Arizona Coyotes: ASU Target New Arena By 2018, Coyotes To Partner?
Arizona Coyotes fans have waited with baited breath since President and CEO Anthony LeBlanc teased a move from Glendale to a new location last season.
The new Arizona Coyotes ownership group has gone out of their way to reassure and demonstrate fully that the franchise will remain in the Valley.
At every turn they are foiled by politicians, pessimism, a dogged insistence by outsiders that hockey is not meant for the desert.
Still, they persist, and the organization announced in June that a location for a new arena had been decided…they just couldn’t tell us the details yet.
Now, Grand Forks Herald is reporting that Arizona State University has formally applied to be included in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.
In the letter informing NCHC commissioner Josh Fenton of the school’s plans, ASU athletic director Ray Anderson stated that, “Arizona State plans to have a new facility in place by the start of the 2018-19 season.”
The timing is interesting because the letter was written before LeBlanc informed fans and the media that an arena site had been chosen for the Arizona Coyotes.
Is it possible that ASU and the Yotes are going to pair up and create a hockey mecca in the desert?
Many have noted that a location in Tempe and the inclusion of Arizona State could prove highly beneficial to both parties.
Might it come to pass? We still don’t know but news is expected before the end of summer.
ABC15’s Craig Fouhy had previously reported that the Arizona Coyotes’ “top two location preferences for a new arena were Tempe in a joint venue with ASU, or in Scottsdale on the land of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.”
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