The Arizona Coyotes’ bid for a new arena appears to be dead.
In the first release of results from the referendum, voters in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe were strongly against three propositions to build a $2.3 billion entertainment district that would include a new arena for the Coyotes.
Opposition to the three propositions had a double-digit lead over those in favor.
“The National Hockey League is terribly disappointed by the results of the public referendum regarding the Coyotes’ arena project in Tempe,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “We are going to review with the Coyotes what the options might be going forward.”
The vote took place after the city of Phoenix and Sky Harbor International Airport expressed concerns about residences that were part of the project in a high-noise area under the airport’s flight path.
The Coyotes had hoped a new arena in Tempe would finally allow the franchise to settle down after playing in three different venues since moving to Arizona.
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26 Comments
The Coyotes were evicted from Gila River Arena because they failed to make their tax payments to the City of Glendale. The Coyotes have limped along from the first day they arrived from Winterpeg, Manitscoldout, hampered by greedy owners who chose the dollar over everything else. If the NHL had any sense at all they would have stopped beating this dead horse when they were booted out of Gila River, but the NHLs owners aren't going to let these losers take a viable expansion city, and the $600M+ fee that goes with it, away. As for Scottsdale, who in their right mind would give this incompetent group, the Coyotes owners and the NHL's owners, $740M+ for the privilege of having this 3-ring circus pitch it's tent? Any city that pays for a pro team to stay, whether through tax breaks or a new venue, deserves the pox they've brought upon their house.
Brodie, it's obvious that hockey usually isn't on your radar. For the last 5 years, anytime anyone mentions the Coyotes they mention Houston as well.
Oakland A’s is the best team in Bay Area!
Oakland will buy Coyote
Off to Boise – not Quebec
They should have stayed in the Phoenix Suns arena it would have made sense even though what's wasn't made for hockey and still would have been a better situation in my opinion
I think Houston is the only option cuz the others go against the reasoning of why Bettman kept the Coyotes in Arizona for so long.
The market size alone rules out SLC, KC, and SAC. ATL failed twice and QC requires realignment.
I’m a Coyotes (D-Backs too) fan who became jaded by the team after the Chayka era and it stings but to be honest it’s not like I didn’t see this coming.
I like it when the people say "F U" to an owner like they did in Tempe, as opposed to what the A's and Raiders did to Oakland.
Once the Coyotes leave AZ that market is gonna be open. I’m a vgk fan and we need as much mountain west states on our small market fan base as possible lol. Move to Quebec, not KC please!!
Why couldn't they play in Phoenix where the Suns play?
it's insane that the voters looked at a literal toxic dump versus a potential entertainment district and chose the toxic dump. it was such a sweetheart deal stolen away by a smear campaign built out of misinformation by Phoenix. a real shame
This is public money that should be put to public services. Why in America do the teams expect so much from money from public sources? The teams always will say we can always move but Cities should start saying no.
As a former season ticket holder for the Coyotes, who now lives in New Jersey… it's time to pull the plug on metro Phoenix. Houston is logical, Quebec City is sentimental, Scottsdale was tried… look up the Los Arcos Mall plan. America West Area had poor sight lines way back in the day. The support was Luke warm from the beginning. There was hardly a time I went to a game that Coyotes fans were in the majority…. and that goes back to day one. There is not a huge hockey fan base in "The Valley"… sometimes something is just not meant to be, this is one of those somethings.
Maybe they can move to Hartford.
Oakland Coyotes to play @ Oakland arena.
So the voters are morons and we should rely on our elected officials? Look what your elected officials got you in Oakland….
These sports teams demand money because they can, There are now more cities that can support or, at least, want franchises. Therefore, more and more teams are holding de facto auctions for who can make the biggest offer.
I wasn't a fan of corporate welfare when the Ravens (then Browns) tried to extort a new stadium from Cleveland, And, at the time, the Browns were still selling out 5 or 6 of their 8 home games in the massive dump that was Cleveland Municipal Stadium but it had no luxury boxes…
I voted against the funding for Bridgestone Arena and Nissan Stadium in Nashville in the mid-90s. I showed my support for the Predators by going to games until the games got more expensive than I was willing to pay, even though I was able.
Kudos to the people of Tempe for not paying the "protection money" to the Coyotes.
