87654

Regarding the bolded, in order:

- The Coyotes didn't blaze anything, other than a bunch of money they've lit on fire, and I don't think they had one iota of an impact on whether hockey was going to work or not work in Vegas

- Their owner is 100% the polar opposite of decent. He failed at virtually everything. How many owners get a pro sports team evicted from their arena/stadium? That's before I even mention the workplace issues that were brought to light in Katie Strang's article a few years ago

- The league isn't "ripping" anything from them. They've given this team more runway and second chances that any other franchise in history. They were afforded every chance to succeed and failed at every turn. They've run out of runway and that's their own fault. And Meruelo is going to get $1B for running a franchise that solely existed to collect NHL welfare

- Nobody believes in them at the end either. And at no point, save for one miracle playoff run to the WCF, did anybody believe in them in the middle. They have been poorly run across multiple ownership groups and front offices and failed at everything. Nobody believed in them because they never gave anyone a reason to.

- When the Ducks started they were paired with a Disney movie about a team with the same name. This is really only meant as a joke, but I don't think it's that much of a stretch to call them that

UT-Nay

Portland NO New Orleans No Houston Yes SLC Yes Quebec Hell NO
- broncohorvath

No to Quebec but yes to Utah? Utah is a hot-bed of hockey?

Because Arizona is one of the largest television markets in North America and having that many potential viewers helps to sell TV deals.

Hope that makes sense.
- BINGO!

Couldn’t the same argument be made for Atlanta tho?

Most what I believe is happening with the yotes is this: Northern hockey Bias. Nobody believed in the Yotes from the start. To make ot worse most Big market hockey fans tend to look down on small market teams. They have no love or patience for other markets. They don't even try.
- Eman87654

What do fans from other markets have to do with Az (non)success?

If there's no support at the grass-roots level in the community, the team won't survive.
Hockey is gate driven as much (or more) than any other sports in NA.

If the people in Az don't go to the games (or buy luxury boxes) the team won't survive - and thus should move.

I feel as though I've written this post about 20 times already but I'm going to try a 21st and do it as concisely as I possibly can.

- 93 of the top 100 rated TV broadcasts in the US last year were NFL football games including all of the Top 20 and 49 of the Top 50. Let that sink in. The NFL makes less than 20% of it's total revenue from butts in seats.

- Gary Bettman is aware of those numbers. And although I'm sure he's not deluded enough to ever believe the NHL could approach them he believes that the best long term way for the NHL to increase revenue in a meaningful way is to gain new TV markets. Hence his 'obsession' with Arizona. He's not a huge fan of the desert. He's a huge fan of what he views as untapped TV markets.

- Gray Bettman couldn't give two shlts to rub together about 'hockey towns' like Quebec City and Hartford if they don't increase TV revenue.

- Virtually everyone in Quebec City (and Hartford) who is interested in watching hockey on television watches it already. Plopping an NHL team in either of those cities will add virtually no new viewers of televised NHL games.

-Gary Bettman will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER, move a team to or place an expansion team in Quebec City (or Hartford) or some other 'hockey town' that doesn't also give him the opportunity to increase the NHL share of TV revenues.

Leave Arizona and never go back. They are an embarassment.

Bettman will not move a franchise to Quebec. Rabid fanbase but not enough corporate money and TV revenue.

Houston and New Orleans will be no better than Arizona. Salt Lake is ready now so the urgent need to get out of Arizona works in their favour. Also doesn't require any division re-alignment.

Congrats on being one of the most read hockey websites in the world. I didn't know that. Good stuff!
- Cooleus

did he really say that?

i read the comments but not his blogs because he's a liar and sort of an idiot.

SLC Punks or bust!

The Coyotes have been given every chance - and THEN SOME - to make this work and it hasn't worked. So as far as moving them now I think it's past time to do that. It sucks for their fans but they can blame past and current ownership for making a lot of bad decisions regarding arenas and relations with the cities, state, communities...etc. It just hasn't panned out and the new arena is an embarrassment. The players union has put up with that for two years and they are not going to do that anymore. The new union boss basically said so a few months back. If they stay there another year the union will probably sue the league over it.

As far as Salt Lake City goes, it seems like it would be a good move. Wealthy owner, arena is there (but they will need a new one which it seems they will build without too many roadblocks), same region so no realignment. Fan support? Not sure. Can't be any riskier than Houston or Kansas City or Atlanta which seems to be on the radar as well. I would love to see a team go back to Quebec but as someone already said, that's just not going to happen for the reasons they stated.

Salt 🧂 🍚 lake 🌊 and Mormon jazz 🎷 what could go wrong?