Follow @james_tanner123 The Coyotes put out a joint statement today with Arizona State University that they would be partnering to build a new and completely superfluous arena.
The Arena will be built in Tempe, AZ, which, as I understand it, is a suburb about 20 minutes from downtown Phoenix.
Anthony LeBlanc acknowledges they are looking for a public-private partnership with a couple of government entities. Cost is in $400M range.
— Craig Morgan (@craigsmorgan) November 14, 2016
To be honest, I don't really know what that means. It sounds like a half-assed way of saying the project is dependent on government funding. If that's the case, then I don't live in Phoenix, so I don't really have an opinion, but there is ample - I'd say incontrovertible - evidence that tax money spent on sports stadiums is tax money wasted.
Just kidding. I totally have an opinion: this is a stupid idea.
What is worse, is that the Phoenix Suns will likely be building their own arena, which is also ridiculous. There is already a huge stadium for the NFL that is right across from the current arena where the Coyotes play, which is barely ten years old and has 3000 more seats (19 000 ) than Craig Morgan reported the new arena will have.
In addition, there is whatever America West Arena is currently called, which is where the Suns currently play and was only built in 1992, as well as Chase Field, where the Diamondbacks play.
That is four current Major League Arena/Stadiums and two more to follow.
That is incredibly wasteful, irresponsible and stupid. These clowns should be ashamed to be building, or even thinking about building another arena. I mean, what's the point? There are already four existing stadiums, and if they can't find a compromise to make use of them, then some or all of them are acting like children.
Stay in Glendale, do right by the people who payed for the Albatross Arena in the first place, then have the Suns join you and save approximately 1 billion dollars in arenas there is no reason to build. (Unless being disgustingly selfish and possibly also insane is a good enough reason).
Arizona is the 8th poorest state in the Union, according to Business Insider.
They do not need a fifth and sixth pro-sports stadium.
The people whose idea this is might want to look at what happened last Tuesday and ask themselves if people are in the mood to have their tax money used for such a ridiculous vanity project.
And if no tax money is being spent, it's still wasteful because there are FOUR other sports stadiums in the direct vicinity. Also, they play out of an arena that is pretty much state-of-the-art already.
Yeah, they don't like that Glendale won't let them do whatever they want or how much they have to pay, but the Glendale Tax Payer paid for this and when the Coyotes leave that is a huge screw-you to the tax payers that paid for the damn thing.
If you have ever met people who hate professional sports and professional athletes, this kind of thing is usually the reason why. It's an abomination of the trust the public has put into these institutions. By which I mean the local and state governments, the media (who is acting like this is something to celebrate), the NHL and the Coyotes.
Super original plan dudes.
In conclusion, this ill-convinced idea will likely never happen because, as we now know, cooler heads always prevail.