Two weeks ago the City of Sacramento got a one-year reprieve. Today it’s Glendale, AZ, as the lucky city to get one year to fix its problems. Glendale’s City Council approved a $25 million subsidy to keep the Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena. This follows another $25 million spent last year in hopes of keeping the Coyotes in the desert. Despite the exhorbitant sums spent to keep the team afloat, the NHL (which currently owns team) is giving that one year to find new ownership to take over and keep the team in Phoenix long term. Chicago-based businessman Matthew Hulsizer was in talks to buy the Coyotes, but part of his partnership pulled out today and Hulsizer is rumored to follow suit. If the league can’t find a suitable bidder, the team will probably head north of the border.
Unlike the Sacramento Kings, the Coyotes have been a perennial poor attendance performer. Over the last 10 seasons, they’ve averaged over 15,000 fans per game twice. The last two seasons brought in averages of 11,989 and 12,208. The Wayne Gretzky era failed to bring in fans via either the Great One’s name recognition or him GM/coaching prowess, no thanks to then-owner Jerry Moyes’ ongoing money problems. When the NHL took over, it wasn’t expected that getting a new owner would take too terribly long. RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie pushed to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario, but a court order struck the sale down and upheld the major four sports’ rights to determine franchise (re)location.
Now it’s two years after the Balsillie decision and Coyotes fans are still waiting for a savior owner. Attendance continues to be poor despite the team making the Stanley Cup Playoffs the last two years, perhaps a product of the continued uncertainty. The year reprieve prevents bidder True North from buying the team and moving it to Winnipeg, the city that just happens to be where the Coyotes are originally from. Instead, True North may be turn to Atlanta, where the Thrashers are also flailing financially while being bad at the gate. A Q&A posted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution paints a grim future for the Thrashers, who don’t appear to be lease-bound to Philips Arena in any significant way.
The only problem with a Winnipeg move at this point is the capacity of its arena, MTS Centre (really good website BTW). The venue was built after the Jets moved to Phoenix to become the Coyotes and had a small capacity in keeping with its minor league tenant (Manitoba Moose) and Winnipeg’s status as a small market backwater, or so some may have thought. MTS Centre maxes out at 15,015 for hockey, and there is scant space for expansion. Last year the hockey press box in the rafters was expanded to “NHL size” though True North didn’t admit that was the motivation. Unmodified, the arena would be 2,000 seats short of any other modern NHL arena, which would limit its revenue-generating capability.
Then again, what if 15,015 (or a few hundred more) is enough? MLB ballparks range from 37,000 to 50,000 right now, though MLB teams aren’t as dependent on selling out venues as the indoor sports are. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman seemed to support “right-sizing” venues, as evidenced by this quote from December 2009:
“While we play to 93 to 94 per cent capacity, we’d like to play to 100 per cent capacity,” Bettman said. “A 15,000-16,000 seat arena might work better in some markets than a 19,000-seat arena.”
In Glendale and Atlanta, they’re playing to nowhere near 93-94%, more like 70-80%. MTS Centre was built relatively cheaply (C$133 million) and they might be able to put a few hundred penthouse seats (like those at HP Pavilion) opposite the new press box for a few million bucks. The reborn fanbase would have an easier time selling out the arena, which is slightly smaller than the old Winnipeg Arena it replaced. In 2010 True North built MTS Iceplex, a hockey training facility which also can’t have been built to lure a NHL team, obviously. Cost certainty built into the current CBA makes it much easier for a small market franchise to function – as long as they sell well.
It’s clear that Bettman has been stalling in Phoenix in hopes of saving that market, just as David Stern is doing with the New Orleans Hornets by having the league buy the team. Both markets are affected by not having really passionate, willing local bidders in ownership (an issue for another day). If neither team works out, it’ll be tragic for those fanbases but it won’t be the first time. Ask Vancouver Grizzlies fans. Or Atlanta Flames, Hartford Whalers, and Seattle SuperSonics fans. Having a team is not a God-given right, and that fact becomes more self-evident every year.
newballpark.org 
I really like the 15,000 seat arena. It is the equivalent of the 32,000-seat pro baseball park for me.
But I’m less worried about pricing out the average fan than most people are. My priorities would be a.) creating a great atmosphere at the park and on TV, which is much easier to accomplish when the place is packed; and b.) making it kind of a cool, “status” thing to have tickets.
The whole secondary ticket market (StubHub, etc.) strongly influences my views here. I think that teams lose a lot of money from this, because fans don’t feel the need to go out and buy from the team…but if the capacity was smaller, there would be less tickets available that way, and the A’s would be able to sell out even the weekday games at face value, IMO.
Gary Bettmen is the biggest idiot in all of sports. Him, Selig, and Stern are all neck and neck for dumbest Commissioners of all time.
Why would you keep the Coyotes in Phoenix when they do not get fans even when they win?? The City of Glendale is subsidizing the team for the NHL and I agree with the Goldwater Institute that this is complete BS.
Jim Balsillie screwed up and should have never let his intentions known about Hamilton until after he controlled the team…..Larry Ellison learned the hard way with the Sonics years ago.
This on top of the fact that the Bettman will not acknowledge his plan of expanding to non-traditional markets has failed miserably.
Nashville, Phoenix, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Carolina all need to move to Canada. People love hockey out there, in the US hockey is an after thought and Bettman is a moron for thinking otherwise.
In the end the Coyotes after next year will be in Winnipeg where they will get fans, support, and be loved. They should have never left in the first place and Jerry Moyes the old Phoenix owner who lost 100Ms of dollars over the years will be the first to tell you that.
The NBA has a similar problem with being in the wrong cities. A new arena is not the solution to the problem, its about demographics of the market, corporations, and premium seating be sold at a good rate.
Its like the NBA and the NHL are run like our school systems….Run by idiots.
@Sid – Right, they’re idiots because their job is to grow the sport and they didn’t see catastrophes lile 9/11 and the economic crisis coming. Ten years ago I was in Calgary on business and the exchange rate was C$1 = US$0.75. People were legitimately wondering how relevant Canada would be in the future. Now the currencies are at even parity and the US is teetering. The only thing I can glean from that is that the commissioners aren’t Nostradamus.
Idiots? Kind of harsh.
The only cities in Canada that I can see realistically are Hamilton, Quebec City and Winnipeg. After them, there smaller cities like Lethbridge, Thunder Bay, Windsor, Halifax, Regina, Victoria and Tres-Rivieres. Maybe Halifax could work. Both Victoria and Windsor are hamstrung by being so close to two major NHL clubs, something that is hamstringing Hamilton as well. Thunder Bay is too small and isolated to work. Someone with roots there may prove me wrong. Who knows?
ML, it didn’t take a financial catastrophe to figure out that building an arena in the middle of nowhere in a city that has no history with ice sports for a team that “no one” proportionally speaking had been watching even when they were downtown… was a VERY bad idea. Only Betterman in his almighty wisdom thought it would work along with his other sunbelt experiments. And low and behold, other than the Sharks, who are an aberration, it’s hasn’t worked all that well. But the Coyotes are by far his worst failure, but he’s gone all in to keep them there so he’s essentially painted himself into a corner, and the city of Glendale painted themselves into one too building that entertainment complex. It’s a great complex, don’t get me wrong, but it’s like if we put Santana Row with an arena east of Livermore and then assumed everyone would go out to games there… it was an asinine idea then, and it still is today.