Arizona Coyotes co-owner Anthony LeBlanc stated on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM’s Doug and Wolf that the team could have an announcement about future arena plans within the next two months.
The Arizona Coyotes are narrowing down on the location where the team will be playing in the future, and that announcement may come soon.
The news comes from Coyotes co-owner Anthony LeBlanc’s comments on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM’s Doug and Wolf earlier today.
"“I’m very positive that we will have something out in the community if not in the next month or two but certainly by the end of the regular season,” LeBlanc told Doug and Wolf. “We need to partner with a community or institution that wants to be a partner and that’s the first and foremost thing. The good news is that all of the discussions we have had have been pretty open as have other organizations — be it the city of Phoenix or Tempe or Arizona State. Everybody has been pretty open that we have had discussions with and they have all been positive.”"
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This news is an interesting salvo fired by LeBlanc in the continued fallout of the Glendale City Council’s decision to void the “15-year agreement with the Arizona Coyotes just less than two years after the city approved the $225 million deal.”
At the time, LeBlanc stated that the Arizona Coyotes were “disappointed with the city’s decision to violate its obligations under the agreement that was entered into and duly approved only two years ago. We will exhaust any and all legal remedies against the city of Glendale for this blatant violation of its contractual obligations to us.”
In the subsequent months, however, the team has given up all pretense of remaining at Gila River Arena and turned it’s efforts to finding a suitable location elsewhere in the Phoenix area.
For fans, the rumors and murmurs and speculation has often turned to the hope of a downtown Phoenix location that would be more palatable to both current fans and walk-ins in order to fill the seats.
The team’s location in Glendale has been a hindrance in that regard.
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With the Arizona Coyotes on-ice product greatly improved in the 2015-16 season, and young stars like Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and number three overall pick Dylan Strome primed to lead the Coyotes into the future, the news about a permanent home cannot come soon enough.
For Anthony LeBlanc’s part, there is just one thing he wants to make one thing clear.
“The only rumors that I would like (to) hear stopped is the foolish ones that have slowed down considerably,” LeBlanc said. “The ones that say we are going to leave the state. Those are the ones that drive me bonkers.”