Sacramento was brought up. Let’s bring them to the capital and let’s have another Northern California rivalry going on.
There's still a future for the Coyotes in Arizona. Mat Ishbia could help the team stay in Phoenix and play at the same arena as the Suns. Given that players like Auston Matthews have grown in the state the NHL would like to stay in Arizona. Going back to the A's situation it's important for the A's to return to being a competitive team whether that's in Oakland or in Vegas. Just like the Coyotes there is still a good possibility of the club staying.
It's nice down there. In Tempe.
While I know it’s very unlikely I hope the Coyotes move to San Francisco, Oakland, or Sacramento
I feel for Arizona, I really do, but to be honest, looking at all the potential cities, Atlanta has the most favorable number of potential fanbase. While Houston does have a slightly larger metropolitan area population, it has a smaller white population than metro Atlanta.
I recently looked up the data for 2021 (estimates), and compared the white population between Atlanta and Houston.
Neither metropolitan area has a particularly high white percentage, but Atlanta does have almost 300,000 more white people than Houston.
As of 2021, metro Atlanta had 297,713 more white people than metro Houston. While this may not seem a lot, it does play a minor difference. Furthermore, when looking at each metro area, Atlanta's northside is far more white and a larger area with a higher concentration of white people, compared to Houston's Montgomery County which has some mostly white areas, but it isn't as concentrated and as spread out, except near the Woodlands, by and large.
Furthermore, Atlanta's sports teams outperform in attendance every single Houston team. The Braves have higher attendance than the Astros. The Falcons have higher attendance than the Texans. The Hawks have higher attendance than the Rockets. The United have higher attendance than the Dynamo.
Furthermore, I'm fairly certain that Atlanta has a considerably larger hockey fan base than the Houston area does.
While I do think Houston should get a team, I don't think that they should be favored over Atlanta by any means.
Bring them to Oakland and create and great hockey market in the Bay Area like it is in SoCal.
As an avid sports fan and casual coyotes fan, i see alot of people put out opinions that are uneducated and shallow. They are people not from AZ. There are many reasons why prop 301 302 and 303 were shot down by 56% majority by tempe voters. 1st reason, old people vote, arizona is where alot of old people retire too and they didn't want to deal with extra traffic during gamedays on top of normal traffic from being geographically between phoenix, scottsdale and mesa. 2nd reason, lawsuits, Sky Harbor Airport has pending litigation due to Tempe Entertainment District construction height will impede flights to and from Phoenix. 3rd reason, fatigue, anybody whos been in AZ longer than 2 years knows about the bad history of coyotes and how city of glendale is still paying the cost for a stadium built in the early 2000s. Its time for them to go, stop using good taxpayer dollars to support millionaire owners. Let them leave, i played nhl 95 on sega, it would be nice to see hartford whalers and the quebec nordiques again. Brodie Brazil it would be better for you to interview someone who knows what they are talking about than to go lead a ramble on that leads to nowhere. Last scottsdale will not work EVER, Los Arcos was shot down by the city a long time ago. Google it. Theres a reason why that city is well liked by many people and its not sports.
I’m going to be moving to Phoenix and if the Coyotes got the arena vote. Then the arena would be about a mile away from the airport. Maybe the Suns new owner, could maybe purchase the team and get them to play at the footprint center.
Brodie, I appreciate all the research that you do when doing the podcast. Also in Phoenix, the Diamondbacks want a new stadium/ dome as well. Maricopa county needs to work with the sports teams to see how they can make things work in getting new stadiums/ domes
The biggest problem is very simple: the city in the Valley that the team and the fans would most like them to relocate to (Scottsdale) doesn't want them – and probably never really will work out a deal with them (past or future).
And, because they really need ownership of the arena, the place where they'd love to build is out because it's not owned by the city (Talking Stick, which is owned by the Salt River Pima Indian Community).
Ironically, like you've mentioned about the city of Oakland "settling" on the Coliseum site, the Coyotes might have to "settle" on the site of what used to be one of the largest shopping malls in the Valley – the Fiesta Mall in Mesa.
I'd personally love it (it's practically in my backyard), but I'm not sure the fans would want to drive down the 60/101 to games – especially when the 60 (aka Superstition Freeway) is definitely showing its age.