Arizona Coyotes Move To Talking Stick Resort Area Rumored
As each day passes more and more is coming out as to where the Arizona Coyotes will reside after their two-year lease agreement with Glendale expires.
Arizona Coyotes President and CEO Anthony LeBlanc announced recently that the team has hired Mitchell Ziets, CEO of Tipping Point Sports, LLC, as an arena consultant. Mr. Ziets has an established history of advising teams and public entities on new or renovated stadiums. This adds fuel to the fire that the team is seriously done with the City of Glendale, (gee… I wonder why) and is researching its options to play in another venue once the present lease is expired.
According to David Pagnotta (thefourthperiod.com, @TheFourthPeriod) Editor–in-Chief of Hockey’s Lifestyle Magazine, the location getting some attention now is the area near the Talking Stick Resort in the Tempe/Scottsdale vicinity.
More From Howling’ Hockey -> Arizona Coyotes: New Arena With Suns
More from Coyotes News
- How the Arizona Coyotes could line-up with Logan Cooley signed
- Report: Logan Cooley could be closer to signing Arizona Coyotes ELC
- Arizona Coyotes sign Matias Maccelli to three-year deal
- Ivan Prosvetov signs one-year deal with Arizona Coyotes
- Arizona Coyotes cut Galchenyuk after reported police incident
This proposed arena would share the facility with Arizona State University, who is now a D1 college hockey program.
This would attract more fans that live in the east valley to attend Arizona Coyotes games. It has been brought up that this location would be more suitable due to the fans in this part of the valley having more economic resources to buy season tickets. It has more to do with the traffic and long drive most of them sustain trying to get to Glendale from the east valley.
As far as a partnership with ASU goes, they already have an excellent relationship with each other, proven by the agreement that ASU play some games at Gila River arena.
More from Howlin' Hockey
- How the Arizona Coyotes could line-up with Logan Cooley signed
- Report: Logan Cooley could be closer to signing Arizona Coyotes ELC
- Arizona Coyotes sign Matias Maccelli to three-year deal
- Ivan Prosvetov signs one-year deal with Arizona Coyotes
- Arizona Coyotes cut Galchenyuk after reported police incident
What becomes interesting about this entire scenario of moving to a new location is it entails building a new facility, which won’t be done in less than two years. The current lease which the team has signed, gets them through the 2016-17 season, and then they are homeless.
The other well known rumored location for a new arena is downtown Phoenix. The City of Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton has been openly vocal that he would love to have a new arena for the NBA Phoenix Suns to play in, and would welcome the Arizona Coyotes as a partner in the facility. But, the Arizona Coyotes enjoy the perks of getting first choice of event dates, signage, and suites revenue at Gila River arena, which would be difficult to give up. It would be like having your own place, and then having to share it with a roommate. What’s ironic is the Suns now play in their old facility, but with the new name “Talking Stick Arena.”
For this reason, the Talking Stick Resort area seems to fit the bill. You solve the issue of fans complaining about driving too far to get to a game in Glendale, and you still have an arena which would be shared by ASU, but I’m sure the Coyotes would be the main tenant in that arrangement.
The other factor is the Arizona Coyotes have rookie training camp, and workouts at the Ice Den in Scottsdale. Many of the players live in the Scottsdale area, so it becomes a win-win situation for all involved.
The ASU hockey program would enjoy the location of their new digs as well, to insure their new hockey program has a state of the art facility to attract their fans to attend games and, enjoy all the perks of a new building.
If the Arizona Coyotes have to move (and they really do) then the possibilities are attractive for them to find a new home, and flourish there. The City of Glendale is pretty much forcing their hand. In the end, it may be a blessing in disguise.
On the other hand, the Westgate Entertainment District will have many issues, mostly attracting people to go there without a major tenant to bring in folks. The retailers there have got to be wondering how they will survive without all those hockey fans ringing their cash registers for at least 41 games a season. Maybe they will get more concerts, attract people in other ways, but it will not be the same.
Next: Arizona Coyotes Likely Moving From Glendale
I think they know that, and are making plans to move themselves. It’s interesting how things come full circle; the Coyotes were originally planning to make Scottsdale their home, and now it may finally come to fruition.